Danny Rhodes, 2000

“2000 was the year of my first Glastonbury. My brother had been the previous year and told me I had to go so I went. We went to a lot of gigs in those days. As we lugged our stuff towards the entrance I remember the awe inspiring feeling when we reached the top of the rise and I saw the size of the place. We set up camp on the hill above the Pyramid Stage, leaving barely any room between our tents but when we returned after a jaunt somewhere, somebody had managed to squeeze their tent into the tiny space we’d left. You couldn’t move for tents.

It wasn’t all a friendly experience. I witnessed criminal gangs at work in the car parks, a mugging in broad daylight and someone tried to snatch my bag off me when I was searching for the New Tent to watch The Flaming Lips. I learned after the fact that the capacity was 100k but that over 200k attended. The overcrowding was dangerous in places. I read that they almost lost their license afterwards.

For all that, 2000 was my favourite Glastonbury, for the edge, for being a Glastonbury virgin, for the sheer sense of escape those few days afforded. I tried to capture something of that feeling in my novel, FAN, the sense of one world ending and another beginning.

I was finishing up teacher training at the time, about to embark on a real career. I remember pulling into a service station on the way home. It was about 3am on the Monday morning and I was due to start work at 830am. I was tired, dirty and hungry. I can’t imagine what I looked like or how I might have smelled. Walking into the service station and seeing ‘normal’ people felt strange, like I had discovered some secret they were not knowledgeable of. That’s the power of Glastonbury.

This picture was taken on the Saturday evening. I can’t remember who was playing on the Pyramid Stage at that moment but we went to watch Moby on the Other Stage, and so did everybody else! I lifted my brother onto my shoulders so he could take a photograph. I remember him turning around and saying something like ‘Fucking Hell, the crowd goes on for miles’. The sun was setting. Moby was playing Porcelain. Magic was in the air. It’s a moment that will live with me forever.”

Adam F, 2000

“On a very rainy year (1999 / 2000) there were a few deep muddy puddles near the John Peel tent. Over a period of time, people kept falling into them, and it ended up causing a bigger and bigger crowd to form- which waited for the next person to fall in and get covered head to toe in mud! It was so funny! Quite often the person who fell in saw the funny side and joined the crowd waiting for the next unsuspecting victim! I’ve never laughed so much!

*each time the person approached the puddle, everyone made a “build up noise” and when they fell in, there was (as in the post above) Rapturous Applause!”

Alex Grace, 2000 (pictures below)

“I’d just finished my Photography BA when I attended Glastonbury in 2000.  A friend of mine was involved with putting the tents up so we got free tickets and a camping spot backstage behind the dance tent.  

Using this staff camping pass, a fake press pass I’d bought in Thailand earlier in the year and a tall story about which publications I was shooting for, I managed to blag a Glastonbury photo pass from the on-site press office. This gave me access to the back stage areas and the photo pits to shoot the bands.  Both these things were such a blessing.  Glastonbury 2000 was the year of the out of control fence jumpers . They might as well not have put a fence up - so many extra people came in and at times it felt dangerous.  Just moving from one place to another was very stressful.  I don’t know if I would have bothered to see any bands if I didn’t have my pass as it was so busy and overcrowded. As it was I got to see a lot as I was in the pit for the first few songs and then got spewed out quite near the front.  I even remember being on the stage when Moloko was playing which was a complete buzz - being up there and looking out at all the crowds.  My friend Tracy also managed to blag her way backstage with me - it was a relief every time you went back there just to get away from the crowds and to sit and chill.  I remember being amused because they had special toilet roll printed with different band names back stage - I think we nicked one. We had such a laugh celeb-spotting and hanging out where we shouldn’t really have been.  

Alongside that, I did a series of portraits on my old Mamiya C330 - my trusty 6 x 6 rolliflex film camera.  Tracy came along with me for some of it and she interviewed people about their Glastonbury experience while I took their portraits…. We tended to navigate towards quieter areas of the festival to do this so and spent time chilling with a lot of the people we photographed. I made the project into a book afterwards. All the prints were hand-printed in the darkroom and then glued into the book and the text was individually printed at home with my little printer before I bound the thing together.  It’s a bit of a wonky book but still a really nice one-off Glastonbury memento. Some of the testimonies were great!  One girl told me that after taking hallucinogenic’s at her first Glastonbury she sold her house and bought a bus instead, a guy told me about 3 girls doing a lesbian sex show in his tent, someone else told me about a woman masturbating on a rock in the stone circle and another one told me a whole story about being a helper outside of time (? - I think he was tripping). There were funny stories and serious stories and also some darker stories about the theft and violence at that particular Glastonbury.  I got the impression some groups had broken into Glastonbury that year purely to steal.  A group of lads tried to nick my camera from round my neck at one point towards the end of the weekend.  I managed to wriggle away and they shouted after me that I was lucky they couldn’t be arsed to chase me because they’d got loads that weekend already. It was quite blatant.  All in all, although I had an amazing experience, the overcrowding and the theft did put me off Glastonbury….. I still like a festival but I always go to the smaller ones now…. I just think of Glastonbury as being this huge out of control beast that was really overwhelming !!  I don’t have any photos of myself but instead here are a selection of the favourite portraits I took there accompanied by their testimonies.”

