Glastonbury 2015!

So after a week at Glasto, I'm finally home again and fully recovered. Sorry about the lack of posts, it's been pretty mad and I was having too much fun at Glastonbury. I did have my first Festival Friday post scheduled to post on the Friday, however for some reason it didn't post. Oh well! 

I got to Glasto on the Tuesday last week, I started work on Wednesday doing the morning shifts throughout the festival. I went to see The Vaccines, The Courteeners, Billy Bragg, Gregory Porter, Pharrell, Kanye West, Lionel Richie, Lianne La Havas, Jamie T, The Who, Chainska Brassika and that's just the music acts I saw!

Lionel got the biggest crowd, which is unsurprising as he was brilliant and played all of his best hits. The Who put on a great show and although there was no guitar smashing, they did pull down the drum screen and knock over a couple of mics. However, from the moment he first got announced, to The Who making a dig at him during their set, Kanye West has to be the most talked about act at Glasto. There seems to be a divide between all that saw him. Some absolutely loved it, some absolutely hated it! From watching it again on BBC iPlayer, it looked better on telly than it did live. In my opinion, it was unrehearsed and I don't think Kanye was used to doing that sort of performance. I found that the long gaps between songs and the fact he kept stopping during the songs unprofessional and ruined the atmosphere. Not that there was much atmosphere as every time he got going and started to get the audience involved, the song would change or he would stop the performance. I'm not a giant fan, but I do know the big hits. I gave Kanye the benefit of the doubt and stayed for the whole set, many people left after 4 or 5 songs. The lighting was awesome, even if he did hit his head. Lee Nelson running on for less than a second to imitate the Taylor Swift incident  wasn't funny, and 'Touch The Sky' on a cherry picker was actually pretty awesome. There was a lot of booing and when he tried to sing 'Bohemian Rhapsody', and claimed to be the 'Biggest Rock Star on the Planet' while rapping 'Gold Digger', well I wasn't really sure what to make of that. I think I mostly found it funny, typical Kanye and all that. The fact is, he probably is one of the biggest stars on the planet at the moment. However I think 'Rock Star' is the wrong claim as that title was taken by the likes of Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury and now maybe Dave Grohl. But as you can see, he got me, all of Glastonbury and all that watched it at home talking. But was it talking for the right reasons?

My favourite act was Lianne La Havas, she was amazing, her voice was incredible as always and her set was perfect. Couldn't fault it. I also met the wonderful Gregory Porter after watching his set at West Holts on the Saturday. I embarrassed myself by being super uncool as usual, and then he made me feel worse by being super cool about it and signing my vinyl record of his latest album, Liquid Spirit and getting a picture with me. So that made my day/ year really.

This year I managed to have another explore, so found a lot more stuff and little stages than I did last year. I also was told to go and see Arcadia Metamorphosis, which was incredible! I also managed to get in to Shangri-la and all those areas, this time at night, so I got to see the full effect, which was amazing and felt like you were is a completely different world almost.

I think this year was better than last year for me, although nothing can beat seeing Dolly Parton live really, I got to see more acts that I really wanted to see and some I had seen before, so I got to appreciate them more. I saw a lot more this year as well and got to explore all the different areas properly. The weather was better as well which helped. 

Glastonbury 2015, you were awesome!

Let me know about your Glastonbury festival experience or what you thought about Kanye's performance in the comments or on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!

Festival Friday! Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, 2015

With Glastonbury already in full swing, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to start Festival Friday.

Glastonbury festival is awesome! The line up, the atmosphere, the location, everything! Glastonbury can always be relied upon for a brilliant line up across all of the main stages. The site is huge, which can also be crowded, meaning if you are in a rush to get to a stage it can be difficult. The site is so big, it's been split into different areas. Each of theses areas are so unique and different from each other. From Block 9, to Arcadia, to Green Fields, each has a lot to offer throughout the day and night. To get the best experience I recommend exploring as many areas as you can, although the main acts are usually at the Pyramid Stage, most of the magic happens in the outskirts. As I said each area is so different, they all have a different, positive atmosphere, except when they are overcrowded perhaps. But I think navigating your way through the crowds is all part of the fun really. I worked at Glastonbury last year which meant I felt I didn't have enough time to explore and get to see everyone I wanted to. However, as a normal festival goer you have plenty of time to see the acts you like as well as explore. 

Here's a little history and information about the festival. Glastonbury Festival (formally known as Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts) was founded in 1970 by Michael Eavis. Starting the day after Jimi Hendrix died, 1500 people attended, it cost £1, including the free milk from the farm. It's amazing to see how much Glastonbury festival has grown since then. After going through a couple of name changes, growing to the size of a city, expanding to all types of art forms and music genres, and having crowds of up to around 150,000 people. However throughout the 33 times the festival has been held over the 45 years since, they have always wanted to make a difference. This difference has made millions of pounds in donations to charities such as Greenpeace, WaterAid and Oxfam.

Now for this year, Wednesday 24th - Sunday 28th June 2015

Headliners: Florence + the Machine (Replacing Foo Fighters), Kanye West, The Who

Other Artist Include: Lionel Richie, Paul Weller, Patti Smith, Paloma Faith, Rudimental, The Chemical Brothers, Hot Chip , Super Furry Animals, Jon Hopkins, The Moody Blues, Billy Bragg, Buzzcocks, Grand Master flash

Links

Glastonbury Website

BBC Coverage

What to Pack

If you want to come find me I will be working at The Hurly Burly in the Circus Area!