No you see I don’t at all, I struggle with arseholes.
Eavis has tried to address it and it didn’t work but his intention was there, the music has changed to appeal to younger people and still the older lo come, let the under 25’s have 75% of the tickets, I say this as a 42 year old who wants to go to the next one, it would be a better one I would say as well if I was fortunate enough to get a ticket.
I don’t deny I am a hypocrite in this instance and have said so but I also said I’d like it to be 75% allocation to the under 25’s, if the good old days are gone why are they wanted to play at Glastonbury?
Tell me all about this band called “the good old days”. Got to admit i’ve never heard of them. Why didn’t they play?
If it’s not a band, you need to look up the meaning of “the good old days”.
They’re next to age denial and mid life crisis…
Glastonbury is our family holiday when we get tickets. The first couple of years, it was too much of an ordeal to actually be a holiday. Let’s euphemistically refer to it as an experience.
This year, it really felt like that. The kids did the offs for most of the time, leaving ms pap and I to do our own thing. We found a couple of favourite bars, sat in the sun drinking and singing along to the Bootleg Beatles. All down to the weather really. You can do all that stuff during a wet year, but it’s usually far harder. @intiniki had the right of it when she say dry ones were loads easier.
Glasto can even withstand a little bit of rain. It’s really when that shit turns to mud that things are a problem, and it never did this year.
Tbf I agree with Barry - Glastonbury is quite middle class now. Aside from 2016 & 2017 i’ve been to every Glasto since 2007 and it has been very noticeably changing. In a sense it’s a victim of its own success, having the reputation it does and the ability to consistently draw high-calibre acts it attracts a large and varied crowd which is edging more into that middle class area now especially with the increase in ticket prices.
Sure, you get a few arseholes that camp at the Pyramid Stage all day and moan about the rain like it’s fucking V Festival but 95% of the festival goers are out and about, exploring and experiencing everything that Glasto has to offer and contributing to a really great atmosphere. That’s the thing about Glasto - even if it’s pissing with rain and the mud is up to your knackers, the vibe is still that everyone is still having a fucking brilliant time, whether you’re called Terry or Tarquin.
My mates have run burgers vans there for as long as I can remember and it has certainly changed according to them (its been a while in all honesty since I have had this conversation with them and can only imagine it has got worse), their menu has certainly changed!
Its comfortably comfortable now and I am sure this is not what the organisers really want at all, after all they mimicked other festival and gatherings that had hippy and revolutionary cultures in them, the only revolution you’d get in Glastonbury is if the WIFI went off.
Cheap tickets, cheaper acts, yes cheaper acts not super stars, 75% to the under 25’s of ticket sales and the rest is a free for all.
Why do we talk about the headliners when in reality they’re weren’t that good, Radiohead were ok, the Foo’s shouted and Ed was on a foot pedal, if that ain’t comfortably middle ground then I don’t know what is, did Madness perform for the 347564th time?
You make it sound shit, Barry, but keep going on about wanting to get a ticket. Are you just typing for the sake of it?
I like typing.
The Ring of Steel changed the culture massively. Fence jumping massively reduced, although people without tickets were a big problem this year.
There are always going to be people who go to Glastonbury because it’s the biggest festival in the country, one to tick off the list. You’re right in saying it’s a victim of its own success.
It’s still the only major festival that lets you take your own ale and food in, lets you stay inside the festival itself for free, and entire sections of it are devoted to left wing or environmental ideals.
The audience will change every year. The intent of the festival does not. For all Bazza’s bleating, this was the most political Glastonbury we’ve had for years. Circumstances, personal appearances and everything Glastonbury does itself all contributed. I’ve seen Tories in Glasto groups moaning about it.
I had a funny moment in one of the bars. ms pap and I were at the “window” (there was no glass). I look over my shoulder, and spot who I think is Iain McNicol, General Secretary of the Labour Party and someone that has sought to ruin Corbyn. I’m not sure, so I keep looking again.
The next time I look, he’s vamoosed. He was with his kid. He probably thought I was giving him the evils, which I probably was.
I didn’t even get to ask him about defunding the marginals.
Sniff.
no.
It should be noted that all sorts of acts perform at Glastonbury.
My neighbour used to perform in a small threepiece in Bath called Skiffle Haze. They used to go to Glastonbury every year and do their set in the ‘ukulele section’.
By day, a project manager working on the Astute submarine project and involved with the MoD at Abbey Wood. By night, in a ukulele skiffle band playing the Hendrix back catalogue around the pubs and bars of Bath and Somerset with their annual trips to local festivals including Glastonbury.
Music for the middle classes, music is an essentially a middle class business, what council house kid can afford a drum kit or a fucking ukelele?
I really cant see the point in moaning about Glastonbury. If you dont like the product, dont go and dont watch it on TV. There are plenty of festivals both here and around Europe in the summer. Find one you like, although I am sure the resident moaner will find fault with all of them. Glastobury isnt my thing. I am not a happy camper and dont enjoy mud. I did go in 2000 when I was working for The Guardian and thought it amazing though. The scale of the event is extraordinary and there is something for everyone (well, for most). It is a festival. People have fun and enjoy it. It is a huge part of the summer social calendar. I really can’t see what the problem is other than the Great British tradition of knocking something once it becomes successful by a section of the community who are only happy if they are slagging something or someone off.
As it happens, both Brendan and Martyn had very working class backgrounds. The fact that my neighbour Brendan worked on the nuclear sub programme was entirely down to him acquiring an education which culminated in doing a PhD at Bath.
So, the working class kids done good, eh?
I am knocking it as I genuinely love it, but I want it younger, thats all, younger so to be fair and also its me being a turkey voting for Christmas want a limit on how many old people like myself can go.
I’m not defending Barry here (as I’ve decided I don’t agree with him after all, mainly because I can’t work out what his argument is), but I think people have the right to complain about something they love if they think it’s lost its original identity and been taken over by blandness and commercialism.
It’s not ‘moaning about Glastonbury’ per se, more lamenting what it’s become - a victim of its own success.
Anyone named Martin with a Y isn’t working class, if you played a ukelele in a comp if they had one you’d be strumming through your arse in 5 minutes.
Nope, he played the guitar and taught himself to play the ukulele. He was definitely from a working class background - dad was a factory worker and mum worked in a shop and they grew up in a council house.
And, I think this is proof, if ever it were needed, that Glasto is in touch with the working class: