No one would believe that the sun shone down on Glastonbury’s 40th birthday party. Come 2011 things will be back to normal and the place will be a quagmire and the scorcher that was this fine year will be a dim and distant memory. With every upside there is always a downside. Dust, not as in the lowest calorie food favoured by Mrs Marjorie Dawes but the dust that comes with 175,000 walking along sun-baked paths.
There have been a few firsts this year. Having a shower, as I’ve mentioned, was one of them (I just had another one by the way and it was FANTASTIC!). The other was the Glastonbury twister. It only spun it’s magic by the Cider Bus momentarily but there is was, reaching 30 or 40ft into the sky. The dust, you see, is everywhere. It’s in the air, as demonstrated by the American style twister, but it’s on the tents and cars and vans to the delight of amateur graffiti artists who must have come from Harrow, honestly – I wish my bird was as dirty as this van – is that all they could think of! People are scrawling in the dust on tents too! The answer to the dust was welcomed in some quarters. Before the earliest of early birds arose and the latest of partyers were yet in their way home the Glastonbury behind the scenes army were spraying the main pathways with water. Throughout the day this did it’s job and kept all of the dust down but it did have a rather pleasant side effect. It generated a very small amount of that rare Glastonbury commodity, mud.
And there it was, and everyone who saw it wanted to jump in it, and I did. You know what? It was good, it was very good, I got some of that special smelling mud up the back of my legs and I felt that after 2 days on Worthy Farm I’d finally arrived. I’d arrived at the Chill ‘n Charge again, just in time to have a sneaky last minute shower and a change of clothes before I put my brilliant exit plan into action.
Procrastination has been the order of the day. My tent was in such a spectacular location, overlooking the Pyramid stage, with it’s fantastic sound system, that moving from that spot was all the more tricky each morning. By the time I’d dragged myself from my sleeping bag it took nearly all of my morning energy to drag myself through my morning rituals and back to the tent so I could sit in my neighbours chair, cos he wouldn’t be rising til the afternoon. The view, as I mentioned was fantastic. Staring across the site, The Pyramid stage and onwards to Glastonbury Tor is one that you would not sniff at if met by it each and every morning. So as you can imagine, dragging my arse away from that each day has become something to find an excuse not to do.
This morning, though, I hatched a cunning plan that would hasten my exit from the site and hopefully allow me to get home as quickly as possible without missing any last minute Glastonbury fun. The plan was to pack the tent after Slash and while listening to Ray Davis in the legends slot, then in the gap before Jack Johnson carry my stuff over to the lock up by the bus station (yes there’s a bus station here, it’s a must for every temporary town). Cunningly all I have now is a backpack to carry around until I need to head for the bus at 3.oo tomorrow morning. The only downside is that I’ve got nowhere to sleep tonight so I’ll have to fill my final hours on Worthy Farm with a variety of musical delights that will start very soon with Faithless, followed by Stevie Wonder, and tailed with the festival-tastic Levellers. I’m sure there will be a few sound systems that I can while away the remaining hours at til it’s time to get the bus back to Castle Cary and when Glastonbury 2010 will finally draw to a close.
The over arching discussion of the weekend is whether this year will be my last. One of my Glasto buddies thinks that at the youthful age of 41, maybe it’s time to think about whether a week under canvas is still the way to go. I said that it would be worth it to start saving now for the Winnebago for Glasto’s 50th in 2020! I certainly will never rule out another trip to Pilton. As grubby and messy and exhausting as it is, nothing beats it and it’s worth every single penny (thanks Mrs K for the birthday tickets this year!).
This will, no doubt, be my last wittering from Glastonbury this year so there are a few people who deserve a mention; first and foremost is my best friend in the world, my good lady wife. Not only did she buy my ticket, she’s let me spend the weekend away and looked after the kids and for that she deserves nothing but my undying respect and love, which she has already 
The mini crew here, Alexa for taking my tent and attempting to put it up but getting me the perfect pitch for the weekend and Steve C for turning up randomly in a crowd of 175,000 people at various points across the weekend always holding a can of cider. You are a legend! Penultimately, @conorfromorange for letting me utterly take the piss with the shower, charging and PC (not Mac I might add!) facilities in the Orange Chill ‘n Charge tent. Never have 4 drinks tokens lasted so long. Finally the biggest shout out goes to Mr Michael Eavis and of course Emily for putting on the greatest show on early. Barnum ain’t got nothing on you guys.
While I still feel clean I think it’s time to begin the final sprint of Glastonbury 2010, and so, I bid you a fond farewell from Worthy Farm. Thanks for putting up with this crap. Maybe we’ll do it again next year.
