Sat 26th June @ 07.00

Awake feeling refreshed at the usual time. So usual routine it is. Another morning of glorious sunshine.

Jo joins me after an hour or so and we head down the usual path. Toilet Talk. Long Drops.

Spoken to many people about Glastonbury, both before and since. There are two things that generally put people (well, women) off. Firstly is the lack of showers, secondly is the toilets. WW is no exception to this.

I think that I’ve covered off showers and their availability. I’ve also touched on toilets, if you’ll pardon the expression. I mentioned port-a-loos and I think that everyone is reasonably familiar with the design etc. There are also proper flushing toilets, should you desire to seek them out – I never bothered.
The most common toilets though are the Long Drops. I had never really come across theses before. Behold a photo (not mine) for illustration purposes...



Basically they consist of a long line of booths, all fabricated from tin. The interior consists of a bench type seat with a hole in it and a fitted wooden toilet seat. The whole arrangement sits over a large, deep pit. That’s it.
They’re as clean as the last person who used them. They don’t smell. Everyone uses them.
Key things to take with you are toilet paper (either rolls or packs) and/or wet wipes plus hand gel cleaner. Even if you forget toilet paper, there will be supplies close by.

Toilets – not an issue and really nothing that anyone should worry about. So moving on.

Myself and Jo had a bit of bimble. Didn’t fancy a growler this morning, but I remembered a stall next door to it that always seemed quite busy. I also remembered an item that they were selling – the Garlic Guzzler. That’s breakfast agree then, so off we went.
They were as good as they sound...



We then went our own way. I had only passed through Greenfields up to now and did fancy having a look round. My shoulders were still a bit stiff from Wednesday. Healing Fields were right next to Greenfields and I reckoned that a massage would be ideal. Off I popped.
Both Greenfields and Healing Fields are what they sound like, quite spiritual. Really nice, peaceful places. It was lovely just having a wander round.
There were numerous treatments in the area – everything you could wish for really. I found somewhere that was just opening up and waited for my masseur to get her final things ready.
32 year old Lucy has been coming to Glastonbury for 14 years and totally loves it. She explained that they get their place free, but obviously it is a bit of a living for them and still have to pay for food, drink etc. I asked what she would think the “essential” things are to do whilst there.
Her recommendations were a naked sauna, some chai tea, and some Guinness & chocolate cake. She was really insistent on the sauna, but there was no way that I fancied that, no matter how enlightening it was supposed to be! She told me where to get the tea from and I went there straight afterwards, but it was really busy so I skipped it. I didn’t go anywhere near where the cake was for sale, so that was all three of her suggestions not done. Maybe next time.
The massage was very welcome though and made my shoulders feel heaps better.







After this, it was time for much more bimbling, photos and to buy a few things. After the fun yesterday, I also decided to give the Outside Circus Arena another look too. On my way round to that area, I took the higher path across the Pyramid area. The Lightening Seeds were playing and they just went into “Football’s Coming Home”. Now that got the crowd on their feet and dancing.

A really good look around at the stalls etc. You could spend all your time wandering round these. Some great stuff to be had and not silly prices.



On my way round I stopped off for a sit down at the Other Stage. A female was playing who I half recognised and was pretty good. Mostly piano stuff, but with a great voice. A random came to the rescue – Imogen Heap.

Head back to the tent to drop off some stuff, pick up a few ciders and warm top for later. Definitely Delphic today, so off to the John Peel tent.
A massive crowd, and I just about got to the edge of the tent. After a couple of tracks, the sun was right in my eyes, so I squeezed past a few folk to actually get inside.
Down to my right was a guy sat on the floor. He was bent over a little and had a soaking t-shirt on. His friends were trying to get him to drink some water. This was probably my only encounter with someone who had overdone it a little! In the end, they fetched some stewards, who assisted out through the crowds to get some fresh air.
A great set from Delphic although I didn’t get to see that much due to the location.



