Glastonbury 2005: reports and reflections

Three short reports
By various Urbanites, June 2005

J77's report:

Got there early Thursday - an hour from my house to my tent - no queues and what a scorching day it was.

After setting up and stuff went for a wander in the heat - got as far as Jazz World and sat down to drink cold cider .Then back up to the cinema field to watch Goonies

After going to bed I heard a bit of rain, put the top on my tent and went back to sleep - woke up with a bit of water around my tent but nothing too severe - starting raining again a bit so got back into tent.

Heard rumours about stuff struck with lightening and how the water supply was fucked with sewage but put them down as rumours...

After it stopped raining went for a wander - saw some mud and some bands - drank a lot of boxed wine

In some kind of order my best bands were Brian Wilson - top tunes on a sunny day - thought Kaiser Chiefs were pretty good, the end of Killers, Basement Jaxx played a blinding last set - last act is usually a bit dull - saw Razorlight - good hits, rest a bit shit - likewise with White Stripes, Ash played the same set from ten years ago - that they seem to play every year, also saw Garbage cos I couldn't be arsed to move - they lived up to their name.

Oh, and some guy called Bernard Benson - or something - was quite good. All-in-all a pretty good year for watching bands - haven't seen so many since I was a teenage indie-kid.

Forgot about the Chain! They were bloody brilliant!...and that bloke from New Order's a miserable old sod.

Other highlights have to be the aforementioned cider and cold (although very watery) budshite on the hot days - the Sun - Greenfields were nice too lots of cool sculpture stuff this year, like that giant griffin. Didn't meet any urbanites - I'd but this down to the mud rather than my general laziness.



Xanadu's report:

Oh god, memories flashing back!

For me, glastonbury started as soon as I met Lord Cam and the B at kings cross station. We got to urban camp fairly quickly, and set up straight away.

Alas, three of my mates were meant to be camping with us, but due to people telling us that the dragon field was full (when it quite blatantly wasn't), they moved one of the tents that they'd already put up, and camped in pennard's hill, while I stayed with the urbanites.

Was very happy with my decision, since I got to meet so many people, including getting to see a mini performance by DrJazzz in a hidden little coffee/tea tent. It was great meeting so many urbanites, especially at the Wednesday cider bus meet, where a rather cool urbanite gave me a pill.

Thursday was one of the best days for me. I wandered around green fields for a while, meeting up with Agent Sparrow and Crispy for my first shroom trip. After a bit of expert supervision from AS, Crispy and Cakes, then a rather unusual shroomy look at the camera obscura thingy, I went off to the cider bus meet, equipped with a bottle of red wine that had been left in my tent during the searing heat.

Alcoholic vinegar isn't very tasty Later that evening, I got bought my first ever balloon of nitrous oxide, and necked the free urbanite pill. Good times were had, dancing like I do to music in the lost vagueness.

Sunday was another class day. I decided to make an effort to stay with people, and ended up spending the day with Lord Cam and the B. When the B made a heroic attempt to help someone who was stuck in the mud, getting stuck in the mud himself, I decided that was the best decision I'd made all festival .

At the end of the night was the best event of the festival, Freestylers followed by 2 many djs. I'd love a bootleg of that performance

Arriving back was a right fucking arse. We had to queue for hours to get on the train to london, with an incident involving an overheating bus.



IHB's report:

A really good Glasto this year IMO......... Weather was interesting but the mud is kind of part of the fun and did not affect me more than usual.

Arrived on Wednesday around 4pm and got on site quickly. Grabbed a good spot just above the Dragon in the stream in the Gragon Field campsite. Such a peaceful place to camp and lots of people just chilling out on the dragon/by the stream. Tents and campsite up in a flash and off to explore.

Glasto will be remembered by most for the flash flood but Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday were such glorious sunshine and my tan is testament to that

Noteable acts were Brian Wilson, Stereo MC's, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle and Squarepusher.

The new look Dance Village was great, almost a festival within the festival and a vast improvement on the dance tent.

Only real grip was the sound at the Pyramid Stage again which has been shite for two years running and forced me to cross a lot of acts off my list.