Wednesday 2 July 2008

Glastonbury Festival Of Performing Arts

Well, it was all last minute, and it was chaos to arrange, but me, my mate Dan and my mate Carl decided to not just go to Glastonbury, but to actually go live and work there for a week, running traffic checkpoints, closing down roads, and generally imposing a truly minimal amount of order for the sake of protecting human (and animal!) life.

Yep, we camped out for a whole week, wearing ridiculously bright orange uniforms, working with the good folks at Avon & Somerset Police (who unlike Greater Manchester Police, actually treat citizens as human beings, considering them innocent until proven guilty and not harassing the law-abiding and trustworthy).

I'll keep it short, because there are a million other blogspot Glasto write-ups out there. Saw and heard a few bands, including The Feeling (ouch they sucked!), Leonard Cohen, Goldfrapp, The Verve and several jazz and indie acts knocking around random stages. The biggest highlight though was working for the good people of the villages and towns around the festival, such as Pilton, Cockmill, Shepton Mallett and of course Glastonbury village itself. Never have I seen a group of people so patient of 150,000 others, keeping a smile on their faces, enjoying the entertainment and not overreacting to the many minor acts of drunken silliness that in many other places would result in complaints and arrests.

Long live Glastonbury, and hopefully next year Michael Eavis will NOT book some dumbass rapper, and instead book a real talent like The Arcade Fire, David Bowie, Lou Reed or Iggy Pop to headline the most glorious festival gathering in the world.

I'll say no more. The happiness of 150,000 other people speaks more to the success of this event than my mere words ever could. Long live Glastonbury.

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