My plan for the evening was...
Other Stage – The Cribs
John Peel – Foals
Other Stage – Editors
Other Stage – Pet Shop Boys

I dropped Vicky & Hannah a line, as I knew that they were to see The Cribs too. Typically right round the other side from me, but not a worry. I stuck to the main thoroughfare around the outside and eventually found them.

A quick summary of the next couple of hours – Cribs were good. Had a few ciders. Decided to stay with the girls and forego the Foals. Editors were very good. Much people watching and general larking about.






V&H decided they needed warmer clothes, their campsite (specifically for litter people) was round the other side, so we had a wander.
As we were quite close to the Pyramid Stage, we chose Muse over Pet Shop Boys. I’m not a massive Muse fan, but it was a really good set, especially when The Edge came on for Streets Have No Name.
12.30 finish, where else to go but West Holts! A good old sing-a-long and a dance with loads of randoms having a good time.
We called it a night at about 1.30.

Fri 25th June @ 5pm ish

After seeing the outdoor circus, we all had a slow walk back. We all had different plans for the late afternoon evening. Without having the running order for the stages in front of me, I’m not sure what Jo & Andy were doing. Like I mentioned before though, it was very easy for us to go off bumbling and do our own thing.

Not eaten since before Rolf, so was getting a bit peckish. Nothing in mind either. I could have quite gone for what Jo had (the Tacos). I wandered around one of the roads, taking in all the sights and sounds again. Mmmmmm, definitely Mexican. A quick assessment and decision made. A big tray of chilli beef on rice with cheese and sour cream. £6, thankyou very much. Very tasty it was too. Certainly filled me up.

Next up.... Vampire Weekend. Big fan, so wanted to see them play the Pyramid. I had tentatively arranged to meet Hannah & Vicky there, but they were working until 6pm with the band playing at 6.30. Didn’t leave much time for a shower etc
In the end I watched the band by myself – well, me and 30-40,000 others. Really good set and the crowd got into it. A good timeslot for them with the sun going down in the sky.

After this, I fancied seeing Delphic, another fave band of the moment. They were playing one of the dance tents, so a gentle stroll across the Pyramid area. Nowhere near as busy as earlier and lots of people moving about as it was the end of a set.

The main drag from the Pyramid area was quite interesting. It followed the rout of a power line. Camping field on the right although I’m not sure which one it was as I don’t have a map with me. On the left hand side, your usual stalls. One area called something like Cocktail Delight. This was like a mini club. I think they had karaoke there in the evenings, but I didn’t find time to pay a visit. Further along was a fully fitted salon. Hair dressing, make-up, nails the works! Quite busy too. Further still was a place that you could have pre-ordered camping stuff and picked it up at the time. Lots of people making use of the service.
Towards the end of this route and it split up leaving the John Peel tent to the right and the Dance Village to the left.

I was still quite early for Delphic, so had a good wander round. Loads of people having fun. I grabbed a quick cider. Surprised to see the bar really empty, but it was early.
Both East Dance and West Dance tents had things on. One was significantly busier than the other, but can’t remember who was playing. I had a wander into the quieter tent and had a listen.
I really like dance music, but my taste is more for trancy, house type stuff. This was quite hardcore, and fast.
Twenty minutes of wandering and I’d had enough really, so decided to have a wander away from here. The beauty of having non-rigid plans. Rather than spend another half hour or so waiting, go off and do something else.
I headed off to an area behind the other stage. Loads of folk wandering around and I had a sit down and just people watched.

9-ish now, so I set off again. Round to the cider bus area, stopping on the way to watch whoever was playing at the bandstand. It is what it says, a small bandstand!




Grabbed another cider from the bus and had a slow walk into the Pyramid area. The view I’d got earlier was quite good for Vampire Weekend, so I went for the same area.
Half an hour so to go, so I had a sit down. After a short while, I got a buzz from Andy asking where I was. He was towards the back of the field near a large tree, so quite a way to go.
Make it through he did though and we settled in for the Gorillaz set. I’m quite a fan and got their albums, including their latest. Andy not very familiar at all. Should have a balanced view then.

