HW Glastonbury Fayre on BBC2

[M Holmes]

Iain Ferguson writes:

> Hi Mike,
>
> First time I've not gone since 1981 actually.....

> I just got fed up with the crowds, the thieves, the aggression, the
> Constant all night 4/4 beat from the Glade, the constant wittering of
> e-heads all-night long, and the general dodgy geezers looking to turn a
> trick at any opertunity....

Taking those objections in order:

1. The crowd was half of last time because 100,000 people who normally
steal from charity couldn't get entry over the three fences before a van
got to them. Seems that each van had a cop and the choice was "go to
jail overnight or get on a bus to Bristol". This meant that there were
scant queues for food or drink and that the bins and toilets mostly
didn't overflow. The crowds were much lessened. I guess the only folks
upset would be the criminals and the small stallholders who relied on
uptake from folks who couldn't face the queues at the large ones.

2. The Glade were clearly under orders to turn it down a bit and after
the 12.30am curfew did turn it down quite a lot.

3. The drugs that were being sold at the bottom of Lost Vagueness and
elsewhere were pretty much restricted to hash truffles. Hash was sold by
a few wanderers and I heard someone in the camping field shouting
"Northern Lights" which I'd guess to be acid. Generally there were fewer
people way out of their heads (certainly around the Green areas where I
hang out). The atmosphere was constantly mellow and friendly. I saw no
trouble at any time though I heard of a lot outside the fences in the
car parks. There was a noticeable lack of bottled alcohol. There were
few independent alcohol retailers even by the main drags (I had to go to the
Crew Camping or Workers Beer Tents when mine ran out) and those were
selling tins.

> So whats the low down, was it better that the last few?

Certainly for what I go for which is the chilled hippyish atmosphere and
sitting in tented cafes watching small bands or sitting around fires
chatting to whoever happens to be there.

> Was the festie
> noticeably smaller

The site was in fact larger as much of the western car parks had been
converted to camping. In general tents weren't 4 inches from each other
and room was left for campfires.

> What was the street drug, still E ?

Maybe over by the Dance Tent. I never go over there. In the Green areas
you can't walk 5 paces without smelling hash.

It's now better than any of the last decade. They still need to sort out
the areas outside the fence (over 200 muggings for tickets and some
pretty bad violence) but maybe now that the criminals realise they can't
get in they'll figure that the travel isn't worth the "profit" they can
make in the car park.

FoFP