I have a confession to make. I have really struggled to write about my experiences at Glastonbury Festival this year which is why, among other reasons, this article is so late. I have been feeling a huge amount of self-induced pressure around this piece and I’ve allowed it to keep my hands frozen. Going to Glastonbury has been on my bucket list for nearly ten years, and the intensity I’ve created around writing about it comes from this idea that the festival was this TOTALLY AMAZING LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE AND IF I DON’T DO IT JUSTICE I’LL NEVER WRITE AGAIN! *Deep exhale*
When I think back to the last sweltering week of June when I was at the festival, I am not overwhelmed with something I could never put into words, rather I feel calm, grateful, and solid in my belief that I will attend Glastonbury, and other festivals like it, for many years to come. Keeping this thought in mind, let’s dive into my Glastonbury 2019 adventure!
When I was about 16-years-old, I created a vision board for Glastonbury. I cut out pictures of the Pyramid stage (the main stage) and bands that had performed there in the past and ones that I wanted to see in the future. This intentional collage was pinned up on my bedroom wall for several years until I was tired of looking at it and took it off the wall. However, Glastonbury still remained in the back of my mind even without the vision board in plain sight.
Fast forward nine years to February of 2019, where I found myself signing up to be an Oxfam volunteer at Glastonbury and dropping a £250 deposit (the price of a ticket and almost equivalent to $300) to reserve my spot. It seemed expensive at the time, but all deposits are reimbursed at the end of the summer, which was great for me since I came back to the States with $10 to my name.
Reason number one why volunteering at a festival is so great: you get to attend for free (more or less).
Signing up to volunteer could not have been easier. I had previously signed up for the Oxfam volunteer email list in order to be alerted when volunteer applications were open, so I was able to sign up for Glastonbury easily. They require basic personal information, any previous volunteer work (if it’s festival related, that’s even better), and one outside reference. You do need to be legally allowed to volunteer in the UK and as I had a student visa I was in the clear. I recommend doing research about visa requirements before submitting your own application. Through your account you can also sign up for multiple festivals around the UK, such as Reading & Leeds or Latitude. Many of the people I met were participating in a full summer of volunteering. In May, I attended a one-day Oxfam workshop in London. The workshop leader gave us a run-down of what Oxfam would be asking us to do, what they expected of us, and answered any questions we had. After that, I just waited for June to come along!
So it begins…
Reason number two why volunteering at a festival is so great: you meet amazing people and make friends with almost zero effort.
I took the Oxfam bus from the Bristol train station to the Glastonbury festival site which is just outside of the town of Glastonbury. It was here I met a lovely woman named Hele (pronounced like ‘heli’ in helicopter), who was also a Glastonbury first-timer, and the two of us became tent neighbors as well as festival buddies for the rest of the weekend. By the next day, our duo had turned into a trio with the addition of another woman, Lucy, who Hele had met earlier that day. The three of us went into the festival on Wednesday night and watched the fireworks exploding over the grounds, marking the beginning of Glastonbury.
Oxfam requires you to work three, eight-hour shifts during your time at Glastonbury. The festival ran from Wednesday through Sunday, so all in all it’s really not too much of a sacrifice. Oxfam hires nearly 2,000 volunteers for Glastonbury alone, so choosing your own shifts is not an option, although you can always switch your shifts with someone else who is keen. I lucked out and got all of my shifts done in the first three days of the festival without having to do any overnight stints (which probably would have killed me). Wednesday and Thursday, I worked from 2pm to 10pm, and Friday I pulled an early morning shift from 6am to 2pm, which meant I had the rest of the day to see music! The late night headliners didn’t start playing on the Pyramid stage until Friday, and most of Wednesday and Thursday were less well known groups.
I was placed at one of the pedestrian gates for all three of my shifts, checking wrist bands and handing out programs. The people I was working with were all lovely and engaging and the festival goers coming in and out were great fun to talk to and watch. I continually got a kick out of people hearing my accent and asking me the usual questions: “Where are you from?”, “Did you come to the UK just for this festival?”, “Is this your first time at Glastonbury?”
Friday, Let the music begin!
Friday had all the festival goers boiling as the temperature was in the high 90’s, and many people, including myself, suffered from varying degrees of heat exhaustion. I clocked out at 2pm and headed into the festival in order to catch Bastille’s set at the Pyramid stage. There is very little shade around the Pyramid stage, but I was able to find a free patch underneath a large evergreen tree and recover from the heat before diving into Bastille’s crowd with my new friend, Lucy, by my side.
Bastille brings back memories of Ireland. Rolling green hills dotted with sheep seen through a tinted bus window, Irish accented DJ’s introducing Bastille’s song Pompeii for what feels like the millionth time. I felt like that song was following me and not in a good way. The opening “Eh eh oh, Eh eh oh” wound its way deep into my brain and would pop up at the worst times, i.e while I was trying to fall asleep.
In 2013, I found Bastille’s album, Bad Blood, and the annoyance was replaced with grateful nostalgia. I love that album but lost touch as the years rolled by. Last May the lads released their song Joy, a single from their upcoming album Doom Days, and I felt my love for them softly smoldering once again. Watching them at Glastonbury was like meeting an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in years. There were a few earlier songs that reminded me of why I love this group and new ones that demonstrated to me how they had evolved as musicians. Bastille has shifted to more hip-hop beats with the bonus of a group of extremely talented gospel singers. When they played Joy they were joined by Lewis Calpadi, a scottish singer who’s song Someone You Loved and hilarious Instagram posts are gaining him immense fame.
Lucy and I stuck around to catch George Ezra’s set right after Bastille. To be perfectly honest, the main reason I saw Ezra was to have some bragging rights. Unfortunately, he was nothing to write home about. His band was on fire and seemed to be really enjoying themselves, but Ezra was subdued, which was partly due to a sprained ankle. He continued to tell stories in the same monotone way and delivered his punchlines with an off hand attitude that was funny the first time, but grew old very quickly. Stage presence is really important and I didn’t vibe with his. I was exhausted and my feet were hurting so bad I wasn’t sure if I could walk back to my tent by the time the sun started to go down. Friday night’s headliner made all of this go away.
Stormzy was easily my favorite performer that I saw that day. He is one of the most famous grime artists in the UK currently. Grime is a form of electronic dance music that draws influences from dancehall, ragga and hip-hop that began in London in the early 2000s. I had been introduced to him only a few days before the festival and he has become a new favorite. Stormzy made history this year by being the first black British artist to headline Glastonbury and, at 25, is the second youngest solo headliner, the first being a 24-year-old David Bowie in 1971. He was overflowing with gratitude throughout his set, even getting close to tears a few times. Stormzy’s performance made me inspired and hopeful for the future, and incredibly grateful that people like him exist. Everything about this show was incredible. The lighting, the dancing, the interludes between songs – one of which had two ballet dancers come out and perform while captions on the screen behind them told the audience that ballet slippers had only recently been made to incorporate all skin colors.
Lucy and I returned to our tents elated by Stormzy’s performance and excited for the next day.
Autumn Micketti 