There was quite a few people leaving during the set, that’s fair to say. I think they expected sort of a “greatest hits” and that’s what it wasn’t. A lot of tracks were from their latest album, Plastic Beach, which is a cracker. Hence why all the big guests too – Lou Reed, Mark E. Smith, Bobby Womack. They even dragged Shaun Ryder on. Then to finish with Snoop Dog really rounded it off nicely. I thought it was a great performance, although I can see why others didn’t like it. Andy enjoyed it a lot too.





“What shall we do?” Best have a beer and we made for one of the bars that was quite close. The crowd leaving a main stage at the end of the night is something to behold. I think the phrase “go with the flow” works well.
We dived to the side though and grabbed a beer. Various randoms stopped to have a natter, as seems to be par for the course. One guy in particular told us loads about why he was there and how last year he’d came with his ex-wife and his new wife hadn’t know about it. He must have noticed my raised eyebrow. “No, don’t get me wrong, I still can’t stand the bitch, but we just came here together”. Like I said before, you can’t make it up.

And that, ladies & gentlemen, brings us to the end of the first official day of the festival. Myself and Andy decided to turn in, relatively, early. Back at the tents for 12.30 and ready for the next day....

Fri 25th June @ 2pm – ish

The reason for the “ish” in the title and a bit of an explanation for the detail (so far) in these ramblings. The “ish” is fairly straight forward. I haven’t worn a watch for years and rely on my phone for the time. The battery on my phone is not so good, so a lot of the time I left it switched off. Besides, Glastonbury isn’t really a place for timings.
And the detail? Well, I went with the best intentions of keeping a really good record of what I did, the sights, the sounds, the smells etc. With notebook in hand, I meticulously made notes..... for a while. This didn’t last though, so the details may become more vague from now on.

The Stranglers set was pretty good actually. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it, and they played some good crowd-pleasers. That done, Jo said she needed some cash, so a quick glance at a map and we bimbled off to find some ATMs.
Where next? We decided to stick together for a while, but no bands that we were especially bothered about seeing, so it’s off for some of the other performances – to the circus tent!
Have a few pics to be going on with...





A nice slow walk and we arrived. Probably due to the beating sun, the tent was full up – imagine a full size circus tent, with a small stage and the rest of the area taken up with the crowd sat on the floor, all watching.
We sneaked through one of the side entrances. Not a lot cooler inside. The choice was beating down sun, but some air movement versus shade, but still, humid air. Still, no real complaints.
We hung around inside for a few minutes and watched a couple of girls squeezing themselves into a tiny perspex box.

We had a bit more of a meander around in the general area, taking in all the great sights. We wandered past the Outside Circus Stage. This was quite a small arena. A small stage at the front with maybe 5-6 tiered benches around the outside with some seating on the floor towards the front...




The next hour or so turned out to be great, great fun.
The guy on stage was called Bill Ferguson. He had a brilliant interaction with the audience and was really funny. The basics of his act was to ask for items from the audience – anything. He would then attempt to juggle them. However, much piss-taking took place and banter with the crowd, mostly the kids. Some real belly-laugh moments.
In between acts was a compere – again very amusing. Rapier wit and general humiliation of anyone who dared to walk past rather than come in and sit down.

Fri 25th June @ 7am

So despite trying my hardest to get a good night’s sleep, I was still awake at 7am. Can’t beat that good old body clock. I wonder whether I can grab an hour or two later on in the day.
I go for the usual coffee and a nice relaxing start, again, watching everything come to life.

I can’t remember exactly who did what first thing, but I vaguely remember wandering down into the site with Jo. She wanted a shower and so was going to head across the Kidz Field where there were some. I wanted to see Rolf Harris start the festival off proper, so grabbed a quick bacon roll and then made my way down to the Pyramid.
The sun was as hot as ever. As I was there quite early, I managed to bag a place near one of the rear speaker stacks in the field. Not only did this off a place to lean against, it also offered a little shade from the sun.

The field filled up quite quickly. Some other friends, Hannah & Vicky were working at Glastonbury – litter picking. I knew they wanted to see Rolf too, so we exchanged texts and they made their way through the crowds to my vantage point.



