Glastonbury music madness in England
By www.tvnz.co.nz
Glastonbury music festival, one of the
world's biggest, opened on Wednesday
with legends such as The Who billed
alongside Las Vegas rockers The Killers
at concerts expected to be played out in
slippery mud.
Gates opened early on Wednesday and more
than 175,000 festival goers will flock
to this peaceful, rural venue in
southern England set up as a hippy haven
in the 1970s.
The event officially kicks off on Friday
for three solid days of outdoor music,
dance, market stalls, poetry, theatre
and circus entertainment, but
enthusiastic fans set up camp first.
Headliners include acts such as the
Arctic Monkeys, Modest Mouse, Kaiser
Chiefs, Manic Street Preachers, Bjork,
Bright Eyes and Arcade Fire with
classics like Iggy and the Stooges, and
newcomers Patrick Wolf and Mr Hudson and
the Library.
As well as music and performance, this
year revellers can join "The Big Kiss,"
a bid to break the Guinness World Record
for the biggest amount of people kissing
at one time.
Event organiser Jason Stockwood says:
"We're expecting to trounce the current
World Record of more than 6,400 couples,
which was set in Hungary earlier this
year, by getting 45,000 people to kiss
the person next to them."
There is a glittering and varied musical
line-up.
Mainstream sensations will play
alongside Welsh diva Shirley Bassey.
There is a rumour that rock stars Pete
Doherty and Carl Barat will reunite as
The Libertines for the festival.
So as not to disturb the festival's
neighbours, people are offered a silent
disco where dancers can keep going at
high volume all night to music from
their own personal stereos.
FASHION, ENVIRONMENT AND MUSIC
Glastonbury caters for a vast audience
of music lovers, environmentalists,
fashionistas and performers.
Baby boomers from the 1970s bring back
their kids to relive the experience and
there are family tents in quiet fields.
Camp Kerala, a luxury campsite with
tents bought from a workshop founded by
the Maharajah of Jodhpur will be
enjoying its second season.
The tents will each cost 3,000 pounds
(NZ$7,873) for the weekend and, as most
fans struggle with the mud, exclusive
guests can live in luxury with Cloudy
Bay wine from New Zealand and hot showers.
Camp Kerala stands tribute to the fact
that Glastonbury, once an alternative
hippy venue, is now part of the English
social calendar.
It has come to be known as the largest,
greenfield, music and performing arts
festival in the world.
Glamorous celebrities including model
Kate Moss and actress Keira Knightley
were previous Glastonbury-goers.
Fashion designer Stella McCartney,
daughter of legend Sir Paul McCartney,
made vests with a psychedelic rainbow to
be sold here for charity.
Festivalgoers are being encouraged to
leave their tents after the event to be
donated to charities that provide for
nations in need such as Botswana and Sri
Lanka.
Ecologically sound toilet rolls are
being distributed free.
At the first official festival in 1971,
entrance was one pound and milk was free.
There was general consensus as
festivalgoers streamed towards the event
this year that the spirit of Glastonbury
lived on and that the festival had
successfully adapted through the decades.
This year all the tickets sold out
within hours and cost about 150 pounds
(NZ$393)each with handling fees and postage.
GLASTONBURY MEANS MUD
Glastonbury to many devotees means mud
and this year's weather forecast nearly
guarantees this.
The weather predicted in Glastonbury
over the weekend is rainy which means
that the festival is almost certainly
going to be another mud bath.
One forecaster at Britain's Met Office
has predicted that the weekend will
become a "quagmire".
The last Glastonbury Festival in 2005
was one of the wettest and the
traditional British high rubber boot -
known as Wellingtons or even Wellies -
has become de rigueur.
Since then Michael Eavis, the festival
organiser, who this year was given an
award by Queen Elizabeth for his
services to music, has spent 100,000
pounds (NZ$262,664) on improving
drainage and is "almost looking forward
to the rain, in order to see the pipes
working after all this investment."