You can check out more of Alex’s work on her website http://www.alexgracephoto.com/

Lydia Cahill, 2000

“I left home with a sleeping bag a toilet roll my wallet with £50 and a pair of salopettes and my Nokia (which stayed charged all weekend) 

David Bowie was headlining on the main stage.

The only time I've ever seen a poo that height up in a tree was at glasto. The que for the loos were so long people started using alternative places. I was so excited on day 3 when I found a clean flush toilet I rang my mum. I shared a 2 man tent with 10 people outside the dance tent! We partied hard and I lived on jumbo hot dogs!

It was super hot that year and my hayfever was awful 

Kelis played there that year too. I tried to find Tanya there, i found Ruth told her to tell Tanya I was next to a zebra tent near the dance tent,

Ruth told her I was next to a zebra near the dance tent... 

we never found each other... 

On the last day I dropped my wallet on the way out I hadn't noticed and to be honest was shattered for a couple of days, then a parcel came in the post, some guy had found it in the car park and sent it back to me, lucky my driving licence was inside and what was left of my money 

Brilliant weekend!”

Sam Wilkinson, 2000

“My second Glastonbury was 2000, bought a fake stamp off some travellers and the police saw and thought we were buying drugs! They strip searched my then boyfriend in the back of their van. They found nothing and we got in, just, as the stewards on the gate were suspicious of our stamp! We just ran in when they questioned it!”

Luis Lito, 2000

"I helped Bowie on to his tour bus after the gig. I will never forget his high heels.”

Joanna Dear, 2000 (picture below)

“My Nokia 3310 rang! I answered to Fay, who said that she had just won tickets via  Mixmag to Glastonbury 2000. I mentioned it to my new fella Carl, who said he could get in easy as he knew loads of guys who always worked the festival jibs. On the Friday morning we grabbed some new wellies on route, rang my sister, who said she'd head there too with her mate, and I drove to pick up Fay. 

Carl & Fay were on the Stellas and spliffs, while I drove, and we randomly bumped into my sister and her mate just near Amesbury. 

The plan was Fay & I would go in with the winning tickets and get bands to jib everyone else in. However, by the time we came back out, Carl had met his mate and sorted bands for all of them. 

We camped in the Green Field as usual next to a lovely older guy named Tom, who made us tea and forgave us when we fell on his tent after too much vodka.

The three of us devoured the contents of our 'goodie bags', while my sis and her mate (who were both nurses), kept us in check, as we were a bit smashed. I remember Moby playing a blinding set, but the crowd was MASSIVE. When he finished his set, my sister shuttled us to a tree, while the crowds swept past us. 

Bowie brought us pure heaven and the weekend was packed full of laughs. We had walked all over the site and Carl had big blisters, due to wearing new Rockport boots. On the Monday morning, as we lay hungover, conjuring up excuses for Fay, who was due to start a new job on the Tuesday, Carl pulled out the new wellies, which we'd forgot about as it was so sunny and said, 'oh they're like slippers'. Not been since but have fond memories of Glastonbury through the 1990's.”

Chris Robertson, 2002 (pictures below)

“You need to do something memorable in your fiftieth year and for me that included going back to Glastonbury after a thirty year absence, becoming sensible and growing up.

The first memorable thing was to fly to New England to see all those lovely trees - unfortunately we had chosen September 19th to fly out so were on one of the first planes to fly in to Boston after 9.11.2001 Although the mood was sombre we were welcomed with open arms and praised for not canceling. Perhaps something memorable but less exciting was in order.

I was fifty on 29.09.2001 so booked a ticket for the 2002 Glastonbury Festival where Rod Stewart was topping the bill. We had a friend who lived in a nearby village who offered to let me park the car on her drive in exchange for a report on the toilet and hygiene facilities - I think she was Doctor and was interested in that sort of thing, as doctors often are. So I drove down from Stroud (the other alternative town), parked up and then walked the few miles, past all the cars waiting to get in.

It was unlike anything I had seen before. I had been to a few other festivals but nothing prepares you for the vast scale of the organisation, from the parking to the camp sites, from the food facilities to the stages.  

 I am an amateur photographer and I had some fancy equipment but sense prevailed and I bought a disposable camera without realising that it only took panoramas but it produced some good images.

My recollection is that it was dry and sunny all the time and everyone was friendly and cheerful even in the very long queues for the toilets.

What do I remember most? Struggling to find my tent in the dark. Discovering the most amazing yoghurt stall where I bought breakfast every day. Seeing some amazing acts in the performance areas where the teepees were. But mainly the performances. Rod Steward rocked the place, it was absolutely packed. The only reason I got a front row place was by going there at lunchtime and not moving till everything was over.

Cold Play were amazing but I didn’t really become a fan of theirs till much later. Robert Plant played….. I don’t remember what!

The rest of the time I sat a the top of the hill, looking down and thinking “Woodstock must have been like this” - yes, dear reader, I had been a teenage hippy in the sixties.”

Brian Jones, 2002

“Naked cat women and life saving (probably between 2002 and 2005)

Sunday afternoon, Pyramid lockup. A group of women unroll a blanket groundsheet next to the entrance to the lockup, and lie down to enjoy the entertainment. Nothing unusual, except all are naked apart from the body paint that has turned them into cats.