The Australian legend was as good as expected. Everyone was having a good dance and a good singalong. It got the weekend off to a great start.
The girls were on work duty shortly, so we head off to grab them some food. If you’re a vegetarian, then you’re certainly well looked after. I do enjoy my meat though. It was a veggie stall that they went for and it looked really good nosh. Felafels with salad in a big wrap.



Afterwards, we made our way back to the Pyramid area. They headed North to their campsite, I started making my way through the crowds to the opposite side. Here was a lesson to be learned – the most direct route isn’t necessarily the quickest.
It really was quite busy and as I got about a third of the way, I heard the PA strike up, “Ladies & gentlemen, please give a huge welcome to.... SNOOP DOG”. Oh heck. Should have checked the running order. I really wasn’t ready for this. Too far across to turnaround though, so nothing for it. Plough on.
Working your way through a crowd of this side is very, very hard! I latched onto a line of people and followed them, but they were only going a bit of the way and they stopped when they reached friends.
I think the worst came as I approached a line of trees towards the right hand side. The crowd just stopped dead. We were packed like sardines and no-one was going anywhere! Patience is a virtue. After a few minutes, a couple decided to try and squeeze through. I put a hand on the shoulder of the girl at the back (letting her know I was following) and we pressed on. After what seemed an age, things started to ease up and then we were flowing again.
Note to self – to get from one side of the Pyramid to the other, DO NOT go through the crowd.

I made my way up to one of the paths and gently strolled along. Coincidentally, I bumped into Jo. She was on her way back from having a shower. She had to queue for three hours!
Back to the tents for her to dump her stuff and then out again. Andy had texted a while ago to say he was at the Cock Mills bar again. We started to make our way there, probably a 20 minute walk. Partway there, we decided to check that he was still actually there. Good job we did, because he had made his way to the Other Stage. A quick detour for us then.

According to the text, he was sat in front of the red bus. We enter from the right hand side and see that it’s a fairly busy crowd to see The Stranglers. Steadily we follow the path in front of the stalls round to the red bus (a debt assistance type stall thing). We walk in about 5m and then start scanning. No joy whatsoever, it’s just too busy to be able to spot anyone. Hey ho, we just settle in to enjoy the show.
After about 20 mins, Jo notices that someone that has just stood up, about 5m away, “Is that him?” she asks. I can’t be sure but don’t think so. After a while though, I’m really not sure so we work out way through to him, and it is! We’d been there for 20-30 mins looking for him and all the while he was but a few steps away!

Thu 24th June @ 19.30

I'm not sure how, but we met up with Jo somewhere along the way. Having got sorted at the tents, we decide to set off for our first proper "gig" of the festival, so far. Boy George was to be playing the Wow Tent in the Dance Village, so off we pop.
Do you remember how to get there? Yes, that's right, down through the tents to the main through road, hang a left. Right down the path near the toilets, passed the other toilets at the bottom, hang a left, past the lock-ups, right at the crossroads, down to the main intersection and right towards John Peel. Sorted!

So on we go past the wall of pics (I guess it has a better name, but that's what I'll call it)...



Into Dance Village. Plenty of folks milling around, so we sort of bimble about the area.
I may as well take this opportunity to bang in a pic of Cube Henge too. As the name suggests, it's a collection of blocks (cubes) that resemble Stone Henge. Please tell me that you get the name now.
Apparently, at night time, they light up and change colour. I can't testify to this, as was never in the Dance Village late enough.



Okay, ten minutes to go (ten to nine), so we head over to the tent. Beardyman (look him up) has been playing prior to BG, so it's pretty busy. We meander through the looser crowd on the approach to the tent and eventually, it gets slightly more packed at about 20m away from the perimeter - still damn busy then.
At this point we're treated to a "young, posh, type" in a England rugby top with his mates. He's evidently desperate for a pee and is trying to do so in an empty cider bottle.... badly, very badly. He's missing the bottle completely and mostly getting a shoe full of piss. Better than this, the shoes he's wearing is like furry boot things. Justice indeed.

