I don’t know why I’ve been so quiet on here of late – I can’t even claim to have been that busy. I’ve just slowed down a bit, I think.
What I am *slightly* busy doing is looking forward to the Glastonbury Festival. I am not a camper – well, I could be persuaded to go camping, but certainly not with 125,000 other people (including a fair few soap-dodgers, I suspect). I will be watching the festival from the comfort of my sofa, with easy access to a kitchen full of fresh food, and a clean and tidy bathroom with hot and cold running water. Being at Glastonbury on a sunny year would cause me to fret endlessly about getting sunburnt, but being there on a wet year is not exactly appealing (four days’ worth of mud on my clothes? No thank you.). Being there on the sofa is ideal.
I have never camped overnight at a music festival, which I know probably means I’m missing out on some wonderful shared experiences. But I just think I’d be anxious the whole time – I’m a worrier, and I’d be worried about my tent while I was away from it, and what I was missing while I was in it (and worried about creepy-crawlies of course…). I’ve had the odd day-ticket for music festivals, so I’ve seen how it goes, and I think I’m OK with leaving it at that.
Plus the advantage of watching it all on TV is that you can watch the best bits over and over again – I lost count of how many times I watched Bruce Springsteen’s set from a year or two back. And you don’t have to traipse across dozens of muddy fields to get from one stage to another.
So yes, I’m happy with the sofa. And these are the bands I’m hoping to see perform from there:
- Morrissey
- Wu-Tang Clan (out of curiosity – I can’t picture them in a field in Somerset)
- Beyonce (see above)
- Laura Marling (more appropriate to the setting, I think)
- Fleet Foxes (if I’d known ten years ago that I would end up liking folk music, I’d have been shocked)
- Jimmy Eat World
- Twilight Singers (though they’re on during the day, which I don’t think will suit their style)
- Gruff Rhys (I’m a big Super Furry Animals fan)
- Caitlin Rose (outrageously talented for one so young)
- Jenny and Johnny (whose album I have listened to more than any other this year)
If you’re watching, I hope you enjoy it. And happy solstice – it’s almost 10pm here, and still light-ish outside.
I’m with you on that one Laura. I was just wondering last night what is the appeal of festivals – and they are huge now in the social calendar in a way I’d never have predicted. Thanks for the list some of whom I haven’t heard I’ll be checking them out..