Someone runs up: “help, someone's dying”. Fiona and Jan rush out of the lockup and are led to a man, lying on the ground, surrounded by concerned people. Jan runs back to the lockup and we radio for an ambulance, before she goes back and helps Fiona care for the man. He stops breathing, and Fiona (a trained first aider) starts mouth-to- mouth resuscitation.

The ambulance arrives, the medics take over, and load the man into the ambulance ... but there's so many people around that there's no space for the ambulance to turn round. We ask the cat women if they could get up to allow the ambulance to turn round; of course they will, the ambulance reverses into their space, turns round and drives off. Cat women resume their lounging to enjoy the act on Pyramid stage, we return to our lockup work.

On Monday, back in work, I email Festival Medical Services to enquire about the man. I'm told that he made a full recovery, and that Fiona probably saved his life, but firmly told us that neither she, nor anyone else, should attempt mouth-to-mouth resusitation without having a “barrier” between the patient and the first aider, to prevent the spread of infection from one person to the other.”

Jem Maynard Watts (aka Thomas Trilby) 2002

“Another year and my wife’s first visit. First year of the wall. For all my stories of hedonism and craziness I’d seen, it seemed safe, sparse and a bit middle aged.

The all night sound systems still happened though. And the tent robberies while you were out, or in your tent. The next morning she was ready to go home. By the end of the next day she was a convert too.

A year or two in the camper van fields. A long walk but dry in the torrentail rain. Joined everyone ogling the submerged tents. Watched someone canoe across site. Still drawn to Theatre & Circus.

And Billy Bragg in the Workers Beer Tent. Glastonbury at it’s best. Announced on a blackboard outside. Like later seeing one of Kate Tempest’s first ‘band’ sets in Leftfield. Or Fatboy Slim DJing in the middle of the markets. Or Corky and The Juice Pigs in Cabaret (what? never? look them up!)

My performing partner helped with circus workshops. Said he’d double up and do walkabout too if I could get in.

I applied. Arabella Churchill replied. I was on a standby list.

The Wednesday of the festival I got a call from Arabella saying I was in. Went down on the Thursday. Had to pick up a ticket from Shepton Mallet post office.  It had someone else’s name on it, crossed out and mine written on.

Arrived on site. Partner and kids (1 and 4 y/o). No vehicle pass. A friend scrounged a drop off pass and brings it out (quite a challenge). We are in and we are staying.

It rains. A lot.

But I perform at Glastonbury for the first time. We are pristine Victorian gents on penny farthings. My shoes are white. The mud is claggy.

We stand in a puddle and in our best English gent characters proclaim “the whole place is covered in sh*te!”

A lady with a bra made of mud stands between us. Puts her palms into the mud. Places them on our crotches leaving a perfect muddy hand print on our pristine suits. Yep, we are performing at Glastonbury.

That was the first of 11 consecutive years as a performer in the Theatre and Circus Fields, mainly on our stilt bicycles - performing as ‘The Dapper Chaps’ with my partner Steve Kaos.

We have performed at the opening party behind the mainstages meeting Emily Eavis. We have been clapped as we go through the backstage area - a fine compliment. We have sat on our bikes alongside mounted police with Tom Jones playing in the background on the Pyramid stage. We were featured in a Webisode about T&C. We have been chauffered across site on electric rickshaws clutching out stilts and costumes. We have been served tea in china cups from a tightrope walker through the window of a showman’s caravan. We have left our camping area perfectly clean and spotless.

Best of all we were once described by the Theatre & Circus team as ‘the epitome of what walkabout at Glastonbury should be”.

It really doesnt get much better than that.

It really doesnt get much better than Glastonbury.”

Stevie Holmes, 2002 (picture below)

- The 'other stage' which I think was originally the NME stage the first time I saw them - this is Orbital playing one of their epic headline sets.  This time I hadn't eaten a load of 'truffles' bought for a quid a pop out of a tray from a hippy lady strolling round the green fields, so I actually managed to take a few photos and not hallucinate I was waving a milk churn in the air.  Result!  Both the 1994 and 2002 sets were awesome. Orbital really can't be beaten.

Jonathan Harvey, 2003 (pictures below)

“That was the year only three of us went. Im sure we had a tickets for that year because the big fence went up in 2002. In 2001 it was a bad year and had a bad vibe about it. It was all good back at the Stone Circle. We loved to sit there all night long, every night!! Walking around the healing field’s and chilling at the Stones. We seen manny bands our favourite stage was the Pyramid as it always had a good shows on all day long. We would dot between the stages but the pyramid was by far the best. The size of the field was huge and the area was always packed full of people of all ages. That’s what I liked about Glastonbury there wasn’t an age group. It was for everyone of all ages. I’ve seen some great bands on that stage including Lenny Kravitz , Donovan. Jools Holland , chemical brothers, but by far the best act I seen on that stage was the Stereophonics. They blew my away and the crowd absolutely loved it. The atmosphere was electrified!! I’ll always remember standing there in that spot that day. Also you were very lucky if you could get anywhere near the front haha 😆 the field goes right back on a big bank and even if you don’t get near the front there’s always a bit space further back with spectacular views !!! In the 70 s I think an angel appeared above.”

