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| Glastonbury Festival from top of The Park |
There's only two words that could explain Glastonbury Festival 2011 -
downright dirty.
Wednesday
It is safe to say I was well prepared this year for Glastonbury compared to the last. I had indeed packed for every season of the year which was to be expected for the 5 day adventure to Worthy Farm, Pilton. With the weather not playing fair to begin with, we jumped into the Planet Rock van and began the long journey from London.
Being rather sneaky and taking a few back roads; queues and hold ups were missed - or perhaps everyone decided to leave after the rain therefore back ups were to begin later in the evening... who knows! After a HILARIOUS wrong turn by the leader of our convoy into the car park plus an almost bogging situation in the van, we began our ventures to the Dairy Fields - our destination for camping residency.
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| Failed lantern |
It was at this point we began to comprehend how difficult this week was going to be with mud being like satan. One friend solemnly believes hell IS a never ending walk from the car to the Glasto campsite in the mud... something that would be most painful and agonising.
Once set up was completed, we decided to do the traditional thing and head to Stone Circle for a bit of a bonding session around some candles. This year I'd decided to being my very own lantern however in the excitement of wandering to Stone Circle, I had managed to crush it a little resulting in a disastrous take off that never really made it off the ground :( I potentially could have been responsible for a friend going up in flames so my lantern was abruptly stamped on to end it's sky high fate.
Thursday
Thursday was a warm up day into the festival. With the rain coming down sporadically, we ventured around to have a look at what there was on offer. Naturally, we stopped at the Brothers Bar for a cider and to chill out when the sun decided to show. In the spirit of the festival, we had people left right and centre, embracing what sun there was, having a refreshing cider and even showing off their party tricks. Highlights of our travels included some unbelievable bangers and mash menu options, the special flavour cider of the event - Toffee Apple, and the general atmosphere of the day.
The early evening was spent at Stonebridge Bar located in The Park for the ever amazing ballads session known as 'Heavenly Jukebox' straight after the Music Quiz (which may I add was a dynamite session of great hits also). There were people singing from their souls with the biggest grins on their faces.
Friday
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| Metronomy |
Friday the real music began. To start the morning was
Metronomy at Pyramid stage. With their casual attitude, they were relaxed and nothing too hard. Particularly loved when
A Thing For Me came on... definitely a highlight.
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| The Naked and Famous |
From here I ran over to the Other Stage just in time for
The Naked and Famous to come on. All the way from New Zealand, there is no other way to describe this band than sex. They ooze it! The sound, the look, the feel, the vibe - everything simply oozes sex when it comes to these guys. I wanted to either be them or be on them I'm just not sure.
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| Two Door Cinema Club |
Naturally I progressed back over to catch the last hit by
Two Door Cinema Club. 2010 had the guys in a small tent and were the lucky band to essentially 'open' Glastonbury for me. This year they were on the bigger and better stage - Pyramid. The were on just before none other than
Wu-Tang Clan.
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| Wu-Tang Clan |
We were lucky enough to have a lot of the Clan on the stage. Not a huge fan, I couldn't honestly get into it... nor could much of the crowd. When asked to get down, everyone merely looked at their muddy boots and shook their heads in disapproval. There's only so much enthusiasm a mid 90's hip hop group can do for a Glastonbury type crowd. We were more there for a laugh then for serious music. Massive highlight would have easily been when the Clan invited the crowd to stick their
guns up in the air and
SHOOT them... hmmm.
As we headed back to the tents to refill our Powerade bottled and give our muddy gumboots a rest, we happened to pass by some of
The Wombats set on The Other stage. I was rather excited about this as I had not yet seen them live. And they did not disappoint. Up beat, the sun attempting to shine through and their colourful set made a delightful Glastonbury experience.
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| Radiohead |
Radiohead would have had to have been the worst kept secret of Surprise Acts ever. The Park - knew to Glasto a few years back and completely run by Emily Eavis has had some dynamite secret acts perform. Radiohead were basically confirmed by all forms of social media well before performance time so of course we headed straight over to see them. Completely mixed emotions about their set. They're legends and we all know it however they played all new hits. Naturally, being the surprise act, they weren't a confirmed set and therefore not obliged to perform their hits like other bands. This is where my mixed emotions lie. One half of me is annoyed at them for not giving me the classics, the other half of me wants to tilt my hat to them for exploring their new stuff and exposing it to a raw crowd.
