We might as well start the blog off with a big one! This is my personal experience of Glastonbury 2024, from missing out on tickets and getting our volunteering spots to all the music at my favourite place in the world. I love reading other people’s experiences so send over any of your own.
Part 1 looks at the first few days before the main music starts from the perspective of a volunteer.
Missing out on tickets
We didn’t even know we were going to Glastonbury until the start of May! After missing out on tickets in the November sale, we held onto the hope of getting hold of them in the resale…but it wasn’t to be. For both of us it was the first time we found ourselves ticketless, and we were even more gutted than expected. The place means so much to us, we talk about it pretty much daily… it’s probably good that we both feel like that about it! The idea of not being there was unthinkable. It’s hard to describe why it’s so great and what it means but I’ll have a go in a future post.
Getting in against the odds: volunteering
Steph spent the whole day researching options as she was determined that we’d make it there one way or another. The best option was Oxfam volunteering, which we managed to get at the start of May when there was a final release of the spots that people had cancelled since the original release.
As you can imagine, the excitement was turned up to ten, and it was pretty much all we could talk about for the next 7 weeks or so, but with an added twist. It was our first time volunteering, what would it be like? What would our shifts be? What is the field like? What music will we miss?
The day the set times were released was a bit of a weird one for me. I was adamant on not getting too attached to the lineup before we went, as we didn’t know what type of shift pattern we’d get. In the end we got a perfect one, but more on that later.
Arriving early
We read everything we could find about Oxfam volunteering alongside the usual pre-Glasto excitement on places like the eFestivals forum and /r/glastonbury_festival/ on Reddit.
The most intriguing thing was that, as volunteers, you can arrive on the Monday before the festival, meaning you get to spend an extra two nights there, though you really only have to arrive by late afternoon Tuesday. With it being our favourite place in the world, we jumped at the chance to spend those extra two days there
Travelling down (by train)
As we’re travelling from up North, we usually go down the night before the festival and stay over in nearby Castle Cary. To maximise the time at the festival we did that again this time, travelling down on the Sunday.
Now travelling on the train with all your gear is NOT easy at the best of times, especially when you have this amount of stuff, as shown by this picture from the platform at Stafford station, where we had to stay an extra hour because one of the scheduled trains was full:
The picture doesn’t do it justice. We had:
- Two huge rucksacks each, with stuff attached to the side
- One massive tent
- Two high capacity duffel bags, one full of cider, beer and wine
- One small backpack
For two people this is a LOT of stuff and is not easy to carry. But it does make the week more comfortable and is worth it as you are comfortable while camping, and prepared to every eventuality especially with us volunteering. Plus the cans are gone on the way back so its a bit lighter then!
Top tip: the duffel bags were an absolute lifesaver and I’m annoyed at myself for not getting on these sooner. I used to carry Ikea bags with this stuff in and it was a nightmare, especially on trains. We had this and this. They stack well on seats or in luggage racks, stuff doesn’t fall out and you can scoop it up easier when you need to move.
Top tip: On a Sunday, the trains are busier, so this wasn’t as smooth as it is when we do this on a Tuesday. This was the first time we’d had this sort of issue. If you find yourself doing festival travel on a Sunday, either there or back, be prepared for this.
Monday: Going in
Our first day on the Monday was a real unknown. We were getting dropped off on-site, which meant there was a lot less walking than usual. This was only possible thanks to telling Oxfam that we were being dropped off, providing the licence plate of the car and getting sent a routing pass. You can’t get to the Oxfam car park without one.
It all turned out to be a breeze. We were set up by 12, registered by 1 and had some lunch in the Oxfam kitchen by 2 with one of our meal vouchers. We also had our mandatory briefing at 3pm, the first available slot, leaving us free for the rest of the day and the whole of Tuesday.
Shifts
We were very nervous about our shifts, realistically we do have music we want to see and we knew some shift patterns would’ve wiped out a lot of it.
Well when we found our shift patterns, they were as perfect as it gets. Two shifts were out the way before the main music even started on the Friday, with a Wednesday morning shift and a Thursday overnight shift. The other finished just as Coldplay came on on the Saturday, which was really the one I was most worried about missing.
After the briefing the beers came out, the timetable on the app was filled in and the excitement grew
Our huge tent
Monday
We didn’t really know what to expect on these days, we’d only ever arrived on the Wednesday morning when the festival had officially started.
Its fair to say it was way busier than expected with crew and volunteers milling about, despite some construction still going on. The thing that really got me was seeing the main campsites completely empty. Big Ground and Pennards Hill especially.
Crew bars
There are also some crew bars, which we’d never been in before. These sell slightly better drinks, different beer brands etc, and are only accessible with a crew wristband. These were buzzing on the Monday.
We roamed most of the site via those bars, and covered pretty much the whole site a lot quicker than you would when its full!
The bar at Silver Hayes, the Tow and Hitch at Arcadia and the one at Shangri-la were personal favourites. It was great to see a part of the festival we hadn’t seen before.
The Tow and Hitch crew bar, Monday night
Maceos in Block 9. Open 24 hours for crew once the festival starts, and it was mad enough in the afternoons. Can only imagine what its like overnight…
Food on Monday
Just a word of caution, none of the regular food stalls were open on Monday, so we had food at the Oxfam field, and then got pizza in one of the crew bars. At least two of them had pizza vans (the one at Arcadia and the one at Silver Hayes, which is the one we ate at). Just worth remembering if you come in early volunteering. Many more food stalls opened on Tuesday.
