The Glastonbury Festival 2000
Well here I was, standing on the threshold of something surely amazing. I had arrived at the gates of Worthy Farm after a short country drive and parking up in a big field. We had cunningly avoided the Thursday evening rush and oil spillage on the M4 by arriving on site Thursday morning.
I knew that I was about to have the time of my life. But, as a festival virgin, was still unsure of exactly what to expect. One thing I definitely expected was rain. And mud. And, sure enough, shortly after we had put up our tents, the rain arrived. I had visions of the mudslide that was 1997 and prayed that, when I woke up on Friday, it would be bright and sunny.
I didn't get much sleep that night, partly due to the excitement of what was in store and partly due to the amount of noise going on around us (some bloke shouting "I'm Spartacus" and a guy playing the bongos all night are obvious highlights.)
Friday
Friday morning was anything but sunny, but listening to a blast of pogo-punk from my first band of the weekend, Cay, the sun soon began to creep from behind it's cloud and so it remained all weekend. Friday morning was a lazy start. After seeing Cay on the Other stage, I wandered over to the Pyramid and sat on the grass contemplating lunch, while catching a bit of G Love & Special Sauce who actually provided a quite fitting way to lay in the sunshine. Soon bored of all this "chilled" shit and eager to "ave some", I made my first and only trip to the Dance tent to see what the much championed Manchild had in store. The answer was quite a lot. They unleashed a collaboration with Andy Cairns from Therapy? and one with Kelly Jones, as well as providing us with a slice of breakdancing madness. Then I legged it back to the Other stage to catch the second half of Fu Manchu's set and they were just as I expected - lots of widdly guitar and, well, not a lot else really, but still compelling stuff all the same.
Then I took a short break and caught some of The Bluetones set, including a personal favourite in "Solomon Bites The Worm", before buggering off to the New tent to see The Motorhomes followed by JJ72, who were my first highlight of the weekend, despite much bass problems and the fact that they clashed with Cypress Hill and The Bloodhound Gang. Unfortunately, I missed Utah Saints and Idlewild due to a friend going down with "festival eye" and being rushed to hospital.
Drama over, I returned for the second half of Badly Drawn Boy, who seemed to keep wanting to make us aware of his album and, on this showing, it'll be a classic. Then, I legged it once more, but ended up bloody miles away from Moby, which was a shame. As soon as the tracksuited one had finished, the anticipated mass exodus from the Other stage to the Pyramid to see the Chemies consumed us in their throng. One of our number decided to lead us through the crowd, by holding his beer can aloft. We never saw "Stevo with the can" again that night, despite much shouting for him to return. The Chemicals gave us their all, even though we could barely see them and, to be honest, their set wasn't great, but the spirit in the crowd carried us through. It was Friday night, we were at Glastonbury and we just wanted to party.
Saturday
Saturday was, as I anticipated, the day of the Other Stage. I basically spent all day there, lapping up Crashland, Soul Wax, Toploader, Coldplay, Wannadies and Feeder, with only a brief visit to the Pyramid to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo, which was a mistake. Soul Wax won me over slightly, after their dreadful performance in Bristol supporting the Wannadies, but, of the bands mentioned, I was most impressed with Coldplay. Those guys will go a long way. The Wannadies handed out their own flags in order to make it "more festival" and Feeder were everything I thought they'd be, including the guy in the velvet dress in the moshpit. Then, I faced yet another trip round to the Pyramid stage to watch the end of Ocean Colour Scene's set full of anthems and barged my way into the masses to see the Pet Shop Boys, keeping one eye on the main prize - Travis. The Pet Shop Boys surprised me by actually being quite good, complete with Cerys Matthews guesting for "What've I Done To Deserve This", but it was obvious that the considerable crowd assembled was there to see Travis. As soon as PSB left the stage, I was pulled, kicked and dragged through the crowd to achieve fabled fifth row status ready for Travis who, albeit, were not on stage for another hour!