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| Bono from U2 |
To finish the acts for the evening, and after a very important pitstop to experience my very first
flapjack was none other than the wonderful Bono and
U2. We were positioned in a pretty lousy position but it didn't matter. We were surrounded by every happy go lucky other festival goer who wanted to see the hits and may not necessarily be diehard fans. I left the set asking one question in the pelting down rain - did Bono or did he not actually speak to a real live astronaut in space???
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| DJ in The Beat Hotel tent |
From here we ventured across to
The Beat Hotel - a new addition to the Glastonbury shenanigans. Here we witnessed some very cool DJing by Filthy Dukes. Mudbath aside, it felt simply divine to be out of the rain and was quite fun with the mud below foot to help those moves slide across the dancefloor.
Saturday
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| BBC introducing... |
I awoke on Saturday to not the best of weather but still there was hope for all of us! Two of us got up and decided to potter along and check out some stalls and get really cracking on the music. First stop was on the way to Pyramid stage where we came across the BBC Introducing tent. No idea who was playing but it took me back to the teenage days of hanging out at
Kanga in Manly on a Friday night and checking out punk rock bands that had angry teenage emotions that they blared out through old school speakers.
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| Gaslight Anthem |
Stopping for a mere few moments to finish off our baps we'd purchased for breakfast, we then continued on to check out
Gaslight Anthem. Not knowing much of their stuff I can confidently say I have now come home and purchased a stack of their stuff. Originating from New Jersey, these guys have been making music since 2007 and have a real Jersey Shore sound to them. Just think Springsteen's music mixed with Jimmy Barnes vocals is my best way to explain their sound.
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| Anna Calvi |
After Gaslight Anthem pulled the sun out from the sky and got us excited, I bumped into some friends who were super keen to make their way to see
Anna Calvi. With all the hype around me I decided to go along for the ride but was incredibly disappointed. Don't get me wrong, she's an absolutely amazing guitar player with such passion and drive (not to mention an absolute STUNNER up on the stage) however she just didn't do it for me. She isn't a songstress and she didn't captivate me enough. Perhaps just not my cup of tea.
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| Tinie Tempah |
Not to be too disheartened, we hustled over to Pyramid stage to check out the rest of
Tinie Tempah. Here's a little back history of my Tinie Tempah education:
2010 - Glastonbury. Some of the guys talked about this song Pass Out and wished to check out Tempah so naturally I went to check it out. Not having any singles released yet in Australia, I didn't even remember the guys name! We arrived for his set... we waited. We waited for a good 20 minutes before Mr Diva himself decided to bother showing up to his own set. He played maybe three songs, for the crowd which had halved in size due to waiting for him to finish partying with Snoop Dog to do his set. I didn't even hang around for his HIT Pass Out before decided to prioritise going to the bathroom - he just wasn't worth it.
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| All ages love Tinie Tempah |
A few months later, Tinie Tempah hit the soundwaves on Radar Radio so being a religious listener, I decided to give him a go and ended up enjoying such hits as Written in the Stars and Invincible.
This year all I can say is
WOW. This guy easily has headliner material. We were on the side of the stage with hardly any view but it didn't matter. The sky was blue, there were smiling faces 360 degrees around me and Tinie Tempah pumped the crowd to probably the best any artist did this year at Glastonbury. I was more than a little impressed and cannot wait to see him live in concert again.
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| Jimmy Eat World |
We decided to stick to the one stage for the remainder of the evening. The sun was completely out and the typical Brits were all going red from the UV. I on the other hand was lapping it up as we made our way to The Other Stage to position ourselves for the rest of the night.
Jimmy Eat World began this whirlwind ride of awesome tracks. Fun, bubbly and completely upbeat, I had enough room to move and dance and the mud was beginning to really dry. Best songs were easily
Sweetness and
The Middle
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| Friendly Fires |
Friendly Fires were up next and an absolute hoot. Lead singer Ed Macfarlane truly brought out probably the greatest dance moves I've ever seen being ripped up on a stage at a festival. The dance moves smoothly matched his ever successful Hawaiian patterned shirt that was as loud and brash as the boys were on stage. The absolute cherry on the top of the cake was when the dancers came on stage for their final hit.
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| White Lies |
Not wanting to lose my position, I stuck around for
White Lies and was again pleasantly surprised. This is the best thing about Glastonbury - you come thinking you know exactly which bands you want to see and always ended up seeing someone new who blows your mind and becomes a top 10 favourite artist for you. It's just silly amounts of eye opening experiences and this was yet another mentionable one for me. Even their graphics on the big screens stood out as a highlight this year. A little darker than the music I normally listen to, I still really enjoyed their Muse style set and they got me well fired up for the final act of the evening -
Chemical Brothers.