The next "treat" is two girls (20-ish) pushing their way out of the tent. They stop by me and ask who's on next. When I tell them that it's Boy George, both of them start jumping up and down whilst whooping with delight. After a few minutes of this, one of them stops, looks the other right in the eye and says.... "Who's Boy George?". You couldn't make it up. Here is the crowd BEHIND us. Yes, as it was one of the first gigs of the festival, it was busy!



So, 9 o'clock comes and goes. A few cheers, but they're false alarms. Ten past, and a few folk start whinging (including me). You can be "fashionably late" for your own gigs, but this is Glasto, Mr O'Dowd.
The minutes continue to pass. A group of guys next to us are equally getting restless, "Come on George, you big poof", gets a big laugh from all around.
We give it until half past and then decide to move on.

Somewhere along the lines Jo grabs a tray of nachos. These are worthy of a mention because, in my opinion, they were probably the best looking plate of grub for £7. Unfortunately, I never got round to trying some.

Where now?

Arcadia and Shangri-La, that's where!
I'm not even sure that I can attempt to describe these places. I don't even have any photos. Maybe I was a bit in awe of how brilliant they were. Jaw-dropping.
Sort of a futuristic come Mad Max type of thing.

Check out this (official) video of Arcadia and you'll get the idea...



And just to prove that we were there, here's my poor attempt



I'm not going to say anymore about those two places, not Block 9 where I didn't manage to visit. You will just have to go yourselves.

The time was now pushing midnight and Jo disappeared off to her tent. Myself and Andy were still up for a bit more liveliness, so we headed off to find a reggae tent that we had seen earlier. Great atmosphere in the tent itself and quite a bit of dancing to be had. After an hour or so, I decided too, to knock it on the head. I managed to get myself back to my tent by just after 2am, and sat down to take in the view over a nightcap of red wine.

Happy Days! But guess what? The festival actually starts tomorrow!

We Apologise For The Interruption!

Apologies that I'm slow in updating Glasto.
Just got back from a charity walk up Snowdon. Very, very hard! I've done Snowdon before, but not this path or in such conditions. Will tell more when I've done the Glasto thang.
Stick with me. I promise an update tomorrow :o)

Thu 24th June @ 13.30

After all of, oooo, about 15 minutes chillaxing at the tent, I got a text from Andy asking what I was up to. He was at Cock Mills, an ale bar across near the acoustic tent. This was an area that I hadn’t been to before, so I had a quick glance at the map and set off.
It does take a while to get anywhere at Glastonbury, but there’s no point in rushing. Normally, my walking speed is quite high. I have a tendency to do lots of overtaking of slow-moving traffic. Big change whilst there. Your whole life seems to slow down a little. No-one’s in a hurry and it’s all sedate and rather pleasant.

I get to the Cock Mill bar and no sign of Andy, so I grab a seat. The benches of choice are railway sleepers, perched off the ground of all sorts of bright colours and designs.
The sun is really beating down pretty hard. By the time we got set up and everything yesterday, it had cooled off, but now you could really feel it.
I kept my eyes peeled for Andy and shot off a few pics whilst here...







After a while, my phone rang – Andy. He’d been here all the time, but was having a chat with someone nearer the tent. My first ale in a few years and it went down fairly well. Andy introduced me to the guy he was chatting to. Someone called John. It seemed that this was someone that lived in the same village as Andy over 20 years ago. He saw him last at Glastonbury 2007. Despite there being 180K people there, you can still bump into people that you know.
A few more cold ones at this bar – even having to retreat into the shade due to the glaring sun. Lots of good chats with John, who was a real seasoned Glasto visitor and a good old bimble before heading back to the tent to pick up a warm top for later.

Wed 24th June @ 11:00

See that ribbon tower on the previous entry? What a great view that would be of the site.
Now having queued for 6 hours yesterday, I really had done the queuing thing. I certainly didn’t fancy wasting anytime stood around whilst there was so much other stuff to do.
Here’s the queue for the ribbon tower as we passed it...



No thank you. So, on we continued up the hill. We found a suitable vantage point and rested our legs. It was a little windy at this point and the ribbons made a fantastic sound as they whipped against the scaffold of the tower.

