John's take on Magical Glastonbury 2015

John's Magical Glastonbury

People who don’t go to Glastonbury ask what it’s like and it’s really hard to explain.  It’s like you have a normal life and then most years a Brigadoon like magical village of 175,000 people appears for a brief few days in summer, with its own culture, street layout and social norms.  Sitting high above Glastonbury at night you can see the lights and fires stretching as far as the eye can see, it is truly magical in a way that makes me weep with joy.  Even now as I write this Blog the sounds and smells of Glastonbury seem to surround me once more, every year it feels like I have been reborn. Perhaps I and those of you who get what I’m talking about should give Glastonbury Festival as our place of residence, maybe we should all go one year and decide to stay rather than spend the rest of the year as refugees exiled from our true home.  Like India we will just have to live alongside the cows who we displace.

I have lost count of the number of times I have been but every year Glastonbury brings something new and amazing and this year was no different. The music is amazing - 86 stages, the food is to die for - 500 food outlets, the theatre is dramatic and the performance and visual arts are outstanding.  Where else do you get a full size replica of a ship in a field or a War of the Worlds like 100 foot tall spider that spits fire. There is a growing sense of radicalism and activism at Glastonbury, a sense of people power and positive energy.

 

Glastonbury is like living in a different world and the environment can be a little unforgiving.  An hour’s walk from car to campsite is a little challenging whilst carrying a large rucksack and very small tent.  Magical Glastonbury is huge, taking an hour to cross on foot. Rain and sun are both equally difficult to manage as there are few places that provide shade or shelter, sometimes you may need to walk ¼ mile to the toilet and back, not great fun in the rain at 4 am in the morning.  Most people at Glastonbury burn over 4,000 calories a day and walk up to 10 miles a day.  

 My highlights this year were

·      Listening to members of Pussy Riot, who were jailed in Russia for opposing Putin, talking about what’s happening in Russia and how we must all Riot. I had not realised how young they were or how inspirational.  “Civil Servants and Politian’s work for us they should have no power but that we give them”  (Quote Pussy Riot).

 

 

 

·      It was great to be at Glastonbury to hear the iconic decision of the USA Supreme Court to legalise same sex marriage across America.  I was listening to Gretchen Peter’s an American singer and activist who announced it and her joy at her country’s decision reached out to the audience.

 

 

 

 

·      Tom Robinson back on the political protest song agenda,

·      The Moody Blues who took me back to my old bedroom as a teenager listening to records late at night.

·       Hobo Jones and the Junkyard Dogs. Many years ago feeling depressed and miserable Eva and I in desperation went to a local Pub.  Hobo Jones and the Junkyard Dogs were playing we have never forgotten that night or the first time they played at Glastonbury. Great to see them open the Avalon stage. 

The most amazing thing was singing happy Birthday to the Dalai Lama. (Three times).  Rumours were going around Glastonbury for days but we could not track down if he was to speak. Eventually Glastonbury Radio (yes Glastonbury has its own radio and newspapers) announced that he would be speaking by the sacred circle at 10.45am. PANIC it was 10.10am and the venue was 30 minutes away and it was raining. Following a mile hike at break neck speed in the mud we arrived just in time to sing Happy Birthday to the amazing man with a Glastonbury Tee Shirt on his head. We listened spell bound in the pouring rain for what seemed like 10 minutes but was actually over an hour as he told us all to be positive about life and that we have the right and the duty to be happy as none of us live long enough to do anything else. Later the same day he appeared on the pyramid stage to another rendition of Happy Birthday. This time he said we should treat every day as if it is a birthday because every day is an opportunity as the past is gone and the future has not arrived. Live in the now.

All good things come to an end and as the sun set over the Pyramid stage and the Who played, we left the magical Brigadoon/Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz/Rocky Horror world of Glastonbury for the real world.