Glastonbury 1997 - The year of the MUD

Wednesday

Although it may seem strange now but when we arrived at Glastonbury the sun was shining!. Okay admittedly the field was very muddy but the sun was shining. By the time we'd got up to our camping space and put up 2 tents (one for to keep a space for my brother) I was ready for that can of beer I had hidden in my rucksack! Just getting on and off the site to collect bags was a major feat in itself as the gates had become a quagmire already and at times there was a really long queue. There were touts outside who literally couldn't give tickets away. After a few trips we had almost every thing we needed back at the tent and we relaxed.That evening we met up with our friends Jon and Bev and their little one Matthew and sat outside the cider bus - sitting was something was wasn't generally possible again until the Sunday - until the heavens opened and we beat a hasty retreat back to the tent.

Thursday

I don't really remember much about the Thursday at all except that it rained a lot and my wife took refuge in the tent and stayed there for the next 24 hours. By now getting anywhere on the site had become a bit of a nightmare especially when your boots leaked like hers did. At some point during the day Val bought a silly hat which she wore for the rest of the weekend (out of necessity rather than style!) and at some point she got fed up of hearing how wonderful and dry it was inside Jon and Bev's camper van.

Val in the hat!

Still at least there would be bands on tomorrow!

Mud Interlude!

Mud More mud Even more mud

Friday

Phish were the phirst band on and I wanted to see them despite having already been to see them 4 times already this year with tickets to see them two more times the following week in Amsterdam. I set off for the main stage to see the band and to find my brother who was arriving that day. "Get me some wellies" was Val's parting cry, "I'll do my best" I replied. I had visions of some seedy character coming up to me and saying "Psst wanna buy some wellies".

In front of the stage there were quite a few Americans who I recognised from the Phish show at the Royal Albert Hall a few weeks before who were quite under dressed for the occasion. It rained during the band - I think the only time it rained during a band all weekend but we danced away in the mud. Afterwards I found where Garry, my brother, his wife Fi and their daughter Emily had retreated to and took them to where we were camped. Garry had a spare pair of wellingtons in his car and this cheered Val up - despite them being 3 sizes too big for her. She tried to steal a pair of clean socks from me to stick in the end but I made her use a dirty pair!! (Cruel and heartless eh?).

Phish were lucky to some extent either because it was early or because no one had thought of throwing mud yet. The Levellers weren't so lucky. It could have been because they turned in a lacklustre performance, no where near as good as their bill topping show two years previous, or because they turned up wearing nice new clothes that they were pelted with mud throughout their bit. A nice dry bit

After the Levellers we wandered around as best we could, had something to eat and looked around the green fields and even found somewhere dry to sit and make a phone call home to check the kids were alright. (NB as seasoned festival go-ers we had had the sense to leave the kids with Grandma as soon as it became obvious it was going to be very wet!)

The Prodigy - honest! That evening we saw the Prodigy on the main stage. They were introduced by Denis Penis (at least I think that's how you spell it) did two songs before being forced to stop because of a technical problem. Then came the highlight of the day as Mr. P returned to entertain us with a version of Hava Negeilah. Marvellous. After that the Prodigy were quite dull and we wandered off into the night.

So that was the end of the first full day of the festival for part 2 click here