The opening days of Glastonbury, until the main acts take to the stage from Friday onwards, can often feel like a liminal period of waiting. But after the three-year delay to this year’s Glastonbury, it felt like the waiting was over from Wednesday. Here’s a snapshot of some of the (half-drunken) revelry that has already descended on Worthy Farm in the opening two days.
ARRIVAL AGAINST ALL ODDS: There may have been train strikes, but that wasn’t going to stop festival-goers lucky enough to have a ticket to this year’s Glasto from showing up. And that they did. With only five of the eleven trains that normally run between London Paddington and Castle Cary, near Glastonbury, running, it’s a small miracle the festival has been largely unaffected by the strikes. (Photo: Leon Neal).
YES: Last week, a couple got engaged at Parklife after the question was popped onstage, and received lifetime passes to the festival. I wonder if the same will happen for this happy couple, after Ed proposed to Chelsea in the Glastonbury sunshine. Let’s make it happen.
LOO QUEUE: Just as the sun will rise, so too will the loo situation at a festival as big as Glastonbury lead to an inevitable pile-up of people waiting to use the toilets. A small price to pay, I guess.
STARTER FOR TENTS: Many Glasto-goers will likely be heading down today (Friday), whilst those who go earlier get to call dibs on where to place their tents. The rest? Well, beggars can’t be choosers.
BOOGIE AT BABYLON: One of the first venues at the festival to start playing music, Babylon Uprising welcomes its first merry cohort of ravers.
MORE REVELRY: Smiles all-round. Simple as that.
EAT, SLEEP, RAVE, MEDITATE: Maybe to pre-empt the general wear-and-tear that accompanies a festival, here are some people taking part in a group meditation in a tent in the Healing Fields. Word has it the Worthy Farm site is on a leyline, making it an interesting (if a little eerie) place to connect to one’s spirit.
AI-DA GOES TO GLASTONBURY: A.I. artist Ai-Da is one of the few interesting ‘extra’ acts in attendance. The artificially intelligent robot has in fact done some drawings of all the headline acts.
SUNSET AND SOUNDS: Nothing beats a sunset at Glastonbury. (Well, few things do – just to be real about it). Rain is expected to hit the festival at some point today, so this is an image of people soaking up the sun before it does.
MEL C, GLASTONBURY: Step aside, Steve Aoki, Mel C is here for a set replete with bangers. She began her set with asking, “Do we have any Spice Girls fans in the house?” Duh. Of course there were. And her sixty-minute set which included Spice Girls tunes proved it.
