Place: London - Glastonbury Music Festival (Somerset, UK)
Date(s) of Travel: June 27 - July 1, 2013
My Experience:
After a long wait, I quit my job on wednesday and decided to take six months off and do a bit of travelling. I have been working (mostly slacking) in the IT industry for the last seven years and got some chances to travel new places and got to meet lot of people. I always envied those people who travel for a year or so and read a lot of travel blogs which sounded fun and cool to me. Being born in an Indian family, I was always surrounded by commitments but still I made this decision to quit my job and travel as long as I could. So first time in seven years I was little nervous about what will happen tomorrow or what I am gonna do tomorrow. Being a slacker that wasn't much of a worry and on the last day of work, I went with my colleagues to a restaurant for lunch and it was fun to spend some time with them.
When I woke up on thursday morning, I realized I don't need to go to work but instead I gotta go to Glastonbury music festival in Somerset. Glastonbury is one of the biggest festival in Europe and its is 'the' festival in UK. I was managed to buy a ticket during last october but I left to go alone as my friends(Stevie and mates) had a marriage to attend during the festival dates. I took a train to Bath, UK and from there I travelled by coach to the festival site. The moment I got off the coach, I realized that the festival was humungous. After getting my festival band sorted, I walked through Gate A and went straight to a volunteer to ask for help about where I can camp. The volunteer was kind enough and suggested me few places to camp and I decided to camp near the Gate A itself as it was less crowded. Being alone in a music festival was one of the worst feeling, as you see everybody was with their friends or family. But being a firm believer in 'everything happens for good', I started pitching my tent. Within 5 minutes, a family camped nearby came towards me and said Hi and offered me an extra hand. They suggested me lot of stuff about how things work and what are all different kind of stuff that I can see in Glastonbury which was kind of nice, since I was new to Glastonbury (called glastovirgin, if you are first timer). I walked little bit inside towards the stages to fill my 10 litre water bottle. Wherever I saw, there were endless number of people and endless number of tents. Even getting back to my tent was a bit of challenge as it was getting crowded very quickly. After few minutes it started to rain and it rained non-stop which was annoying in a music festival. After few hours of rain, the whole festival ground turned into a mud slide and with people walking around in their wellies made it even worse. In the late evening, I walked around a bit and had a tasty falafel and a hot tea which was ofcouse expensive even for UK standards. Around 9 PM, I went to the movie theatre stage called 'Cinema Palais' and watched a movie named 'Frank and Robot' which was kind of nice. After the movie, when I came out of the stage it stopped raining and it gave me a sigh of relief (almost for everyone I believe).
Friday morning I woke up around 11 AM and it was very sunny and I was elated to see the sunshine. Then went to the 'Pyramid Stage' (Main Stage) to catch acts like 'Jake Bugg', 'Haim' and 'Professor Green'. Afterthat, I went to 'Other Stage' (Next big to Pyramid Stage) to catch 'Alt-J' since my friends had suggested me to watch them. Then around the corner from 'Other Stage' there was a giant spider like structure called 'Arcadia' (open party space) and I heard it spits fire around midnight and DJs play trance music till wee hours of morning. Near 'Arcadia' I met a random guy from Manchester and he was heavily drunk. After few minutes of chat, he said that he was looking for a job and also gonna get married very soon to his girlfriend who was currently taking care of his expenses. Thats the free spirit I like about festivals, where people share stuff and try to forget about this materialistic world. Then I walked for few minutes and reached 'Left Fields' stage where there was a sudanese band called 'Emmanuel Jal' was performing. After few minutes of listening I was blown away by the african music, their passion for dance and singing and I was truly mesmerized. The lead singer from band said that he was a child soldier and now he turned into a musician and helping lot of african schools. Man, respect. Then went to the 'Pyramid Stage' again and saw 'Dizzie Rascal' and 'Artic monkeys'. I heard about 'Artic Monkeys' and they were the headline act for friday and I wasn't impressed with their live performance. Around midnight went to the 'Circus stage' and gotta see amazing lazer performance, knife act, fire act and some amazing gymnastics by various artists.
Saturday morning, I went to take a shower and waited for around 2 hours(oh my god). I don't know why, but for the whole festival there were only 2 showers (bollocks). I am a kind of person who would like to take shower everyday irrespective of any weather. In the afternoon it got too hot and I went to 'Cinema Stage' to watch 'Monsters University'. In the evening walked around a bit and went to the 'Green Fields' where there were lot of small stages and gotta see performances of small bands. There were some political debates went on, climate change awareness shops, Eco friendly houses, Solar power usages and small popcorn cinemas showing documentary movies. Most of the small shops were selling Chai (sort of tea with milk), Indian samosas, Bhajji, Pizzas. Being a tea lover, I tasted so many chai in different shops. I walked towards the hill where you can get a panoromic view of the whole festival and it was so calm to sit at the top of the hill. There were 'Tipi tents' near the hill which one can rent for the festival and I heard it was expensive and meant for comfy festival goers. In the 'Green Fields' area, you can meet loads of hippies dancing randomly, meditating, teaching yoga and also there were fortune reading shops. It almost looked like a festival or exhibition happening in Northern India. In the late evening I went to the 'Pyramid Stage' to catch the most awaited 'Rolling Stones'. It took me an hour to reach somewhat near to the stage because it was crowded like hell. Around 9.15 PM, 'Rolling Stones' burst into action with 'Jumpin Jack flash' song and everyone started jumping in excitement. I still remember the crazy moment when they entered the stage and I have never experienced any live performance like 'Rolling Stones'. I would say, Mick Jagger still got his moves and I would recommend their live performance to everyone. They performed nearly for two hours at their age and almost everyone in the festival was present at the 'Pyramid Stage' to catch a glimpse of them. After that, I went to 'South East Corner' which was a dance/party area after midnight where there were loads of bars and clubs. Some of the areas to be mentioned here are 'Shangrila', 'Common', 'Block 9' and 'Unfairground'. I met loads of crazy people and partied till early in the morning.
Sunday, I was very tired and woke up around 12.30 PM. Then went to the 'Cinema stage' to watch the science fiction movie 'Oblivion' which I wanted to watch for a long time. After that, while I was walking towards the 'Green Fields' I saw 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna' stall and people were singing bhajan songs and they gave free rice (Sambar/Besibellabath) to everyone. There was a white girl in a saree(god, she was pretty), served food to everyone. She was very happy to meet an Indian guy from South. I talked to some volunteers inside the stall and I heard they all spent some time of their life in India. After the surprise experience, I went to the 'Green Fields' to get some Chai and watched small bands like Via Trio (a korean band) and some random spanish band which was really awesome. In the evening went to the 'West Holt' stage to watch 'Bobby Womack' and it was fantastic to watch the old man singing his heartout. After that, I randomly bumped into a guy(Joe) and his girl from Liverpool who were more thrilled when I said I am from India. We had few drinks and chatted a lot about their interests in Indian culture and traditions. After that, they insisted me to join them for partying in 'Shangrila'. Then I went with them to 'Shangrila', met some of their friends and partied with all of them till early morning with loads of booze and grass. It was one of the crazy night out with some awesome/fun people and I hope one day I meet them back in Liverpool.
Monday morning, I woke up with some hangover and half heartedly packed my tent to get back to London. Around 12 PM, I catched the bus to get back to Bath and by mistake boarded a fast train to London and paid a fine. Errrrr. This year Glastonbury was so much fun and it was sunny the whole weekend which made it even more enjoyable. Hope next year, I make it to Glastonbury with my friends (Stevie and mates).
Thought of Day: Wherever you go, go with all your heart. - Confucius
