Glastonbury Festival is not only my favourite festival but the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. It’s as close to a spiritual experience as I am ever likely to have. The people, music, art, activism, excitement, crowds, inclusivity, noise, food (especially the Vegan Corn Dogs), costumes and even the walking. There isn’t a part of it that I am not completely in love with.
In saying all of the above, it’s not perfect. Firstly, I want to acknowledge how incredibly lucky I am to be able to afford this festival. At a price of £335 for a ticket, I know that there are many people who could never consider Glastonbury Festival as a viable option. Whilst there are many volunteering opportunities, and as a previous volunteer I highly recommend it because the perks are great, there are some people who aren’t able to commit. The ticket is my birthday and Christmas present from my partner, family and friends (thanks again). The fact that you can take your own booze into the festival helps out with the costs and we bring breakfast, which saves a tenner each morning. Once you’ve forked out for the ticket and fuel to get there it is possible to avoid spending too much. Pro tip, make use of the lock ups in the area you’re going to. You can store a coolbox of booze and use the lock up as a bar in exchange for a small donation.
We are all too aware of the criticism they have received regarding their scheduling of all male headliners. In the same way that I forgive the people I love when they make a mistake, I will hold them to account for their behaviour and wait to see a change next time they have the opportunity to demonstrate they have learned. Wouldn’t it be beautiful to see all woman and minority represented genders as Glasto headliners next year? In the meantime I have the LOUD WOMEN Glastonbury Special podcast to keep me going, Nice one Ngaire Ruth.
Additionally, this festival is not for the faint hearted. Over the weekend, my festie Darren Adams (also the photographer) and I walked (or danced) 57 miles, in the daytime it was blisteringly hot, so hot that the dust rises and swells your eyes. It’s an endurance test for performance art lovers but for me, it’s worth every blister, scratchy eye and aching muscle.
On with the music. We missed more on our list than we saw but what I did see is worth shouting about.
Panic Shack
It started with Panic Shack on Thursday. I know I’ve raved before about how much I love this band but I simply have to write about their performance. It epitomised perfection. Performing on the Truth stage, within the Shangri-La area, they pulled a massive crowd. Shangri-La is the epicentre of activism within the festival, showcasing a new theme for activist art work each year and the theme this year was money. Panic Shack singing ‘Cash Piggy’ was in perfect angry unison with their surroundings. I couldn’t find a video from Glasto online but I really wanted you to get the vibe so see below. Also giving us a top cover of Gay Bar (Electric Six) and I’m fairly certain a few new songs in there. I’ve emailed their PR contact to ask what they were called, I remember Sarah screaming about something being funny so why aren’t we laughing. In short, it was a massively colourful, energetic, fun and loud performance. I missed Mike Skinner’s secret set for it and I’m not even mad.
Chewy She
I got dragged to see Chewy She at the Deaf Institute in Manchester on a random Tuesday a few months ago. I can confirm she makes much more sense at Glastonbury on a Friday night. Chewy She is a french goth moth who performs popera. See what I mean? I actually loved it on the random Tuesday anyway because she is just brilliant but this time she played at the Sweet Charity Cosmic Disco. A perfect venue for this bonkers act, it was jam packed and she played to the crowd. She is funny, has the most amazing costumes, games and dance routines. To me, it’s more of a performance art piece with banging tunes mixed in. The place went off to ‘Mustard’.
Bimini
Bimini is a non-binary drag artist from London, who rose to fame when they were a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. In front of the beautiful rave tree, to the biggest crowd I have seen there (it was rammed), in the middle of a banging set of electro-pop tunes, they gave an uplifting and edifying speech on the human rights of trans and non-binary people. The atmosphere was alive with righteous rage and hope. Bimini called out the Tories for proposed changes to the Equality Act that would make trans people more vulnerable and the crowd cheered as they called for community and allies to make some noise.
Blondie
I don’t often find myself putting the words classy and punk together but those are the key words that stand out for me when I think of Debbie Harry’s performance. She is a classy punk. An absolute professional, her still strong voice stood out in Atomic. Heart of Glass, what an absolute queen. I was amazed how many songs that I already loved were hers. Watching back on iPlayer, it’s evident there was an issue with sound. It won’t be the first time I refer to this either, all the acts on the main stage other than Elton seemed to suffer the same fate. I’m sorry you weren’t represented the way you deserve Blondie because you were badass.
Lizzo
Making top line of the poster without headline status (do better, Glasto) Lizzo was undoubtedly deserving of that headline slot. Again, the sound wasn’t great watching back. The sound issue with Lizzo seemed to be the opposite of Blondie, in that you couldn’t hear her brilliant band and flute playing but you could hear her amazing voice. Actually being there, it was all perfect. Her performance was exceptional, with her jewel encrusted mic she and her dancers the Big Grrrls; she absolutely smashed the main stage. Lizzo dancing with a pride flag to Everybody’s Gay made me sob and my hand holding my pride fan got on telly. This is the most uplifting and empowering performance I’ve ever seen. I’m getting emotional now just thinking about it.
Venbee
How cool is Venbee? The answer is, very. Venbee, from Kent, was Kate Hutchinson’s one to watch list back in February of this year and she has been on my list to see ever since. I have to say this act is far better than I was hoping for. I expected her to be performing to a backing track and I was ok with that, but playing with a live band gave a raw and exciting energy. The drummer was immense. She was so charismatic and funny, clearly loving every second of being there. When doing her cover of ‘Paper Planes’ (M.I.A.) she demonstrated her versatility and really played to the crowd, doubling her audience as she encouraged people to come and party. Finishing with ‘Messy in Heaven’, hers was a stand out gig for me.
Crap, I’m already at 1200 words and I haven’t even got to Laura Mvula and Carly Rae Jepson who were both great too.
To summarise, Glasto, I love you and please do better.