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I know it isn't exactly part of the big trip, but it's what I came back for, so...
Highlights
Some of these might not seem that significant, but there were a lot of low points to make up for.
- Coldplay set - they had some really cool pyrotechnics and they really loved to rock out in a way that I hadn't expected. They lit up the top of the Pyramid Stage too. I like how many people knew Every Tear Drop Is A Waterfall, which they closed on. It's a brave act to close on a new song, but it worked for them.
- Lasers. I really like lasers.
- Some lovely food, particularly No Bones Jones, the vegetarian Indian food from the stall opposite it and the Juice Pig stall breakfasts. Also the £1 food - the samosas from the Indian veggie place, the full size pots of Yeo Valley yogurt and the flapjacks from the primary school stand.
- Singing along to Pulp's classics, even though I couldn't see them and couldn't hear many of the witty things Jarvis was saying.
- Jimmy Eat World set
- The Wombats
- Grace Petrie's set in the Leftfield - political/acoustic folk singer/songwriter I first saw there last year www.gracepetrie.com
- Ok Go - very energetic and the singer crowd surfed and held the mic out for us to sing into
- A nice man from Orange giving me a fully charged phone battery to keep for free
- The good medical treatment I received (see below)
- When the sun finally came out
Low points
- Being sucked in by the mud and falling over. Many times.
- Pulp are good and that, but we couldn't see them, couldn't hear anything Jarvis Cocker was saying and the ground was just muddy enough that if we stood still for more than 5 seconds, we'd get totally stuck and wouldn't ever be able to move again. So ended up doing a weird kind of dance to free my feet.
- When the rain got inside my rain coat and was dripping down my neck and arms during U2
- Wearing wellies for 4 days that were wet and muddy inside as well
- Injuring my leg on the first day pulling it out of mud. On the Thursday morning I limped down to the medical tent, where they were impressively efficient. I saw a doctor within 20 minutes of arriving, who then arranged for me to see a physiotherapist 10 minutes later. The physio prodded my leg in various places to see which hurt, then got me to bend it various ways, again to see which hurt. Quite a lot of things did hurt. He diagnosed me with sprained quadriceps muscles, which apparently runners frequently suffer from. He gave me some soft tissue massage, then recommended "a day on the sofa" - he must have been having a laugh. He also advised me to take painkillers and "avoid getting stuck in mud, hills and stairs." There aren't too many stairs to contend with at Glastonbury, but mud and hills are unavoidable. I was impressed with the level of medical care though, as it would take much longer to see a physiotherapist on the NHS.
- On the Sunday morning, noticing shadows circling overhead and realising that the seagulls had arrived to feast on the South West's largest rubbish dump.
- Leaving the site and seeing the mountains of rubbish
- I accidentally knocked into a woman slightly while trying to get to where my friends were, a couple of people in front, in the crowd at The Wombats. This is a perfectly normal thing to do. I said sorry, and this woman snapped b****ily "No but you're not, are you?!" which is a really un-Glastonbury attitude. I didn't say anything, just moved the hell away from her. I try to be considerate but sometimes I will end up knocking into people and there's really no need to be a b**** about it.
- Being stuck in a car park for about 3 hours not moving at all because the "designated driver" had a few too many and we had to let him sleep it off. There was nothing to eat or drink and 10 over-full portaloos, which were extremely horrible.
Random moments:
- Walking past the BBC's Lizo Mzimba standing on a roof doing a presentation to camera in the Pyramid field (I remember him as a Newsround reporter when I was a kid) and seeing a huge crowd shouting "Lizo! Lizo!" and a girl actually climbing onto the roof where he was trying to present to touch his hand. He looked rather scared by the whole thing.
- The people behind us when we were waiting for U2 had a giant inflatable penis on which they had written "Bono's cock". Everyone around were posing for photos with it. It was about 5' high. Funny considering the stories about his troublesome peacocks wasting police time as well.
- As we left the site, I saw a water point with no queue and thought I'd save myself money on bottled water by refilling a bottle. I had all my stuff with me on my back and I had finally decided to risk wearing walking boots rather than wellies. Then I saw a middle aged man walking towards the tap with a bucket and realised that behind the bucket, he was completely naked. That did put me off but I figured I could use a different tap. But then the girl who was using the water point stepped into the mud and it was nearly deep enough to come over the top of her wellies. At this point I gave up and spent £2 on a bottle of water as it seemed like the best option.
Conclusion
I've seen enough mud to last me at least the 2 years till there's another Glastonbury.
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