Well somehow, I managed to survive without passing out due to the blistering heat, lack of water and having not eaten for most of the day, through much of Travis' set, that is until they played "Why Does It Always Rain On Me" and everyone barged forward that extra bit, making it just too much to handle. One quick crowdsurf out and I was at the side watching on the big screen for "Turn", "Twenty", the fabulous "Slide Show" and the rest, before the band went off to rapturous applause. They came back on and did an encore consisting of "Hit Me Baby One More Time", "The Weight" and closing with, quite fittingly, "Happy". My highlight of Saturday, definitely.
Sunday
Waking up on Sunday to bright sunshine was great. We knew it would be a great day from the off. We decided to drive to Wells to get some money (and avoid the six hour queues for the cashpoints). This was a big mistake, as we couldn't get back onsite again. Doh! Eventually, we parked up and got back in, having missed Co.uk, which I'm still pissed off about, but caught a bit of Jools Holland's lunch time blues. Great fella, boring music though. We then stuck around for David Gray's second set of the weekend (he replaced Burt Bacharach, who injured his shoulder playing his piano) and, apart from "Babylon", it was instantly forgettable. Ben & Jason, on the other hand are not forgettable. I staggered wearily up to the New tent to see them and it was well worth the trip, despite the "I'm Ben, this is Jason" tomfoolery, they gave us an enchanting set to a rammed New tent.
After Ben & Jason had mellowed us out, we headed back to the Other Stage to settle down for the band I had been waiting for all weekend - Muse. First up were Dark Star, who impressed me more second time around than when I saw them in Bristol months ago, all in all they seem to have grown up a bit. I then missed St Etienne, as I wandered back to the tent to get my factor 500 suncream (such was the sun), but what I heard of them sounded as dull as ever. Up next were the Dandy Warhols, a band which I really wanted to avoid, but decided to stick around for, as Muse would be on straight after. And, low and behold, The Dandy's took the crown as the band I was most impressed with all weekend (despite stiff competition from Soul Wax and The Pet Shop Boys). Playing most of the stuff off their new album and, of course a few old favourites, such as "Not if you were the last Junky on Earth", they were a resounding success.
But nothing could prepare us for Muse. Despite a weak opening couple of songs (I don't think the mic was loud enough), Muse rocked. People crowd surfed badly in blow up chairs, we felt the sun burning on our necks as they played "Sunburn", we marvelled at the blow up doll and at Matt Bellamy's abundant talent. "Listen to this riff", he says as he introduces one song, almost like a teenager in his bedroom learning to play his first guitar. Only better. Muse were my headliners of the weekend. There is no doubt. And their set ends, as always, with them trashing their equipment. Matt is carried around the stage upside down by his bassist and they stumble into the drum kit, with arms, legs and bits of equipment flailing everywhere. A mass of feedback and they're off to continue making their plans for world domination.
Then, it's the familiar rush to the Pyramid stage, because there is another headliner. We catch Embrace doing "Save Me", "Hooligan" and the beautiful "The Good Will Out", as the sun sets behind the famous Glastonbury Tor. We wait forever for the man who will, for so many people, be the highlight of the weekend. I catch about fifty minutes of Bowie, including my favourite, "Changes", but I have other things on my agenda, namely The Doves. The artists formerly known as Sub Sub round my weekend off in style, with their laid back indie-dance-undertoned vibe and, even though Bowie is playing, the New tent is still fairly packed, albeit with Mancunians. I wander back to the tents to meet up with the Bowie-ites and we talk into the night, until, at 4 O'clock, it begins to get light and the whole sky lights up red, making the smoke from ten thousand camp fires seem like mist on a spring morning and I crash out savouring a thousand dreams and a thousand memories and without even half a thought that I would have to return to normality the very next day.
Monday
The next day, the mass exodus from the site, and the return to everyday life of over 100,000 revellers, who, the very night before, had been lying in their tents and assisting in the massive "bollocks" mexican wave. It's amazing how you can learn to live without such "essentials" as walls, running water and clean toilets, within the space of one weekend. My first festival experience was everything I had ever dreamed of and more. I am no longer a festival virgin but instead, as the Pet Shop Boys put it, a "festival slag". I have had the time of my life and the weather wasn't too bad either!
Related pages
Official Glastonbury Festivals Website
Don't believe anything about Glastonbury until you've read it here.
E-Festivals
This site is excellent for all festival related, up-to-the-minute news and rumours.