Dave Redfearn, 2004 (pictures below)

“I always said that the first time I’d go to the Glastonbury festival that I’d be playing there...I’ve always liked a laugh and a joke. But unlike most of my other teenage dream this one came true.

In 2004 I played guitar with the a band called bodixa and we were amongst the first winners of the new Glastonbury ‘Unsigned’ competition. We were fortunate enough to be selected by a panel of festival judges including head honcho Michael Eavis himself to play a slot opening the Saturday on the Acoustic Stage.

The festival was everything I’d dreamed of and more. The sounds, the sights, the smells (good and not so good) the people and of course the weirdness. 

On arrival at the festival we headed to play a set on Radio Avalon realising 10 minutes before going on air that we’d left something rather important back in Leeds.. our acoustic guitars! Saved with the loan of instruments from another generous band we played our tunes across the festival airwaves and then soaked up a sun blessed session from a certain Mr Damien Rice who was riding high on the crest of a Glastonbury wave. 

Our set on the Saturday was magical, just before we took to the stage the heavens opened and a large crowd gathered in the acoustic tent to take shelter and provide us with a ready made audience. We enjoyed the Glastonbury rain!

We were left with the rest of our time to explore all that the festival has to offer. My personal musical highlight included Polly Jean Harvey taking to a the Pyramid Stage sporting pink stilettos and a ripped Spice Girls T-shirt made into a dress and playing an triumphant set. 

On the final night we gathered round the wicker man as the festival rumour mill had lead us to believe that a ceremonial burning would take place.

As the crowds gathered, obviously having heard the same Chinese whispers as us, chants of ‘Burn him, burn him, burn him’ filled the air. As a gaggle of festival stewards in hi-vis jackets quickly intervened instructing the mob to back off the chants turned to ‘burn the stewards, burn the stewards, burn the stewards’  Thankfully all was in good jest and no stewards nor the wicker man were harmed!

As we left the festival with feelings of exhilaration and exhaustion in equal measure it occurred to me that we’d seen and heard so much but there was so much more that we just hadn’t had the chance to investigate.”

George Beasley, 2004 (pictures below)

“In 2004 a dream came true for me - I played at Glastonbury with my friend Matt Thelwell in our band/duo 'Hazah' - we had entered the 'Glastonbury Unsigned Bands Competition' (Now the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition) really on a bit of a whim (a friend persuaded us to enter!) We'd only played 3 gigs and had a few songs I'd recorded so we sent in a demo - And only got through to the finals!! Picked out of thousands of entries we went head to head down in Pilton Working Men's club - in a battle of the bands competition in front of Michael Eavis himself and other big Glasto music guys as judges a couple of months before the festival - we didn't win our section...if we had of done we would have played on the 'Jazz World Stage' which would have been bizarre! (seeing as we'd only done 3 gigs!) Michael himself gave us our payment for playing - he said "That was brilliant lads but I think you have been put in the wrong category - have you ever been to Glastonbury before? (I said yes but never mentioned the times I got over the fence!) But we did get invited to play on The Bandstand Stage which was truly amazing experience!! Free tickets and a can of lager each was our payment - and then went back and played in 2007 and again 10 years ago for the 40th anniversary - now its Glasto's 50th and I must have realised this before but the festival is the same age as me! It was a dream come true because I'd been going to Glastonbury since I was 12 years old – first one 1982 – first with my Mum and Dad then many times over the years after that - it has a place in my heart so many exciting times there as a kid and an adult.... Happy 50th Glastonbury!! Let's look to our 51st birthday and have a proper do then.”

Holly Parsons, 2004

“My most memorable Glastonbury was 2004, which was the year I graduated. The festival was shortly before I moved out of my student flat in Bath and I went with a load of my Uni friends. Back in those days I used to litter pick for my ticket. I remember it being a muddy but not overwhelmingly muddy year. I was a practiced litter picker so got myself into the circus and theatre fields, which was basically the easy life. I think it must have been before Shangri La as they were always really clean and litter free and there were very few people milling around at 5/6am when we started work. I went to the festival with £80 in my pocket...and came back with £250 for a number of reasons. Firstly, staff catering. Man that food is good! Secondly, found a clear plastic hole punched wallet - the ones you put in a folder when you are at school - half full of weed, which kept me and the crew going for a long time after glasto. Thirdly, just picked up full unopened cans of cider / beer that people had dropped and never found again which were perfectly good after a rinse. Finally, on the Monday we were helping another crew clear up the Glade and a friend found £700 in rolled up and stuffed bank change bag - the police were with us but they didn’t want anything to do with it so we students went home a bit richer! It was a good year. I have no idea which bands I saw (apart from Oasis, but didn’t hang around for long as we were really stoned and the crowd was a bit intense). I think that was also the year that I got drunk on Raspberry wine and a bit stoned and did some pretty epic mr soft dancing to Toots with my mate Simon. I spent quite a bit of time on my own milling around and getting lifts from the big barrel bin guys along the railway track from ‘work’ back to my tent which was pitched at Pennards. It was fine because I knew so many people at the festival (mainly working and so sticking to one spot) that I bumped into friends all the time. That is the year I well and truly fell in love with Glastonbury. I loved it before that, but by 2004 I knew that place like the back of my hand and I felt like I was home. ”

Sophie Axeford-Hawkins, 2004

“My first Glastonbury was about 2004, it was a muddy one and I only had a pair of converse - I had the best week, coming home with basically blocks of magic Glastonbury mud for shoes - I couldnt bear to clean them - they got dipped into varnish and I planned to get them a pillar and add them to an exhibition - as a kind of trophy ‘artwork’ to the amazing time we had had! (I still have them somewhere in a mum house, I will dig them out and will add a pic!) Been going ever since, and on the amazing crew with Croissant Neuf.”

