What is Glastonbury? A small, quiet town in the southwestern
part of England. What is the Glastonbury Festival? Ask any Brit and you'll be flashed the
peace sign.
The annual Glastonbury Festival took over where Woodstock
left off back in 1969. It takes place on a quiet, unassuming farm in the tiny town of
Glastonbury in the southwestern part of England. It has been organized by the same man who
has kept it going nearly every year for the past 30, rain or shine. All proceeds go to
charitable organizations like Greenpeace and Habitat for Humanity, and it generally
attracts top-name bands who donate their performances to the cause.
Unlike many multi-band concerts in the states, this one
lasts about four days non-stop. The majority of attendees prefer to camp, for the full
Glastonbury communal experience. We, however, opted to stay at a cushy bed & breakfast
a few miles away instead.
So we hope you will appreciate the irony of the
"extreme culture variances" we experienced over the festival weekend. We would
spend the day on the grass in mounds of blowing garbage, and wait in line to use
disgusting port-a-potties, dance in mosh-pits, and fight our way in and out of the
festival via car, and from one band stage to the next with our bodies.
But we fell asleep and woke up in clean, quiet, serene
comfort. Sheep grazed in the back yard, a full English breakfast was served to us, we had
fresh towels, and the ability to command a hot shower with the turn of a knob.
The festival's music highlights consisted of Blondie, Bush,
Courtney Love's band Hole, The Cardigans, Barenaked Ladies, Lenny Kravitz, REM, Suzanne
Vega, Patti Smith, Marianne Faithful, and about 200 others.
It was much more than music. It was a full-fledged event.
The total number of attendees reached over 100,000 and the farmland it took place on grew
into a decent-sized town. There were convenience stores, a post office, a pharmacy,
clothing stores, and stands for all types of food and drinks. The entertainment consisted
of a circus tent, a jazz tent, a poetry tent, contortionists, polka bands, clowns,
stilt-walkers, and movies shown from midnight (when the bands ended) until 6 or 7 a.m.
There were enterprising attendees who brought in beer in to
sell. There were people who had had too much beer passed out in the parking lots and all
over the grass. There were Hare-krishnas, punkers, yuppies, hippies, new age denizens, and
a fair number of children. There were even at least 5 Americans (we met a woman from New
York.)
In previous years, Glastonbury had been known as the Annual
Mud Fest, due to heavy rains and the ensuing muddiness. We were extremely lucky that the
weather held out for the most part during this year's long weekend. We are pretty
confident that the clean comfort of a warm B & B would have won out over the
mud-sliding contests at the fair.
So we packed up and all headed back to London, where we flew
on to the Netherlands.