Here’s the view of the site (3 pics stitched together)



And here’s a view back to our camping field way across the other side of the site. Incidentally, the pics as shown on here are quite small, if you click on them, it will open up in a screen size.



To give you some sort of idea where our tents actually are, look at that last pic. Look straight across and you will see a light green field with two pairs of bushy trees in it. Follow the right hand pair of trees down and you will come to the super-fence. We’re 10-20m in front of the super-fence.

Here’s the view from my tent looking the other way (with a hefty zoom on)



Right. Back to it. We stayed up on this field for a while. The view was spectacular and although the sun was out, the breeze was pleasant. Half an hour or so though and we were on the move again. Back down the hill.
Myself and Jo split up here. She decided to go and try and find some friends, and I fancied a bit of a bimble. This was a really good thing about the way we were with each other, although we went together and camped together, we often left each other alone. Before I went, loads of folk said that it’s great to go by yourself. I wasn’t convinced, as I’m a bit of a social body. Now though, I really do see it.



Although I said that I was going to have a bimble, I hadn’t had chance to catch up with Reg yet, so gave her a quick call. She explained where she was sorta and I headed that way.
Reg was actually working there on one of the main bars so meeting up with her was always going to be tricky, but this was an ideal opportunity.
I found the bar where her and her friends were sat outside, the Bread & Roses (that’s the name of the bar, not her friends). Big hugs and a cider in hand we had some good chats.
After this, I headed back to my tent for a bit of a chill.

Wed 24th June @ 07:00

Sleep. It’s a wonderful thing.
So I wake up in a strange environment. I’m not used to sleeping with an eye mask on, so that was a bit odd. Also, my ear plugs weren’t the best. The sound that was echoing around my tent was the babbling of at least three people with rather strong scouse accents.
I don’t wear a watch, so I reached for my phone and turned it on. It doesn’t retain its battery life so well, so I was keeping it turned off for the most part. 7am. I can live with that. Sometimes at home, I’m awake at least an hour before that. So that’s a good six hours sleep.

I will now share yet another top tip with you. Wide-necked, fabric conditioner bottles. They are very good things. Why? It saves you from an early morning trip to the loo! Go back a couple of years and Lenor (other brands are available) did the ideal product. Unfortunately, it seems that all of the bottles that you get these days are clear. Not the best. Soon got over that hurdle. Before I left, chucked a bit of gloss paint in it and splashed it around. Voila, one opaque bottle.

Okay, straight into what was to become my morning routine. Wetwipe wash, dressed and get the kettle on.
I’m one of the many people who need an early morning coffee. Some weeks before, I had purchased a stove device. This was on the recommendation of someone else and it didn’t disappoint. Meths-powered, so no messing about with gas. Soon had a half a billy can of water on the go.
So there I am perched on my stool. A steaming coffee awaiting and glass (cup) of wine to wash it all down. This is a French type thing. Trust me, it sets you up nicely for the day. Remember the view? Happy to sit and watch the whole site coming alive. What I also noted, from my lofty vantage point, was the massive queues for the toilets and the water point. Much relieved to have collected mine the night before.

By about 9am, Ben had joined me on my patio. Jo & Andy weren’t far behind. Off we go for day two.

We took the same route as previously described. Paused to pick up my rucksack. Ah, the Lock-ups. What an ingenious idea. A lot of festivals have mini lockers where they charge you a couple of quid to get a locker. The lock-ups are much better. Picture a small marquee with just the one entrance of a counter. Within are 2-3 rows of shelves. Each unit is manned 24 hrs by volunteers. Basically, you turn up with whatever you want to deposit (no restriction, although I’m sure that a small child may be frowned upon). They take a few details from you and give you one half of a ticket. When you want to collect, you hand in the ticket. They also check a few details and you’re sorted. It’s all very efficient and very secure. There’s not even a charge – although they do ask for donations and I was happy to contribute every single time.

