The Weekly DiScussion: is Glastonbury really the greatest show on Earth?

and landing in front of two horse mounted security guards. I panicked and swiftly jumped over the second fence - only to land in a pool of sewage. After that I smelt so bad that my friends disowned me and I had to seek refuge amongst the crusties, who took me in like an old friend.

Those were the days!

I've just remembered having some fantastic comedownsex on the tuesday morning after last time! we didn't leave until late tuesday eve, any other festival would have kicked us out on the monday, but that place goes on for weeks.

also my first sunrise at the stone circle was pretty special. and i have many other fantastic memories that i may or may not have made up after the events.

...has cemented the festival as the 'greatest show on earth' for many many years to come. Nothing can top that festival weekend... except maybe ATP.

really.

All Tomorrow's Parties is the best festival experience currently available.

Thank you.

Trufacts x

You, and your band, totally rock.

Has totally cleared the field for me.

Accomodation - an apartment just of Las Ramblas.
The Bands - loads of great stuff, wall to wall music and i only saw once bad act.
The Experience/Non-Music stuff - BARCELONA!!!!

easy win for the Catalans.

The main stages aren't all that but otherwise the lineup is fine this year. I mean are there really that many DiS-friendly major festival headline bands anyway? This is my first (I went to reading all through the 90s and ATP from 2002). Although I hate people that can't grasp the idea that you can have fun at another festival the one thing that Glasto has on the rest is the sheer number of stages. So you don't like anything you know on the lineup? Go and see something new, there are some quality African acts amongst other things. What Mr Dobson? You only like schmindie guitar bands and Battles? Maybe it's you that doesn't really like music.

yeah, some things have changed pre- and post- fence. When I went in the pre-fence days the atmosphere was different, but not appreciably to make it not worth the sodding hassle each year to get a ticket. And I won't argue that certain parts of the site have turned into a paean to hideous middle-class pseudo-deviant behaviour (Lost Vagueness is a haven of cunts nowadays) but on the whole the last two I went to (post- fence) were just as good, if not better than the pre-fence days.

And the lineup on the main stages isn't all that astonishing, but we still get enough bands who'll probably still do something special enough to make everyone there feel ridiculously lucky to just...y'know...be there. And I'm aware of how hippy that sounds, but it's true. Glastonbury is still the most inclusive, open place I have been in terms of music festivals in this country and yeah, there are some cocks there but the number in comparison to other events is minor.

Wireless? Are you serious? As a genuine competitor? Whatever you say about Glasto, and yeah it's become slightly more commoditised in recent years but it's still nowhere near the corporate clusterfuck of other UK festivals. And yeah, there's usually a significant risk of Geldof, but the site is so massive that it's possible to not even see the cunt.

And yeah, the Kooks are playing, but so are Arcade Fire. For the Killers there's Squarepusher, for the Kaiser Chiefs you've got Bloc Party, for the Arctic Monkeys there's Beirut. The main stage has got appreciably worse, but in inverse relation to the other stages, which never fail to be brilliant.

Hell, I can't wait.

I wish I'd gone to ATP.

Grim looking miners stomping around the field in hobnail boots with buckets, collecting for their strike. Greenham Common woman called Jane ranting into the mike on the Pyramid stage about US air bases. Weather Report roadies pouring oil down the tin sheets at the front of the stage, to stop the expected stage storming frenzy, while all sixty of us sitting down in front of the stage took the piss out of them

Michael 'ungratious' Eavis... ?

The lineup is very middle of the road Indie. Just because you can doesn't mean you should (think spiderman with great power comes great responsibility). I seem to remember there are only about 5 bands on that main bill that aren't 'new bands'. How many times has the Killers played there?

You are right - Glastonbury isn't a festival about bands and for that very reason it would be wonderful to see some different talent brought in? Taraf De Haidouks? Tom Waits? Gotan Project? Manu Chao ? It currently looks like V festival.

'The organisers aren't after emptying your pockets like other festivals?' Aren't they? Are drinks any cheaper? Are the tickets any cheaper? Is there any less corporate sponsorship (wireless doesn't count). The answer is actually no.

Their charity giving isn't actually that much compared to other festivals either? But they do get a band bill in cheap probably compares to about 1 headliner of V or Reading.

Eavis' talks the talk and they shout it and cuss all else. But they don't acutally walk it - protest to much - which is especially unfair when those 'all else' are the ones sorting the toilets.

But they do put on a great party. Just wish Michael would be a little less of a grumpy old c**t about it.

is Glastonbury all that?
Nah- but it is all twat.

'Whoah I work in the city but still like rock n roll you know- I'll go to Glastonbury and watch something like cypress Hill and shout 'put you mutherfuckin guns in the air' and then return to my suit, well paid office and nice town pad, safe in the knowledge I'm a fucking tourist'
A festival for fools.

He did thank all his team today and said the CBE was for his team and punters... Maybe he was reading this post?

is a very valid point. I've fed up of jebends boasting about going to Reading/Download/Glasto after they've just stopped listening to the Kooks/Orson/James Morrison on their pink iPod minis.

Music lovers? Nuts to that really.

Not sure about Vetiver and Battles but the rest have all definitely played Glastonbury. And face it, who apart from people that visit this site actually give a shit about either of them (Vetiver were the dullest act in an otherwise brilliant day at the Banhart ATP).

trying to list bands that would have made the line up less Jo Wiley, that are nearby at the moment and have chosen to play other festivals.

I went in 2005 and it was horrible.

First, my money got stolen so I felt totally lost all weekend. The people who went with - bar one - decided it was time to ruin their body with drugs and me being the not druggie type, just sat there being bored.

I didn't dare venture off because everywhere was so big and everywhere was so muddy, which made me worry and then I had panick attacks.

I spent all the weekend in my tent crying with my friend who was also in the same situation as me. If it wasn't for her, I would have packed my bags on the Friday.

Yes, it is the big festival of the year and it's now become a UK milestone, but it's just not for some people.

I like bands and being able to stage hop without fear of drowning or getting lost. I'm doing Leeds for the last time this year and then, it's time to be a grown up.