Glastonbury Festival 2010 Diary

I finally got around to downloading my Festival diary from my Mobile Phone, having a qwerty keyboard definitely made this a lot easier, in previous years I have written my Festival diary on a Palm PDA and on paper and then typed up, but I still had trouble getting this off my phone hence the delay, in the end I just e-mailed it to myself so here it is, pictures to be added later.

Monday 21st June

Left Work at 4:30 picked up Ian and then Steve we just managed to squeeze everyone’s kit in and then got on the road to Glastonbury at about 5pm, the drive up was good not much traffic we made it there by about 6:15pm but then got held up in on-site traffic so we only got parked up by 6:45pm. We set up camp and even chatted with some new neighbours but it was already 9pm and we hadn’t eaten so the three of us headed up to Nuts cafe in the Oxfam field last year they were Veggie only but this year they have meat options so I opted for the Sausage Casserole which was super tasty, we found the tea making facilities am glad I didn’t bring too much of my own this year. I spent the night just sitting and chatting outside before having an early night around midnight.

Tuesday 22nd June

Didn’t sleep too well last night kept waking up I took some sleeping pills which definitely helped but I woke up a few more times and put my beanie on to keep my head warm, then work up early to a hot tent, opened all the doors then went back to sleep for a bit more. Finally got up around 10:30 and went and had a shower which was lloverly. Had some breakfast and sat in the sun listening to the radio before going to get some lunch around 1pm.

Decided to make a journey into the site to have a look around before the punters get here, just walked around by the pyramid stage and the other stage then headed up to the stone circle where I bumped into two fellow stewards who I had camped next to last year Alex and Mark, so we sat and chatted for a bit then wondered off and I bumped into Steve who had been in town getting essential supplies. Then it was back to camp for a rest before having tea, we decided to wait for the queue to go down for food but by 9pm there was still a queue so we got our food and headed for an even earlier bed as we would be getting up at 5am for our briefing and first shift.

Wednesday 23rd June

Despite wearing earplugs I managed to hear my alarm on my phone, so I went to my briefing and after I met Andrew who is working the same Green Car Park as me and doing the same hours. We started off by guiding people into the Tangerine field and stopping people being run over, but after awhile the marshals turned up who were meant to be doing this so they took over and we went back to the main exit gate to enforce the one way system and direct people where to park, we got a break but as we were so far out there wasn’t much point in going anywhere so I sat in the shade and ate an apple. When our shift finally finished we had to hold on till the next shift got there and then we wondered back to Big Lickle to sign out and I got myself some proper lunch, a shower and a nap, I found out that Ben would be working this year but I haven’t met up with him yet, my plan so far is to stay up late tonight then sleep in tomorrow ready for my night shift but we’ll see how that goes.

After napping a little I got up around 7pm and went to the marquee for a cuppa tea, Ian joined me after getting his food, I decided to wait and see how the queue was as it was very long plus I had had a late lunch so late dinner was in order to help with the staying up. After a couple more teas I popped into the main site to see if I could find Andrew Herrington from work with his pink gazebo, it was easily spotted on the hill so I went and had a chat but ran away before I was forced to eat some burnt/undercooked burgers from the BBQ, I wondered around the stalls to find something to eat and happened upon an old favourite the Chinese Wholefoods where I got myself a Chilli Beef with Rice which was yummy then I popped into the bakery for a fruits of the forest muffin and headed back to camp to enjoy my muffin with a cup of tea, as I hadn’t heard from peoples I decided to amuse myself in my tent with many cups of tea my goal is to stay up to around 6am then I should be able to do that on my shift tomorrow either that or just sleep a lot tomorrow 😛

Thursday 24th June

Ok I didn’t quite manage 6am more like 3am and then I got up at 2pm so not too bad, had a cold shower as the hot water is off and some yummy falafel from nuts cafe now I’m relaxing with a cup of tea before I head off to meet Ben near the Avalon Stage as he’s going to be playing some Irish folk music, should be good fun.