Alice Johansson, 2005

“The two girls in the tent are me and my bestie Kellie, we got VIP through working as makeup artists so got to party with some celebs! As you can see in the top picture Jack Osbourne. Epic Epic time filled with mud and sunburn. It was when Kylie Minogue pulled out due to her breast cancer diagnosis and Basement Jax took her spot and played her hits their way. We treasure these memories especially now when we can’t go! Glasto 2005 thanks for the most unimaginable epic party! ”

Gilly Baker, 2005

“Running a team of campsite stewards, our chat to new members was 'it's the best job on site! You just have to be nice to people - security do the hardcore stuff and you have to be helpful.' That wasn't the full story in 2005. It rained and rained and RAINED and new rivers appeared overnight, going straight through established campsites. Lightning took out the power and there was no back-up available so campsite crew were on our own. My team had a frantic request from a passer-by - 'there's an ice-cream van just up the hill and it's beginning to slide ...'. We went to see what we could do. Water was pouring out from the top of the wheel arches and the owner was frantically pointing at the junction in the road where he was likely to end up. There was a flattened, submerged tent right in his path. His fear was that his van would slip and pass over the tent, crushing anyone inside. We explained that anyone in there would already have drowned but he couldn't accept that so ... I took one for the team and waded into thigh-deep water. Pressing down on the top of the tent to check for body-shaped contents was something I had never expected to have to do, but luckily the occupants had escaped. In fact nobody drowned that year, which was unbelievable under the circumstances. As a footnote, by the end of the weekend volunteers crews, cold and exhausted, were deserting in droves and at one point there were no marshals at all along the railway line. This resulted in campsite management 'borrowing' remaining crew to fill in the gaps, leaving our Sunday overnight team with just two people, which isn't a good idea in case one of them needed a loo break! So I ended up by doing 3 shifts in a row, then staying on to break up the camp. 15 years ago and I was younger then ... wouldn't want to do it now. But it was still an epic year!”

Brian Jones, 2005

“Pyramid lockup, Thursday morning, following some heavy overnight rain ... five very wet, very muddy young women walk up. They'd arrived yesterday, chosen a nice corner of a field, set up their tents, walked around enjoying the vibe, had some food, gone to sleep, a lovely first festival day. They were woken up by water soaking through their sleeping bags, and stewards telling everyone to leave their tents; a culvert had become blocked and that camping field was flooded, in the worst places - where their tent was - more than 4 foot deep, only the tops of tents visible above the water.

For three of the women, this was their first Glastonbury; the other two had come the previous year, and so had booked their rucksacks into the lockup - full of clean, dry clothes and some towels ! Once we returned their bags, the next problem dawned on them - they need to completely change all their clothes, but they're in a field with no shelter. They asked if they could come in to change, but no non-lockup crew are allowed into the lockups.

However ... that year, the fence inside the lockup marquee hadn't been put up very well, and there was a triangular corner space which was inside the marquee (and so out of sight of the public) but outside our security fence. So we said if they could squeeze into that space then they could change there, which is what happened. We told our crew not to look as the five women stripped, dried themselves, then dressed using a mixture of the clothes available. They then stuffed their wet clothes into a bin bag in one of the rucksacks, booked both rucksacks back into the lockup, and went on their way, clean and dry.

They came back on the Friday; the culvert had been unblocked, the water all drained away, and stewards had accompanied them to their tents where they had collected all their money and other stuff - nothing had gone missing or been stolen. They came back to thank us: they said that if they hadn't been able to change into dry clean clothes, they would have all gone home, before the festival had even really started.”

Madeline Eaton 2005

“I grew up in Winchester and always heard stories of the cooler kids from school in the 90s going up to Glastonbury to jump the fence. In my twenties,  I finally had a tickets to go! Weeks before I was commissioned to make a documentary about volunteers behind the scenes of the festival. So my ticket wouldn’t quite go to waste but I would be working rather than unwinding and celebrating with friends.

I borrowed my mums wellies which despite being an amazing colour turned out to have zero grip and I spent a lot of time falling ungracefully in puddles and mud slicks. The people behind the stories seems to be on opposite sides of the immense tented valley of Worthy Farm and I’d be lugging tripod and camera kit up dale and down valley to see Greenpeace volunteers in the Greenfields, Oxfam stewards on the gates and a nurse in the first aid tent.

Whenever I asked a glastonbury old timer which way to go they would say ‘Seek and ye shall find!’ Amazing idea and principle but bit tricky when when you are there working. I had to wait until the next year for that when I had a ticket again and the film had been made. That year I did seek, I some time alone getting a bit lost to truly take it all in!”

David McLenachan, 2005

Most of our group were going to Glastonbury before we all met up in 2005. Early that year, on the original festival message boards, there was a post topic headed 'Any Old Gits going alone' from a Sara in Devon. Over a period of a few weeks 30 or 40 unconnected people joined the discussion and we all agreed to camp together for the 2005 festival. There was no connection between any of us except for an interest in Glastonbury and most of us were otherwise intending to go alone. We weren't old in those days, but we weren't youthful either!

