Life – Terror. Ecstasy. Fight. Denial. Flight. Failure. PAIN. Forgiveness. Reconciliation. Hope. Love. Peace – Death.
My, fourteenth, Glastonbury
I have been a Glasto Junky for just shy of 20 years (2007-2025). In what seems like the blink of an eye, another, amazing, Glastonbury Festival is over.
As always, I experienced SO much yet, missed, so much. With over 3000 performances across 100+ stages, there are always difficult, scheduling, & logistical choices made.
One day shy of a full week & now home safe. Feeling my age, still buzzing & relentlessly eating, restless sleep with crazy, vivid, dreams.
Was it worth it? Fuck yeah! In every sense!
It is often overlooked that Glastonbury is a festival for the contemporary performing arts. There is so much more to Glastonbury than ‘just’ music. Many believe it is the BBC that is, largely, responsible for shaping Glastonbury’s contemporary image as a ‘music festival’, the UK’s Coachella, the largest (live music) festival, of it’s kind, in the world?
It is certainly true, Glastonbury started as just a music festival, a celebration of a life lost too soon, Jimmy Hendrix. Times change? Michael Eavis’s influence and stewardship has slowly evolved into Emily Eavis’s? Glastonbury has transformed, some might say, unrecognisably, over the years for example Glastonbury is undeniably, now the largest Dance & EDM festival in Europe. Who’d have thought?
With so many impossible choices, there are always having to be compromises made? Who to see, who not? A wise man once said, “the secret to a ‘successful Glasto’ is to try and not do everything“? If only I had heard! My 2025 choices were made, and I (still) didn’t manage to, successfully, complete all of them. Now, reluctantly, home, time for the iPlayer. Primarily? To try to spot myself on the coverage! Sound bar on full volume, reliving what I watched and catching up on what I did not.
Just talking about Glastonbury brings tears, of joy? My happy place.
Thinking about it (soon after completion) brings involuntary crying (worse yesterday, Monday, return day 1, than today). Missing ‘the fields’, my Glastonbury faithful friends & family, the music, creativity, joy, positivity, fun & laughter, love, spontaneity, the miracles and the [totally] unexpected that only Glastonbury provides. Tuesday 1st of July (time of writing, Wed 2nd) – The painful recovery has begun.
All in all, my 14th Festival has been one of my best Glastonbury’s. 2026 being a ‘fallow year’, two years, 723 sleeps, until Glastonbury 2027. 2025 was probably my last. Sadly, also, probably, Michael Eavis’s last? 2025, highly charged, emotionally, (always is). Physically exhausting (always is), mentally and creatively stimulating? (Always is). 2025 was probably more so due to my chronic health conditions the reality that 2025 might have been my last.
We live in extremely difficult, deeply troubling times…..to experience a week of welcome (selfish)? Escapism? The opportunity to reset, to recharge the ‘hope’ & ‘optimism’ batteries. To witness, and to share, so many examples of why ‘our’ world can, and should, be a better place. Then home, the reality check? Nothing has changed, more innocent people have and are being deliberately, and needlessly slaughtered.
Bob Vylan followed by Kneecap, a crowd of 40,000+ many (most) of whom would have not known of either artist until a week or so ago? Two groups of brave artists who have put their heads above the political parapet. Park Stage area closed off, peak capacity. SAS marksmen on the roofs of bars, at a fucking festival? WTF?
In time Glastonbury 2025 will be documented as a, genuine moment in history? I am proud that I was there, that my son was there with my grandson (aged 3). Some of my closest friends were there, together, to witness, what will, eventually, be seen as the right thing to do, to be there, on the right side of history.
Thanks for Reading
#peace
Dying to Live 