Wednesday 20 June 2012

I am out of the office today...

I am not in the office today.


 I am at Glastonbury Festival. It's warm and sunny, but the ground is a bit soggy underfoot, so I'm wearing a pair of shamelessly blagged Croc wellies, which are rubbing my heel, because I forgot to pack blister plasters.



I've already dragged my tent and gear onto the site - in stages, thanks to the luxury of living locally - but my shoulders are sore from all the physical exertion and I'm already beginning to worry about where I've parked and if I'll ever find the car again. I've had an overly emotional goodbye with Mr Blog, and promised to call him every day, even though we both know that when I do, I won't be able to hear him over the sound of the various stages.



I've found the press tent and found myself incredibly annoyed by the pretentious, desk-hogging music press guys, and as usual I can't get the laptop to connect to the wifi, so I'm starting to panic and stabbing entries into my phone in an attempt to stop my boss from firing me, which in turn makes me worry about my battery life.

But the site is full of life, and insanity. Already I've fallen over a group of guys from Essex dressed in drag and got stuck behind a group of girls in bumblebee costumes carrying their gear across the site. I've located the Pyramid Stage, but since there's no-one on it until tomorrow, I've got the chance to have a bit of a wander away from the main drag and check out the markets, the Green Fields and the Avalon field to say Hi to all the locals and see how they're doing. I want to check out the line-up for the Cabaret tent and see if Ed Byrne, Bill Bailey, Sean Hughes or Phil Kay are on at some point. I have to go and see what's been written on relevant shed this year.




It also gives me the chance to check out the line-up again - I'm kinda annoyed, because The Pogues are on at the same time as The Dropkick Murphys, but I figure I've seen the Dropkicks once, and I've yet to see the Pogues, so I'll head to the Other for the Dropkicks and then make a dash to the Pyramid in time for the Pogues. Obviously, I can't wait to see the original G n' R line-up headlining the Pyramid on Saturday night - so cool that Axl and Slash finally sorted themselves out and the guys reformed.

Photo courtesy of https://twitter.com/RichardsonMatt
Chilis on Friday night, and the Stones to close the show on Sunday? Who saw that coming? I know both bands had been rumoured for years, but I didn't think it'd ever happen. The rest of the bands - other than The Wurzels on Avalon and Trivium on the other - I'm not too fussed about, but that gives me the chance to hike my backside around the rest of the place and gives me fuel for a billion mindless blog entries.

A few local and up-and-coming bands - it's awesome to see The Drystones getting a spot, as well as Black Casino and the Ghost, and I'm pretty sure I saw Awaken The Silence's name down in one of the little stages I can't ever seem to find.

Walking around the site is a bit perilous and I'm scandalised by the price of the food - for £4.50 for a portion of cheesy chips! £4.50! Don't even get me started on the price of the booze around here.



Although the main stages are silent, the air is full of music from competing sound systems from everything from burger vans to tents, to bars. It's a cacophony of noise that fills your head and your soul, lifting you along with it.

The crowds are all ridiculously excited - everyone seems happy - if tired from lugging their stuff around - and everyone's talking quickly and loudly as they stagger around the site in a collection of slogan t-shirts and hilarious hats.

Everything is so loud and vibrant that it locks out everyday life, everything that's been playing on my mind, the stresses and strains of the last year all melting away. The only thing that's bothering me is the fact that I can't always get a signal on my phone, so I'm worried my 'in the field' blogs aren't getting through, and I'm slightly anxious that I'm not blogging quite often enough, so work will be mad at me and think I'm slacking off and drinking cider and trying to eat my own body weight in freshly-made doughnuts and chips.




I know that right now, Worthy Farm looks like this:




But in my head, it looks like this:




and I'm there.

2 comments:

Richard said...

Have you comsidered glamping? Perhaps you don't get the experience of being right down in the fields, but you also don't get so much muck over you whenever you wake up.

Glamping for Glastonbury

Laura said...

Are you offering to donate a lodge for the duration? Because I'd be all over that ;)