Rucksack claimed, on we go, back down towards the intersection as described before. Andy decides that a bacon roll and a coffee are required. Ben goes for the Pepsi and myself & Jo hold fire. Sorry to mix food and toilets right now, but you’re going to get warts and all with this blog (well, I might skip over the drugs bit in case my mother reads it!).
We just happen to be close to the portaloo bank, so I chance my arm. I strike lucky! Very clean and even has a hook on the rear of the door to hang by bag on.
The one criticism I would have of this “turdis” is how bloody hot it was. Myself coming out of a portaloo sweating must have raised a few eyebrows. It was all innocent, I tell you.




Back to the bimbling. Ah yes, bimbling. A term that I have heard only at Glastonbury. It suits it very well and is a term used to describe the act of wandering around taking in everything of your surrounds.
We took the usual path round the left hand side of the Pyramid stage, following various “streets” round to the other stage. There was a bit of a point to this actually. Following on from Andy’s breakfast, myself and Jo were getting hungry. We were on the hunt, the hunt for a Growler aka The Pauline Fowler.
At a (very) rough guess, there are well in excess of 200 food stalls around the site. We had no idea where the stall was that sold said item, so it was indeed a challenge

Why the Growler, and what is it?
The forum where I met Jo & Andy has a food thread and I loved looking through it. One of the "must do" things was have a growler. Myself and Jo are getting through the list at a good rate of knots...

- Have a cider at the cider bus
- Have a cider at the Brothers bar
- Have an Oggie
- Have a Growler!

Time is now pressing and we're both starving. I start to think about leaving it until another day, so have a glance around at the other stalls. I see one that is selling something called a Garlic Guzzler. Now THAT sounds tempting. But wait.... what's that stall next door!?!?!



Hurray for the Growler...



Basically, take a medium baguette, stick some bacon in it, stick some chips on top, stick some cheese on top of that. Grill until the cheese melts. Add mayo and ketchup.
Admittedly it sounds a little heavy, and it is! BUT boy does it set you up for the day.
It was so good, that upon seeing myself & Jo tuck into ours, Ben had to get one. Except he doesn't like bacon, so it was a Big Dog for him. The same with a sausage instead of the bacon.
I realise now that I'm not doing the best selling job for Glastonbury's magnificent food offerings, but stick with me on this.

I also realise that I am rambling (not in the walking kind of way, because as already discussed, herein that's called bimbling). But, what the hell. If you don't like it, page down!

Forgot to mention that on the way from an intersection to the Other stage we'd lost Andy. This is VERY easy to do. Take many thousands of people, all meandering around, all being distracted by some great sights and you cannot keep together as a group. It matters not though. We're not there as a group really. We have each other's mobiles should we need it. So, we finish off the Growlers and head off again, in no particular direction.
Ben says that he's going to meet up with his friends and head to watch a film. Myself and Jo bid him farewell and keep walking. For some reason, I fancy the teepee field followed by a lounging area. It looks a fair walk, but it's fairly quiet up there and I'm sure that the view will be worth it. Off we trot, passing through the Park on the way....





So on we go, up the hill...

Wed 23rd June @ 18:00

So, sat in front of my tent to THAT view.
A cold-ish cider in my hand.

Ben managed to get in about 3m to my left. Jo & Andy had to go a bit further back, but still reasonably close. We all got our tents up fairly quickly. I then emptied bits of my rucksack. I had read that a good thing to do to deter thieves was to make your tent quite "messy" i.e. empty stuff out of bags and spread it around. So I did a bit of this. Another tip was to put any cans that you had under your groundsheet and then put a bit of water on them. Didn't bother with this one. I can make do with warm cider.

10-15 mins and we all gathered at the space directly in front of my tent, christened my patio - despite it only being about one metre square.

Right let's go. I stuck a few things into my small rucksack along with a rolled up water container for later. We make a mental note of exactly where our tents are. Again, this is supposed to be a common problem - losing where you are.

Off down the hill to the main road through our field, then left to the end. A toilet block here - the infamous Long Drops, but more of them later. Down a footpath. Disabled camping to our right and at the bottom, some more toilets. We go left and pass into..... yet another camping field. This one has a cafe at the entrance as well as a "lock-up". I shall explain about these a bit later, as I made very good use of them.



