Is it just me that that thinks this whole Glastonbury thing has gone too far? It's not really a proper festival anymore, just a big corporatised event for the mainly wealthy middle classes! Some people pay out 16K or more to go, some people have spent this amount and been told that the ticket firm have gone bust!

To me it's overhyped, overpriced and overrated. It's now marketed like a musical Wimbledon, it's pushed on us that it is THE MUSICAL EVENT of the year and the BBC have been sucked in too with masses of coverage.

I like my music but but I really can't get interested in this anymore.

I've been three times, last time was thirty years ago though. It seems a different beast now, definitely aimed at a different crowd. It used to be pretty edgy.

I find the best place to watch it- is on the telly. Even better if you record it, as you can then fast forward through all the celebrity backslapping that these events inevitably attract.

Or for those more hardcore fans- just set up a tent in your front room and refuse to bathe for 4 days.

A lot cheaper and you don't have to deal with any gruffies, trying to nick your wallet, tent or anything else you may own.

I've been to Donnington (Download) 4 times. It's tiring, busy, and loud but to me seems authentic. They have big crowds too but strangely enough zero publicity or TV.

Modern day Glastonbury is the BBC loving Guardianistas displaying their right on political credentials together with their flags. I bet my house there will be plenty of Palestinan flags. They all care desperately about the environment but when the festival ends they all fuck off leaving the farm in huge swamp of rubbish and discarded tents.

edit

I enjoy watching it but no desire to go - way too big for me.
Wouldn’t knock anyone for having a great time and feeling positive about the world while they’re there but let’s be honest, it’s a middle class, white festival on the whole. For all the pretence of social justice and protest, it’s pretty meaningless to people outside experiencing real poverty.

It showcases the UK to an international audience though, so not at all bad - just not as important as it thinks it is!

It’s one for the corporate calendar.

Used to be great,just about the music,nothing else.
Now it’s just another event hijacked by the self righteous & self important to spout guff.
I’d expect plenty of fwee fwee Palestine shouts from the brainwashed,right on,crowd,to look cool & fashionable.

I think that there has been a highlights program on Sky Arts for the last few years but its only on for a couple of hours.

I saw a band at The Studio a few weeks ago called Nu-castle,they are Nu-Metal Tribute show playing stuff from the 90s and 00s, they actually opened one of the tents this year on Wednesday night

If i could be arsed to go to a music festival it would be Donnington. As Infidel says, it just seems more down to earth and it seems to me, devoid of the politicization which is such a key feature of Glastonbury.

One year at Donnington ZZ Top we’re on and we pushed right down to the front, I was about 15 - 20’ in front of Billy Gibbons and saw him do an amazing guitar trick. He was playing a bluesy solo, took his guitar off mid note, held it vertically at top of the fretboard then let it slip downwards through his fretting hand thereby holding the note, which got lower in tone as the guitar slid downwards. He then played a bit more and did it again!

Prefer the
Isle of Wight festival.
Simple Minds were brilliant last year.
And James have been quality for years.


Must boom their economy big style.

Last time I went there it was on one of them brand new Hovercraft things.

possibly bottom of the list of my interest. the music, the tents and the obvious amount of the new age lefties about.

I'd rather suck off a tramp that spend my time with that lot. When I see it on telly I tend to understand Stalin's thinking when he created the gulags.

I went in the mid 80s once and had a great time.
On the Saturday night i was pissed and very hungry when i spotted a woman dressed as a cinema usherette selling ginger cake (love it) so i bought a few bits and scoffed it. I remember lying on the floor with my arms stretched out feeling the curvature of the earth. I was carried back to the tent by my mates wife. I woke the next morning feeling fine & great!