On the first day of the festival, it would be fair to say there was some trepidation amongst us all, as no one had yet met except for chatting online. We had chosen after much discussion to camp on Big Ground and we gradually convened there after the gates opened. It turned out many had much in common, from music tastes to a large contingent of nurses. We were a truly random geographical group, from all four corners of the UK. 

This group turned out to be still together, still going to festivals and gigs, 16 years later, as we all got on tremendously well. There was the advantage for the gregarious to explore the festival in a group, or for those who wished to do their own thing during the day no social pressure, only the freedom to do whatever we wished to do. 

Over the years the group expanded, with friends of friends, the addition of family, and around 2008-9 we had our biggest group camping in the same spot, around 35 people in one ever-growing tented encampment. The 'Old Git' moniker wasn't really accurate as we had an age range from young teenagers to 60 year olds. During the years there were romances, a couple of weddings, a couple of divorces, and luckily the core group remained together to this day. There's a big advantage in working in a large group to gain tickets every year.

Especially in the early years, we entertained ourselves by dressing up. The first time was as divas for Shirley Bassey, and some of our best outfits (Amy Winehouse) gained some press publicity. Others, such as the simple design of letters proved to be so flexible we had endless fun making all sorts of words, appropriate and some less so!

 One claim to fame was one year when we were messing about late one night and we were wondering where one of the gang, Alan, was. So we collectively shouted for 'Allaaaan' which spread through the neighbours and beyond, we could hear the call from far and wide. Such was the impact, the cry was heard in several subsequent festivals. Today we are planning for Bearded Theory in September 2021 and the return to Glastonbury in 2022.

So this is to all the gang, but I'll forget some names: Tilly, Neil, Jon, Simone, Emjem, Sara, Lin, Des, Terry, Nix, Brian, Emma, Nicky, Jessica, Matthew, Tom, Theo, Tim, Gord, Andrew, Alan, Sharon, Sally, Dod, Hazel, Glenn, Steve, Steve, Steve & Steve, Billy, Chris, Louise, Ben, Robert, Julia, Anne, Rachel, Joe, John, Barney, Alice, Matt, Connor, Katie, David, and anyone else I've omitted....

Alexander Wagner, 2007

“The first Glastonbury I ever attended was 2007. The headliners that year were The Killers, Arctic Monkeys (fresh off their debut album) and The Who. It was a baptism of fire (or mud) I suppose. It was one of the wettest, muddiest years in Glastonbury history and I was part of the recycling crew. Looking back, I really don't know where I found the energy to get up at the crack of dawn each day and trudge out into the unrelenting downpour to pick up rubbish for a few hours and then manage to stay up all day to ensure I never missed an artist I wanted to see. Nowadays, at 37 years old and a parent to a toddler I find myself tired at 9pm! Not very rock n' roll is it?
I will always cherish the memories of my first year - some of which are below

- Having to buy wellies on site because I hadn't come prepared. Very naïve of me.

- releasing and seeing all the sky lanterns light up the night sky on that first night... pure joy.

- Eating some sort of chocolate / banana concoction presented to me by what I can only describe as a little bearded druid. I didn't even ask any questions... I just took it and ate it! (I hope it was chocolate)

- Falling in the mud countless times during Kasabian as we danced like a group possessed 

- Not looking where I was going and bumping into Kate Moss (who had just performed on stage with Babyshambles) and nearly sending her into the mud. Her security was on me like a shot! 

- Being part of the muddiest dance off in front of the jazz world stage

- My first experience of silent disco - quite a mind trip 

- The lights, sights and sounds as i witnessed my first ever performance by The Chemical Brothers - wow just wow

- Being right at the front waiting for The Who and witnessing countless people resort to peeing in cups and bottles so as to not lose their prime spots. 

- The many many strangers I came across who for that 4/5 day window practically become your best mates. 

Glastonbury is special. You don't need me to tell you that. Even people that haven't had the pleasure of attending know the power of that place. 

Feeling that energy, that anticipation as you stare up at the Pyramid stage, that slow rumble before an artist emerges and then the surge and roar of the crowd is euphoria incapsulated. 

I attended the following year (as a normal attendee and not part of the recycling crew) - 2008 was the year Jay-Z made history. That was pretty special too. 

Attached are some pictures of me and a couple I took during Glastonbury 2007.”

Dave Saunders, 2007

“My first Glastonbury was 2007. The pictures are from the Wednesday night... it was actually very nice weather...before the rains came. Despite the awful mud I absolutely loved it. Being from Yorkshire I hadn’t ventured this far south to a festival yet but had been to the Leeds part of Leeds/Reading lots of times and considered myself a bit of a festival veteran. Glastonbury absolutely blew me away though. Over the years festivals were becoming less about watching the bands I was a rabid devotee of and more about finding out about and trying new things and so I knew that this was the festival for me from now on (I’ve only missed one since then).

A big highlight for me was meeting up with some friends from uni and then, by chance, bumping into more really close friends from uni who we didn’t know were coming (they were both teachers and had bunked off to be there so had kept quiet about going). We all watched Arcade Fire together and it was magic.