Onwards along a track, and then down again before we arrive at a main inter-section. Right would take us to the Dance Village and the John Peel stage, straight on through a "street" of stalls to the other stage and right to the Pyramid stage. Right it is.

On our left is a big bank of portaloos (turdises, as they're more affectionately called). A short walk and we're entering the Pyramid stage field proper. I'm overwhelmed at the mass of people. It's not that crowded, it's just the sheer volume of people just wandering around. The other thing that strikes me is the rubbish on the floor. Now remember that England played earlier. The rubbish is just from that match, predominantly empty cardboard cups.



Pausing for breath at the stage itself, we have a good look around. Watching it previously on TV doesn't prepare you for how big everything is. The Pyramid stage itself is just vast!

We keep on across the field reaching the other side, then hang a left down another "street". When I say street, what I mean is just a big track. Some of it still grass, some of it dirt, and down the centre is some metal staging for vehicles. On either side are stall after stall. In this area, it's mainly food, but elsewhere they contain stalls selling anything you care to think of. And the food is mightily impressive. Again, anything you can think of. And talking of which...

After a bit more walking, Andy & Jo decide to try something. Both come back with a big tray of noodles each. I am offered some, but save myself. I'm reliably informed that they were very delicious. We're now getting towards the Other stage and I spot a stall that's selling the "Welsh Oggie". Basically, it's a huge pasty. Unfortunately, they don't have the Welsh ones, so I opt for a Lamb Oggie. Exactly the same, but lamb not beef and with a mint sauce flavour. It's absolutely delicious. £3.90 sounds a lot, but it is very filling and I don't manage it all. A complete meal!

By this time, Ben has been in touch with his friends Tracy (the one who was to be traveling with us) and Victoria. We arrange to meet them here and it's time for some more gazing about at the whole site. Ten minutes or so and they arrive so we go off wandering again. First to the Cider Bus. It is what it says, a double-decker bus selling cider. Fortunately, there's a largeish bar linked in with it to meet demand. A couple of medium ciders here and off wandering again. Past the circus and cabaret tents and eventually arriving at West Holts - another stage.

In this area is the famous Brothers Bar. It turns out to be one of my favourite places. I'll explain why at a later stage (no pun intended). A few cold ciders are enjoyed here. We're also treated to another Glastonbury phenomenon - random cheering. You'll be sat there having a good natter, when in the distance you'll hear a cheer. It gets closer and closer and you can't help yourself but join in as it sweeps over you and away. It's like a Mexican wave but with sound. At first you look around to see what people are cheering at, but after a few times you realise that it's just because people are just happy to be there. Adds to the magic.
Tracy & Victoria decide to go and get coats as it's turning a bit chilly. Myself & Andy are feeling it a bit as we're still in T-Shirts. After another cider, we decide to warm up by moving on. Stone Circle time!





It does what it says on the tin. A mini Stone Henge if you will. One of THE things to do is to see the sunrise at the Stone Circle. I can tell you now, I didn't manage it!
We pass through the Greenfields area and up the hill. As we reach the Stone Circle field I'm struck again by quite how many people there are. Nothing much on as it's still only Wednesday, so a lot of people had the same idea as us. We're talking quite a few thousand. Wandering around the field we see fire jugglers, people sitting down chatting, people singing around fires. They all have something in common... they all have big grins/smiles. This is Glastonbury and we're all here.






Totally lost track of the time. I ask Jo and and it's gone midnight. We all agree that it's quite late enough for the first day, especially as we were all up at 4-ish.

We're at the exact opposite side of the site to our tents, but the walk back is amazing. So many different people, so many sights. I put my rucksack in the lock-ups and we head up to our field. Despite it being dark, we manage to meander our way through all the tents, carefully stepping over dozens of guy ropes. I join Andy & Jo for a nightcap and call it a night.

A nice cosy sleeping bag, a comfy sleep mat, earplugs and an eye mask. I wonder how I'll sleep? Only one way to find out...