I found the bar were Ben was playing then had a little wonder up to the Stone Circle to have a little sit down before heading back down to the bar to meet Ben I walked around it a bit before deciding to give him a rung when he sprung upon me and introduced me to Melanie we sat and chatted by the bar as we awaited the delivery of a guitar so Ben could play with the folk peoples, turns out they are both working for the recycling crew this year, the guitar arrived with two people and as it turned out I had already met Manny at Ben’s Birthday party last year. We left them to chat as we went and sat by the assembled band, they played some lloverly folky tunes but all to soon it was time for Ben and Melanie to run off to their Work Briefing I followed them up the hill and then returned to the Oxfam Camp site to plan for my night shift, I had Sausage Hot Pot for tea and a cup of tea too, as I won’t have access to delicious beverages once I start work.

Friday 25th June

Well night shift was interesting, kind of, instead of working the car park I was put on Vehicle Gate 1 instead by our unusual supervisor, as it turned out this was her second year with Oxfam and her first year as a supervisor. My fellow stewards were Dave, Sharron (not his real name) and Emma, we also had Dave, Stu and CY the Security guys who were all quite mad in different ways Stu slept most of the time and CY went on about Chicken and Sausages all the time. I found out that the security aren’t allowed to build fires but as long as we started one and fetched all the wood they would keep it going, I made the first trip for wood and found some small branches which I combined with some paper to start the first then once it was going we went in search of some bigger wood, we discovered a fence that was jutting out and obstructing the path so we decided to make it safer by pulling out all the wood thereby removing the hazard from the path, this also provided us with excellent dry fire wood on later trips we also found a nice long branch and a long plank of wood under a caravan so presumably it rolled away after that. We chatted about things and stuff and also managed to wrangle taking our breaks at the end of our shift so me and Emma could get back to our tents and sleep to be ready in time to see Rolf Harris in the morning.

So this morning I woke up with 20 minutes to get ready and rush down to the Pyramid Stage, apparently so was everyone else who were coming through Pedestrian Gate C as I could see hundreds of people being held back from crossing the road in the field next to me, I hurried to get ahead but thankfully the stewards let us with white wrist bands go through the wide load lane so I beat all the queues and made it to the Pyramid Stage just a little late. Rolf was great he played Sun Arise, Waltzing Matilda, Two Little Boys and even the British version of Tie My Kangaroo Down Sport to the tune of God Save the Queen. Then it was back to camp to finish getting up properly, have some breakfast, shower and shave then go back out to see Mariachi El Bronx on the West Holts stage where I enjoyed the California sunshine they had kindly brought with them, while I sat on the grass and ate yummy Ice Cream from Sheppards I had Strawberry Sorbet and Banana Toffee Crunch in a waffle cone. Then it was on to the John Peel stage to see Bombay Bicycle Club but there was a lot of people and I couldn’t hear them also they had removed the outdoor video screen which they had so thoughtfully put in last year so I popped over to the Pyramid Stage to see Willie Nelson then headed back to the John Peel stage to catch Kele from Bloc Party he was there with his new band I didn’t recognise the first few tracks but then they played a medley of Bloc Party songs after which Kele said “That was for the old fans, and this is for the new ones” and played their new Single Tenderoni, I stayed for a few more tracks before I had to dash off to catch my next act.

I made the unfortunate choice of taking a “shortcut” over the top of the pyramid stage field and got stuck in a big pile up of people I eventually found my way out and thankfully I had allowed plenty of time to get there even if it did mean missing more of Kele, Having only had 4 hours sleep I stopped off for an Iced Mocha and continued on to Astrolobe to see the one and only Norman Lovett (aka Holly from Red Dwarf) he’s preparing his new comedy act and trying it out on us, he seemed very fascinated with plastic bags and talking about new music which I did not expect, he was very funny and I may well go and see him again on Sunday again. After Norman was the Stephen Frost Improv, an old favourite of mine at Glasto, they did the tale of Napoleon and the Spice Rack when someone fluffs up they’re out and the winner buys everyone a drink, Positions were two people get into positions on the stage and then switch out when tapped on the shoulder, and movie scenes with the tale of a photo developing lab, then to finish off they each did the voice for the person to their right which gets very confusing when the voice provider suddenly has to act, I just wish I could see them again on Saturday but I’ll be working then. Then after all that I headed back to camp to enjoy Sausage and Mash and a cuppa tea before I start drinking all my beer tonight, Hopefully I’ll be meeting up with Ben again and he can help me drink it all.