We had to leave on the Sunday night so set off after The Who... well I tried. My car broke down in the mud. It quickly became clear there would be no rescue until the sun came up in 6 hours. I decided it wait it out alone so friends from my car squeezed into others and I tried to get comfortable. After a few minutes I realised that wasn’t going to happen so I got my waterproofs on and spent the night helping to push cars stuck in the mud. I think I earned a lot of Glastonbury karma that night.

Glastonbury wasn’t the only reason I moved to Somerset 3 years ago but it certainly helped.”

Chloe Akasha, 2007

“I last went to Glastonbury Festival in 2007. It was a mad one. I was 11 years old, and in year seven.. what a time to be alive! We drove towards the A14 from home - the arse end of nowhere in the depths of Cambridgeshires’ Fenland. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked out the window of our white Transit, and saw the festival site from the main road. It was like an otherworldly, carnivalesque, circus-inspired dreamscape. The colours are so vivid in my memory. The mass of energy was circling the blue sky above. I was in awe.

My mum is very severely physically disabled, and wheelchair bound, but being an old rocker and a Hell’s Angel, she’s as tough as old boots! One evening, me and mum went to see Amy Winehouse’s set, just before before Beyoncé and Jay-Z headlined. 

The rain was torrential, and we were in a big bogged-down lake of thick mud. Everything came to a standstill. My mums wheelchair was stuck and sinking.

I felt my sunflower wellies sinking down, and I couldn’t pull my tiny feet out. One woman picked me (and my wellies) up, and stuck me on her shoulders, whilst a ten-strong army of fucking warriors picked my mum,  and her heavy electric wheelchair up, and lifted her over their heads as they struggled through the thick of it and carried her to safety. The lady carried me, following beside my goddess mum, as I watched her chariot fly over the crowd, with people cheering the kind, helpful hippies and party-goers on. People really do help the people.  

Mum, being properly headstrong and stubborn, fucked off on her own to watch a band, concluding her festival experience, whilst me and my stepdad, Steve, went to dance to Groove Armada and Fat Boy Slim. We raved our heads off! We saw the festival end for the year with a gorgeous incandescent display of Chinese lanterns, illuminating the darkness of night. I’ll never forget those days. Glastonbury is a truly beautiful place. There is nowhere like it on earth.”

Henrietta Hollins, 2007 (pictures below)

“I first went to Glastonbury in 1997 when it was super wet and muddy. I was 16 and wasn’t that bothered by it. 10 years later when I returned in 2007, I was really bothered by it.

I went with 3 of my closest girls from Uni. I remember seeing Kaiser Chiefs , The Chemical Brothers and Fat Freddys Drop on the Sunday. After the music finished Christy swore she knew the site like the back of her hand , so dragged us from A to B looking for booze & more music in the rain. You know when you just want to be horizontal and dry but keep getting dragged around because we kept getting lost looking for friends! I hadn’t realised just how big the site was. At 4 am we finally got back to our waterlogged tent and attempted to curl up together in one corner.  Of course that didn’t work so we fled the site in the early hours of Monday morning feeling exhausted and deflated. This is a photo of the Pyramid stage on that hazy grey morning. As we drove down country lanes in a Land Rover we encountered another. Pulling over to one side, we were greeted by Michael Eavis as he went by. That perked us up!”

Katie Brandwood, 2007 (diary extracts, aged 20)

“We basically had the same weather for the whole of Glasto - rain in the morning and then clearer skies and a bit of sun later in the day. It was quite frustrating actually. I have little memory of today. I do remember going to the circus field and finding that they had a mini Glasto with loads of little clay figures in front of the mini Pyramid Stage and then finding a tent there we could make our own for free. We all did self portraits, it was hilarious.”

“Tonight we went to The Park, a new area, and Beth and Lizzie kicked off a spontaneous rave in front of Park Stage. They put Faithless on and it was amazing. Saw This Is England in the middle of the night tonight - wonderful.” 

“Met up with the rest of the family and then went to see Tony Benn in Leftfield. He was incredible and his talk brought tears to my eyes. After lunch T and me went to the Healing Fields and relaxed in a chai tent. T had her palms read and was told she needed to drink more water. Then it was time for the legend that is Shirley Bassey! Wow she was amazing - I loved her dress! It was very ‘her’.”

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Ellen Daugherty, 2007

“Thick sludge climbed up my wellies and onto my rainbow socks. My eyes widened as drunken grown-ups dived head first into a pool of chocolate milk. I dawdled a few metres behind my dad, held back by beige cement threatening to swallow my wellies whole. I had to be careful: it would gobble me up too if it had the chance. I clutched his lukewarm cider as he sifted through the programme. Mesmerised by the swelling foam, I took a quick sniff. Sweet, fermented fumes filled my nostrils with a new sensation. I took an ambitious swig — only to instantly splutter it everywhere. The golden syrup had deceived me: I begrudgingly passed it back to my dad, who was chuckling at my naivety. “It’s character building” he reiterated, and we set off into the muddy wasteland. He turned to me in glee, finally, his rogue parenting style had paid off. I craned my head as we approached the tent. Music boomed, filling my chest with a song I didn’t recognise. I clambered onto his shoulders and grinned at the never-ending ocean of people. We waded into the crowd together. Immediately submerged by dancing, moshing, swaying strangers.”

