The lineup for 2010's Glastonbury Music Festival has begun to be announced, and of course it made me reminisce about attending the festival last June with D and another couple who are two good friends. The 2009 festival began 2 days after I arrived in England last June, and we made the decision to go at the last minute, so our only ticket option was buying passes on ebay from ticket-holders who looked similar to us (since the tickets bear photos). I was nervous about spending the money on poached tickets, but D was convinced it would be OK, so we went for it, and it worked OK for us.
Here are my top 5 tips for Glastonbury survival if you are lucky enough to go:
1. Camping vs. Caravans. If you have got re-sale tix, like we did, plan to camp inside the festival grounds as it is too risky to go in and out to your car, camper van or mobile home past security every day. Once you get in--stay in! If you have valid tickets, I'd recommend camping once to get the "real" experience, and then try booking a caravan camping spot outside the festival grounds the next year. This will allow you to eat your own food for the whole weekend, sleep on a bed or sofa, bathe and use your own (hopefully cleaner) toilet facilities at least twice a day.
2. Get there early! If you are camping, plan to arrive at the festival grounds as soon as possible after the gates are opened on Wednesday morning. The traffic heading into the grounds is horrendous, and all of the good camping spots get taken up by Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Yes, it's a pain to take an extra 2 days off of work when there are no musical acts organized, but it's worth it--the poor sods we saw arriving on Friday in the mud wandered for hours before finding any decent patches of dirt big enough for a tent. Anyways, we found that by the time we actually set up our campsite, had a few drinks, a bite to eat, and a walk on Wednesday, it was already late evening. The bars are open, and many of the stalls and stages have some random performances on, so there are definitely things to do. If all else fails, read a good book and enjoy a long nap--once the party starts, resting gets hard to come by!
3. Choosing a Campsite. You should have an idea of which camping area you want to aim for and try to park your car in the parking lot closest to the desired area, since you will likely have to carry everything with you over 1 k from your car to your campsite. In choosing a campsite, there are 2 main objectives:
1) If you are over 30, like D and I, chances are that you can no longer handle going 48-72 hours without sleep, which means that you will be looking for the quietest place possible to camp. Unfortunately, there are no truly quiet places at Glastonbury, only "loud" and "really loud"; therefore, D and his friends have established a tradition of camping in the "Family Camping" area, which falls into the merely "loud" category. Now, since we do not have children, this means that we had to sneak into the family area by staggering our entry--my female friend and I went in first, claiming that our husbands had gone in ahead with the kids, while the boys came in 10 minutes later, claiming the opposite. One note--sleeping in the kiddie area does mean that you will have to keep the partying 'round your tent fairly tame, and may have to endure some loud tantrums from time to time, but at least most of the neighbors are asleep by midnight.
2) The 2nd objective in campsite selection is proximity to toilets and the milk-man route: you should be close enough to the loos that a post-midnight toilet run won't seem like torture, but far enough away so that the stink doesn't haunt you; and close enough to the milk-man route that you can hear them coming past with fresh supplies in the morning, but far enough away that your tent doesn't get trampled by folks coming to the truck in the morning,or splashed on by tottering children with full cartons of milk and yogurt.
4. Hauling your Gear. This one is pretty simple--you need a sturdy wheelbarrow (be sure to check the tire is pumped full and has no holes) and a few strong & chivalrous men to make it into the festival with a weekend worth of gear intact. Since the car park is so far away from the campgrounds, it is advisable to try and take everything with you in one trip. Luckily for me, D and his buddy were happy to fill the roles of wheelbarrow pushers, so we ladies carried as much of the less awkward gear & luggage over our shoulders as we could, and they pushed the rest. Now, experienced campers may find that they can fit all they need into massive camping backpacks, but we don't have ultra-light, ultra-portable cooking equipment, so we were relying on bringing in full-size camping burners and ice chests to help store our food and cases of beer & cider. The more food and drink you bring in, the more money you save (cuz the food at the festival is $$$), but obviously you can lighten your load if you only bring in a tent, sleeping bags, clothing & toiletries.
5. Packing Essentials: Wellington boots (for the mud, in case it rains--and it probably will--and for braving the public toilets and port-a-loos), hand sanitizer gel (loads), sunblock (when it's not cold and raining, it's HOT), toilet paper (I carried a roll in my backpack at all times), a good rain-proof poncho or a few disposable ones (handy, but less enviro-friendly), a fleece jacket for cold nights, a swimsuit or board shorts (for outdoor bathing or sunbathing on sunny days), sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat (to keep the sun off your face and your view of the stages from being blocked by glare), a good camping tent with a proper rain fly (one that provides cover to a front and back storage area will be best), summer weight sleeping bags, Thermarests or inflatable mattresses, head lamps or flashlights/torches (for your tent and the toilets in the dark), camping chairs (to sit on outside the tent, above the mud), a small basin that you can fill with water to wash yourself and your dishes (better than wasting concert time waiting in the 2-3 hour shower line), extra camera batteries and a solar-powered charger that can power your cell phone and ipod (otherwise, once the batteries die you are screwed--the line at the "cell phone charging tent" were horrible after Friday night).
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