Just something that I’ve been thinking about today.

My first Glastonbury Festival:

In 1994 June I was living in a shared house, more like a squat, in the town that I lived in the West Country. A couple of travellers arrived from Ireland who a few of us knew, we got talking to one of them about what their plans were. ‘I’m heading to Glastonbury, want to come?’ I was asked. Being 18 and not really in the festival loop at this point I answered confidently yeah sure, why not, there’s nothing better to do. Before I knew it, we were hitchhiking our way the 83 miles down the motorway, with beautiful weather and great anticipation! Being a crusty and living in a somewhat squat, I owned nothing. No tent, no sleeping bag, so I made do. A blanket, a rucksack to carry the sacred blanket and a spare pair of trousers. That was my worldly goods, well, that and the 4 tabs of acid that I guarded with my life! If I was going to survive this weekend then Lsd was going to be my best buddy! We arrived, instantly the scale of the place hit me and I shrank to a tiny spot in an increasingly gathering crowd of misfits, all seeking the same freedom and party that only 200,000 other freaks could offer. Mission 1: get in! Obviously we had no tickets, other more nefarious ways to enter were needed. After some very warm cider I managed to bump the traveller girl over the fence. On leaving the site you would be given a wristband for re-entry, one down, me to go. I walked along the perimeter, stopping to listen to a guy who said he could get people in. ‘How much?’ I asked, ‘a fiver’ he replied, hmmm would you take two tabs of acid. He thought about it for a split second, of course friend! Happy that I was getting in, I was even happier when he asked me if I could roll a joint, the cider the sun and adrenaline were definitely going to make me embarrass myself if I tried, ‘no I can’t man I’m pretty drunk’. ‘No bother let’s have a pipe!’ Ooh this is turning into a great day! ‘Damn’ he exclaimed, ‘my ecstasy has gone all over my hash!’ This was back in the bad days in the U.K. before I’d ever even seen weed before, we smoked hashish, with little bits of plastic (‘you can use those as a quality guide’ Goldie Lookin Chain. Big up my Welsh massive!!) So there we are, sat on the side of a road, smoking hash and ecstasy whilst the police drove past and looked on with eyes of thunder, unwilling or unable to stop us. Now I’m full of cider, hash and ecstasy, should make jumping a 12 foot high fence easy right! Well first job was to get some paying customers to sign up, 7 or 8 people later I found myself stood next to the fence whilst my now best friend removed a rope ladder and grappling hook from his bag, one big swing and it was Go Go Go up the ladder and then a 12 foot drop down to the hallowed worthy turf below. ‘I’m in!!!!!’ I exclaimed not hanging around to see if there was anyone watching or attempting to chase. A quick glimpse of what would be home for the next 5 days and I was back outside, wristband acquired and feeling like a giddy school boy before a party! It was just outside I bump into two of my house mates, one of them proposed an exchange. My wristband for two tabs of acid and two more tabs to get back in, ‘deal’ I said without hesitation! I mean how many people jump over twice! ‘Plus can you lay me on two more tabs until we get back?’ much deliberations later we struck accord. So back round to my bestest mate in the world, over the fence, two people in, now 6 tabs in my pocket and I was ready for the weekend of my life 🥳 I honestly don’t remember much, acid days and nights combine, I remember some bands, Blind melon (Shannon hoon died not long after) Rage Against The Machine, Beastie Boys, Orbital, Oasis, Blur, The Levellers. I was definitely there…I think. I saw my first ever gun, (being kept in a drug dealer’s inside jacket pocket) there was a shooting, I was held up by two Rastafarians, I slept under the stars (until I was rescued by friends who looked after me, I must have looked awful 😂) I met people who looked like me, who thought like me, who liked the same music as me! This was probably the biggest revelation from the whole weekend, here we were, a movement, or so it felt like. I’d attended a rock against racism the year before and you could feel that same energy, the same collective of thought, bubbling from every space the festival occupies for those brief but glorious 5 days. I went again 97,98,99,2000,2002 and in 2009. Those years definitely shaped who I became as a person, as a now 40 something year old man. I hope to walk through those fields again one day, it’s 30 years this year since I fell in love with Mr Eavis’s farm, I hope in another 30 years time my ashes will be there somewhere. In the stone circle overlooking the festival. That’s where I buried the engagement ring she bought me, the only thing I had left of her. She’s still there waiting for me. Won’t be long LC x