Saturday 26th June

Well last night was good fun, went and saw Gorrilaz and even managed to meet up with Ben whereby they helped me drink my beer’s till brought some of it back with me thou, Gorrilaz didn’t do a U2 cover but for their encore they did some old favourites. We then had a bit of a wonder about site popping into the Cornish Mexican place where Ben had worked before, then up to Croissant Nuef then we popped into a little cafe which did lloverly hot drinks, cakes and also freshly cooked pizza, I had a Chai Latte and a slice of Lemon Drizzle cake which was very yummy then we had a wonder to the cabaret and circus fields but all too soon my four hours of sleep had caught up with me and it was time for bed so at 2am I headed back for camp and sleep.

I’ve got my last shift today which means I will miss a couple of acts I wanted to see but I finish in time to go and see Muse on the Pyramid Stage and where I’m working it’s very close to it and I can either go to the Pyramid Stage to see something on my break or head back to camp for food times.

Started my last shift on Green Car Park and chatted with another Glasto veteran of 7 years and all of those years with Oxfam too, there wasn’t really much for us to do so we told traffic where to go and radioed for a new battery, when our supervisor decided that  6 people is far too many Stewards to man a car park so she sent 4 of us back to wait for new jobs, but so far it’s been more waiting than anything else, we got told to take our breaks while they find something to do, so I had my tea in preparation for going out tonight although with the shower situation as it is I plan to come back to the campsite and take one while they’re working between 8 and midnight tonight then go out to see Muse and meet up with Ben and folks again.

Sunday 27th June

It worked out quite well after all last night, they didn’t really notice us nip off and have showers during our shifts we played a bit of cards with Jenny and Hannah but Walter disappeared and never returned, then when my shift was over I signed out picked up my beer and headed down to the Pyramid Stage to see Muse who did an amazing set not too much new stuff and they played a bit of House of the Rising Sun without singing but the crowd certainly filled in there, then in the encore they did what Gorrilaz did not and played a U2 song but not only that they had the Edge to play then when it finished he went and we had a bit of Plug In Baby and their new single Uprising. After Muse we headed out to see Seth Lakeman play at the Avalon Cafe unfortunately much like our trip to Croissant Neuf yesterday to see him, he was not there, so instead we wondered up towards the railway track and on a bit to find some delicious brownies, but all this was too much for some and an early start for Ben and folks meant it was time for bed so I let them go while I decided I would go and see Craig Charles presents the Fantasy Funk Band, and all Craig Charles did was present them then he buggered off, I didn’t stay till the end as I began to feel the call to bed and being that my bed was on the other side of the sight I started making tracks, stopping off for a spicy bite to eat in the form of tom yum noodles in soup, twas very yummy then back to camp where I had no trouble falling asleep

And another sunny day at Glastonbury makes lying in very difficult, I got up around 10am and decided to start packing away so I could easily make my getaway on Monday, am still undecided as to when I’m going to be leaving on Monday, I think my Liftsharee’s want to go early but I did stipulate that later was better for me so I can drink myself silly on Sunday night, if I choose to. Made good work but couldn’t put anything in the car yet as I wanted to see Marcus Brigstock and Phil Jupitus in Early Edition in the Cabaret tent which was very amusing, they made fun of newspapers, politics, lesbians, Glastonbury, boffins or scientists and even puppy’s, although I could have done without seeing a Truffle Shuffle performed by Phil Jupitus but other than that it was a good show. Then it was on to see Tunng on the West Holts stage very conveniently in the next field then it’s off to see Taiko Drummers in Astrolobe and hopefully buy my Glasto T-shirt then pop back to camp to get my Sunday Roast.