Glastonbury 1993: photos and reflections
The editor tries to remember...

It was a hot one. And a good one!

Although the licensed attendance was again 80,000, hordes of people managed to vault over - or dig under - the 12 foot fence.

The Pyramid stage featured Midnight Oil, The Velvet Underground (on a dodgy re-union tour), Robert Plant, The Black Crowes, Alison Moyet, Hothouse Flowers, Lenny Kravitz, The Kinks, Van Morrison and Galliano with Rolf Harris putting in a novelty performance.

The N.M.E. stage served up Belly, Teenage Fan Club, Suede, Dodgy, Verve, Jamiroquai, Ozric Tentacles, Stereo MCs, The Orb, Back to the Planet, Mega City 4, Lemonheads, Spiritualized and others.

The Jazz stage included Transglobal, James Taylor Quaret, D-Influence, Roy Ayers, Omar, Urban Species and others, while the Acoustic stage put on Eddi Reader, Sharon Shannon, Lindisfarne, Blues Band, Nanci Griffith, Donovan and others.


My first view of Glastonbury at 6am. I'd spent the night patrolling the fence looking for weaknesses and opportunities to leap over. In the end we found some dodgy types trying to charge people a tenner to clamber through a muddy hole. Bugger that. One mass stampede and we were in. Woohoo!


Green Fields, early Friday morning.


Looking down towards the Pyramid stage in the glorious July sunshine.


A rumblin' rattle of didgeridoos.


Tipi field (left) and curious sculpture (right).


Tipi field, Glastonbury 1993




Another rather wobbly looking structure.


Watching the sunset from the Stone Circle.


Early morning photo with a (now) long forgotten friend in front of the Pyramid Stage.


Some knackered looking chums in front of an old-style tent.


End of the festival.



GLASTONBURY 1993 REMEMBERED (urban75 user comments)

Ianw: It was my first full length Glastonbury.

I went for one day the year before - got a call from a mate who was TM-ing for someone playing there, did I fancy a day out on the tour bus? Had a great time, obviously, so had to go back for the full deal in 93.

I remember seeing the first song of the Velvets and then deciding there were too many people and it was all too much and battling my way out of there. I remember Teenage Fanclub on the Other Stage (and for some reason, I remember the Other Stage being in a different place to where it is now....same field but on the side that the Drop The Debt bus is and the bar....can that be right?) I think they booted footballs out into the crowd.

And after that...nothing. I must have gone to see something in the next two days but I can't remember a thing.

ouchmonkey: I was there. It was a good 'un

There was a ridiculous rumour that the orb were going to levitate the stage somehow...Rolf was fantastatic but wore a particularly ugly jacket....

Velvets were great, I remember a chill moving across the field when they did 'All Tomorrow's Parties' Teenage Fanclub did indeed come on and kick a load of footballs into the crowd...

Didn't see the Kinks but I remember hearing them play 'David Watts' from a distance and it warming my heart............... Come were great, The Rockingbirds were great

Spiritualized closed on Sunday - they were amazing and had fantastic fireworks, although we were lost on acid by that point. It was, a very good year...

Strawman: That was my first Glastonbury . I remember the really really low cloud cover that year so all the flares and fireworks went up into the clouds and seemed to light the entire sky.

I had a really powerful torch that when shone straight up cast a round circle of light on the cloud cover. I was doing this for awhile, someone else must have seen me because then another circle of light appeared, then another and eventually about 6 of us from different parts of the campsite were chasing each others circles of light around.

I also remember really looking forward to the orb, getting really stoned, panicking a bit and having to leave the set half way through ..a good year that got me addicted to Glasto ever since.



Kaka Tim: I was there.

I had a loony acid journey that introduced me to the delights of street theatre in the circus field (no, seriously!). It included two lines of people holding up boards so as to make a suburban street. As you walked down it angry looking middle age types appeared from behind net curtains scowling and making disapproving noises - genius! I think i collapsed in a heap of laughing hysteria.

Suede were a let down - I wanted to like them but...

Orb and stereo Mcs were very good, the velvets disappointing and my rock chick girlfriend dragged me off to see robert plant - who turned out to be very good (despite embarrassment of said girlfriend headbanging and doing that thumbs in jeans waistband, head down dance).

Rolf was great as well!

corporate whore: Yeah, 93 - my first! Queuing back to fucking Street or somewhere, locals out in force, gazing on at the freaks. And the people in Winnebagos. Plus ca change, eh?

Friday nite was indie nite, cos I was young. Peel and Teenage Fanclub kicking footballs into the crowd. I caught one. God knows what I did with it. Lots of teenage girls in Suede tshirts getting carried out of the, erm, Fannies.

Orbus Memorious - wot a gig that was... Stero MCs on before. Ayayay. Ayayay. Did they blow the PA? Am I remembering that right?

Jazz stage in field where Greenpeace is now - Fun-da-Mental ripping it up.

Had to leave on Sunday, cos a gas canister exploded in the face of my lift. Only time I've left before Monday. P for P on as we trudged out, looking good. Had to push a Morris Minor out of the west car parks, pretty much where the new band tent is now. Uphill. They weigh a ton. Literally.

Altogether now - Those. Were. The. DaysMyFriendIHopedThey'dNeverEnd....



Blue Bauble: I was at Glastonbury in 1993. These are the first six things I remember:

Some boys shouting "alkoline" every time they heard a dealer shout "acid".

Standing outside my friend's cafe thing, listening to the Velvet Underground start 'All Tomorrow's Parties', and feeling very sad about Nico.

Rosie the Magician.

Offering to take my friend's three children, and then being volunteered by same friend to take next door's three children, to the Children's Field (one in backpack,two on each arm, one guided by remote control in front), and people shouting out, "buy a packet of condoms!"

Best of all: There was a little show across from the Theatre Tent. Some people had rigged up the facade of a house on some scaffolding. There were four floors (I think).

As some scratchy music recorded from a badly tuned radio began, a window would open on each floor in turn: there was someone waking up in the top one, someone having a bath in the next one, and so on.

After all the windows were open on each floor, the radio suddenly tuned itself into a station playing 'Let's Get It On' and the man in the kitchen put something in the oven which, after a minute or so, turned into a man, who unfolded himself from the oven and began to dance.

I'm not sure that I've described it very well, but it was the most entertaining thing to watch. I went back for each subsequent performance. On the down side, one of the younger children became convinced that people 'came from' being baked.

The Orb playing on the NME stage at night, not far from my tent. Warm and spooky at the same time. I horrified the young person across the way when I had to ask him who they were.