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| Squatter... |
Honorable mention goes out to the young 16 year olds who were Glastonbury veterans more so than myself and my 20-something year old mates. These kids casually squirmed their way to the front of the crowd and one young lady (well... would we say LADY?) casually made conversation with me whilst squatting - all while waiting for
The Chemical Brothers to come on stage.
The lightshow, the base pulsing from the soles of your feet through to the tip of your nose made The Chemical Brothers an absolute POWER act. I presume their 20 years of experience in performing for their fans has really helped make them be the super act that closed the Saturday night in such a successful matter. Cold-what? Oh Coldplay! If I were to chose between the two again, there's no doubt in my mind I'd go for Chemical Brothers... each to their own.
From here there was a little bit of a drama and people getting lost resulting in me having an absolute strop and storming back to the tent. Not REALLY wanting to go to sleep, a young English boy called Jude approached my thundercloud face and asked where the Dance Village was. I politely directed him and then in the spirit of Glastonbury thought "What do I have to lose!" so asked if I could tag along. I then experienced my very first Dubstep experience with
Nero. Not a very known style of music in Australia, I was surprised at myself for singing along when The Streets Blinded By The Light was played. From here my new found friends and I made our way to The Park and found a funny little tent playing swing music. Such a juxtaposition in the evening but it seemed to work so perfectly. An absolute corker of an end... not making it back to my tent until well after sunrise.
Sunday
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| Abandoned boots |
The sun was literally blaring on Sunday. Truly draining us of all fluids, the mud was no longer sticky (in most parts) and the legs were shown! Off we went straight to West Holts to enjoy a Brothers Cider and a lay down on the almost grass. With
Hidden Orchestra performing in the background, I had a delicious Strawberry Cider and a few of us bonded over the night before.
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| Don McLean |
After some lunch and hiding out in the Healing Fields for some shade, we headed over to hear the WORLDS LONGEST VERSION of American Pie by
Don McLean. Now this song is a solid 8 minutes long for the LP version... try having Mr McLean perform it over... and over...and OVER again. Perhaps it was the sun but it definitely got the better of me and I was more than happy to flee from the Pyramid stage and make it to the Other stage for the fun loving Noisettes. I guess at his age you can do what you want.
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| The Noisettes |
The Noisettes on the other hand were super fun. So cute and flirty, Shingai Shoniwa
had my shoulders bopping and my feet tapping throughout their set. It was hard to eat my food while watching them! Shingai's voice is just so delectable and their get up on stage was so showgirl it made me smile. Even the guys I was with enjoyed it so it wasn't just a chick act which is always a great sign. Considering we were actually planning on just passing by on our way to our tent, I'm pleased to say we stuck around for the entire set.
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| Mr Ed |
After hiding out in the Meeting Point Tent for a sneaky beverage or two and to people watch... (or was that Horse watch?) I finally made it back to The Pyramid Stage to check out Pendulum.
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| Pendulum |
These guys were incredible! The bassline coming out of the speakers really made you feel the rhythm and the guys got the entire festival going crazy. They performed all their best hits and I loved absolutely every moment of it. Surprisingly, the average age of fans around me was about 15 years old??? Not sure how to explain that one! The guys belted out their hits with such passion but I do wonder how hot they managed to get in their black leather heat to toe suits they were wearing. A beanie... in summer... when the sun is actually out? Must have been sweaty central.
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| Beyonce with Tricky |
As the sun was setting, we all stood under the CJJ flag in preparation for Miss Beyonce Knowles. Everyone was speculating on who the surprise guest would be. Most popular suggestion was Jay-Z. He was a headliner at Glastonbury in 2008 and from what I've heard from punters that went that year was a pleasant surprise. After much anticipation and coming on stage fashionably late (only a little later but still late) Beyonce rocked out the best set anyone could have ever imagined. She rocked out some Destiny's Child, her best hits and turned all the classics into dynamite medleys that had everyone shuffling their feet and begging for a ring to be put on it. Who was the guest you ask? Tricky? Yup... you're guess is as good as mine.
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| Arcadia |
Finally... on this fateful night, I made it into Arcadia. The new 'one way' system was confusing and disappointing so we prioritised and didn't bother waiting for the encore that never happened from Beyonce. Instead we made tracks and headed in for the acts in Arcadia. As always, it was an artwork both visually, vocally and physically with musicians, fire artists, acrobats and every other talented person under the sun giving me a performance that could give cirque du soleil a run for it's money.
2011 Glastonbury summed up in one word?
Tiring... but my God! Was it worth it. Cannot wait until 2013.
