~*~ Glastonbury 2010 ~ Wednesday 23rd June ~*~

Everyone's Glastonbury is different. What follows is my personal experience of this year's festival as it hit its 40th anniversary in style.


To get the best camping spots, getting there early is always a good plan. I have taken this to heart, and I get the 6:10am train on the Wednesday every year. Of course, this does get you to Castle Cary before the shuttle buses even start, and the punters are herded like cows in pens, but excitement overcomes all that. It even overcomes the age-long bus journey to the site, on an ancient rickety bus without air conditioning, on your own, because your friend decided a Bon Jovi gig was better than a night in Devon. Which, to be fair, is a good choice. Admittedly the whole thing would have been made infinitely cooler had I grabbed a seat on the oh-so-fabulous deep purple double decker bus, but for another year it has eluded me. Next year, oh towering wonder of purpleness...

Anyway, my heart soared in the usual way from the minute I saw that huge shimmering wall surrounding the multitude of flags and marquees, the strange red bulbous tomato-like structure on the left, dear old John Peel tent on the right. And as yet very few tents, as the fields have yet to fill up with festival-goers.

Through the gates, shiny gold (and glow in the dark, which I took a WEEK to realise) wristband on, and into the John Peel field, where we love to camp. (Pennard's Hill terrifies us) Usually a beautiful quiet field, but this year marred by a nearby group of Londoners, chatting raucously through the night, every other word 'f***'. I have genuinely never come across a mother who will happily call someone a "c**t" in front of her kids before. There was also a drugs raid later on in the week. *a crowd of people stood and stared...* and laughed, which was slightly weird.

As I was waiting for the others, I went for a bit of a wander. And who should I see?! None other than Lizo! Ahh... the good old days when you'd get home from school and watch Lizo on Newsround, feeding you child-friendly versions of the world. He was reporting on the screening of the World Cup match (England - Slovenia. I think...) Football fans are horrible, by the way. Anyone that blocks their view even for a second is instantly called a twat. Charming! Confirmed my opinion that Glastonbury and football do not mix.

As ever, I was looking forward to getting a Brothers cider and heading up to the flag field, my favourite place in the whole world. So when Kara, Jon, Pete, Emma Kate and Leah had all gathered in John Peel, we set off to do exactly that. And us girlies, a little tipsy, picked up flower garlands on the way. The field is getting more and more popular, which is a shame, as back in '08 we pretty much had it to ourselves, but you can't blame people. It's a beautiful spot, and you can see all of Glastonbury from there. At night the view of the lights is magnificent.