Ellen Daugherty, 2008

“Shit, not now.” Looking down at the red mess between my legs, I took a sharp inhale whilst my brain caught up to what was happening. Hovering over the hole, my thighs ached from the weight of my upper body. I managed to hold myself up thinking about the horrors that lay beneath. Starting to sweat profusely, I tried to figure out what to do. Deep base pounded from a nearby tent, the sound travelled through the ground and became a vibration that could be felt in the shaking walls. Beyond the tin box, standing in the mud and rain, were my company for the weekend. Two men, well, a man and a boy. They stood, absent-mindedly, without a care in the world, unaware of the river of hell that gushed down my legs and had started to pool in my pink, flowery wellies. Now panicking, I rustled around in my pockets trying to find something that would better the situation. Luckily the back pocket of my waterproof trousers granted me with the most precious of gifts: an individual pack of Kleenex. Balsam, but that didn’t bother me. Funnily enough, I had bigger problems. Like the onslaught of womanhood in the middle of a muddy field in Glastonbury, with only two clueless males to confide in. The tin box started to shake as a ruckus of drunken twenty-somethings spilled into the toilet cubicles (toilet being a generous name for a hole cut into a metal ledge above a septic tank). I sat frozen as I heard them shouting for toilet paper and knocking over beers that they’d clumsily plonked on the foul floor. Once they’d dissipated and I’d finished cleaning up what can only be described as a crime scene, I finally opened the cubicle door. “You took your time!” my cousin jeered. The combination of my sheet-white face illuminated by the floodlights that surrounded the block of toilets spooked them into not prodding me any more. Barely uttering a word, I grabbed the hand sanitiser out of the side of my Dad’s rucksack and stormed off. Into the abyss of tents, mud and trampled beer cans, and to our 3-man tent where I called my mum and cried before the boys caught up with me.”

Brian Jones, 2009

“In the early days of the property lockups, we used to camp up near the farmhouse where the welfare and lost property services are based; consequently, we also had access to the flush toilets there. Jan was on the way to the toilet when a woman approached one of the security team, but before the woman could say anything the security officer said “No, sorry, there's no news yet”, and the woman walked off.

Jan and that security officer were already on friendly terms, so after the woman departed, Jan was told the entire story:

This woman had turned up to the festival with all her gear and her two pet chinchillas (despite all the publicity saying no animals allowed). When she was told that she couldn't bring her chinchillas in, she argued with the gate staff, but they stood firm: pets aren't allowed, the festival isn't a suitable environment for pets, she needed to find someone at home to take care of them whilst she is at the festival.

She walked away from the gate, but instead of following their advice, she re-arranged her stuff to create enough room in one bag for both chinchillas, then returned to the gate and was admitted to the site. She then tried to find her friends, walking for hours, carrying all her gear. Eventually, exhausted, she sat down in the sun for a rest, and fell asleep.

When she woke up, her bags were missing - including the bag containing the chinchillas. She was very distressed, went up to the farm house, reported what had happened, and had been calling in every couple of hours since then to see if her chinchillas had been found.

They never were found. It must have been a huge shock when whoever took the bags opened the zip and two chinchillas jumped out ... It was never recorded what sex the chinchillas were, but for a couple of years we fully expected to see the farm overrun with chinchillas.”

Katie Brandwood, 2009 (diary extracts, aged 22)

“I watched Animal Collective headline and then met Mum and Dad and went to Shangri-La. So I thought earlier was amazing. In the night time it became a place that I find is impossible to describe to people fully, it was just so unbelievably awesome. It was based on Bladerunner and behind the walls we saw earlier were all these smokey alleyways, with neon lights, signs, strange objects in shop windows, weird people, and loads and loads of little rooms containing DJs, bars, karaoke, musicians, naked mermaids, all sorts of magical things. We went in one with a DJ and then noticed a door at the back that wasn’t obvious at all. We went through and found ourselves in a country pub selling cider and with an open air garden. Drugs become completely unnecessary at this festival!”

 “We had a wander round the circus area and got tea from the god-like Tea Ladies (Dad thinks that all is well in the world as long as the Tea Ladies are still at Glastonbury!).”

“Then we bought probiotic yoghurt and went to watch Madness and danced like crazy in a field. That’s mad! They were also amazing and insanely good fun. I think it was impossible to not dance.”

“We had a nice chat with the people next to us. One of them said, “Blur have cancelled, Michael Jackson’s playing instead” and Dad cracked an amazing joke like, “well he is the Messiah, and on the third day he rises…”. Anyway, Blur hadn’t cancelled and came out to do the best headline gig on Pyramid Stage I’ve seen since Muse. And the crowd was as wonderful as the music itself. Everyone was singing along to all the songs, sometimes continuing once Damon Albarn had finished. Like after Tender, the whole crowd would sing, “Oh my baby, oh my baby, oh why? Oh my…” at random intervals and at one point Damon A got so overwhelmed by it all he sat down and started crying.”

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Brian Jones, 2009

“Pyramid lockup, Sunday midnight to 8am shift: as we're watching the litter pickers, another sight ... a couple celebrating a memorable festival by having sex under the tree, woman on top, of course. My wife and I prevented any of our younger crew from taking photos!”