Tuesday
While Monday was pretty quiet, Tuesday felt more like a “festival day”, as there were a lot of volunteers and crew about. The food vans started opening mid-afternoon, though the crew bars are more for the evening and normal bars can’t open til Wednesday.
We covered a LOT of ground on this day, pretty much exploring the entire site, taking advantage of being able to walk across the empty campsites and the quieter pathways. It was also very hot that day so it was a leisurely stroll around. We ended the day with the sunset at the Park hill, without the mad crowds that there would be on Wednesday.
A familiar site for anyone who’s been before. If you haven’t, I’d recommend heading to the Park hill and watching the site turn from light to dark. Its spectacular!
It was great to take it all in without the crowds, and it felt like we weren’t cramming everything into the 5 main festival days like normal, especially with 3 shifts to complete. We also got to see them testing out the new Dragonfly at Arcadia before most people knew it had changed (though had to keep that quiet).
We had a couple of beers and then an early night due to our 6am start for the first shift.
Special mention to the Acoustic crew bar, which was really quirky and chilled on the Tuesday
Wednesday
Our first shift was ahead of gates opening, meaning we had to walk past the queue at Pedestrian Gate B on our way to our gate, which wasn’t far from the campsite (another massive bit of luck, some had an hour plus walk to their shifts). Those at the front of the queue had been there since at least 2pm on Tuesday afternoon! That’s a full 18 hours before the gates opened. They were on the beers in the sun and in great spirits when we went past early Tuesday evening, but it’s fair to say they were a little more subdued at 5.30am on Wednesday morning, though there were a couple of beers being drunk here and there.
Our shift was 6am – 2pm and it went really quickly with the rush of ticket holders. Loads more on the actual volunteering in another post, but our supervisor and team were great, they made our first time volunteering really easy.
It was really hot for this one, so we went back, had a shower and a rest and after that we still had the whole rest of Wednesday and all of Thursday up until 10pm to roam the festival, this time with everything open and all the crowd inside!
Roaming at Glastonbury
Walking aimlessly around the festival is my favourite part, other than the music. There’s so much to see and do, you can just set off in any direction and get lost in the place. No agenda, no responsibility (when off shift) and having a couple of drinks or some food of any type along the way.
Its a sense of absolute freedom and escapism, and any worries we had about losing some of that while volunteering were removed really early. We made the most of all our free time, including after shifts.
We went straight for a couple of ciders in The Brewery near the Pyramid stage, which picked us up after the early start. Look at our tired faces here! But every moment is precious at Glastonbury, its only there for a few days a year, so you just push through and get on with it.
Clay Glastonbury
We checked out the Clay Glastonbury, which is always impressive:
Terminal 1
We found the new venue Terminal 1, located in Carhenge, with the concept explained more here. We managed to check out the inside before queues took over for most of the weekend, though it was a DJ tent and our delicate heads weren’t really up for the bass at that point!
Drone show
People were told to go to the Pyramid field to get the best view of a drone show, a concept used in London at New Year but never before at Glastonbury.
It was a great use of technology, and looked great. BBC’s video is better than anything I could capture:
From there it was just roam, eat, drink and roam some more until we crashed out.
Thursday
We had to play Thursday a bit differently than normal, as we couldn’t drink through the day as we usually would due to our 10pm start for the night shift.
This actually meant we saw way more than normal. There was a lot more roaming, but this time it was mainly to check out acts that were on throughout the day, and we probably made more ground and saw more for than we would if we were ducking in and out of the bars all day. We’d also seen most of the site over the previous 3 days, so there was less pressure to see each area.
Mary Middlefield, BBC Introducing
We were walking past BBC Introducing around lunchtime and came across live music, which is definitely earlier than previous years. They’ve also changed the BBC Introducing stage to be outdoors, rather than a dark tent, and it really adds to it especially in the nice weather. They had music on from early in the day, and we came across Mary Middlefield as we went past.
Her music is hard to describe so it’s easier to just check out the BBC’s YouTube video of her ending song:
We were really impressed though and will be listening to her more. THat’s one of the best parts of Glastonbury, you can just stumble on some music.
Failed attempt to see Frank Turner
Frank Turner was doing a secret set at Strummerville, which is a tiny area at the edge of the site near the Stone Circle. It was always unlikely we’d get in, but I did think turning up an hour early would give us a chance! Turned out we needed to be much earlier, as there was zero chance of getting in! So attempt #1 to see Frank Turner was a complete failure.
Baggy Mondays, Stonebridge Bar
I’d heard about Baggy Mondays turning into a Glastonbury Thursday tradition, so we checked out a few tracks at the Stonebridge Bar in the Park.
Last time I went to it was 2011, and it was mainly Hacienda and Madchester classics. It seems to have turned into more of a general indie DJ set, which is better for us and we’ll almost definitely make an effort to get there early enough to get inside in the future. We had no chance of getting inside as it was many people deep even outside the tent!
It looks packed inside, and a great atmosphere, with everyone jumping and singing as if it was a gig. We heard some Stereophonics, Pulp and La Roux among others, which is right up our street.
The Royston Club, Bread and Roses
This band has been supporting all sorts of our types of bands and playing the sorts of festivals we’d go to for a couple of years now, but we haven’t actually had a chance to check them out yet. I was guilty of not even looking at the Thursday lineup until the day, and these jumped out at me. We knew we probably wouldn’t get in, but with Bread and Roses being such a small stage we knew we’d hear it perfectly.
They actually sounded really good, with a big crowd spilling out the tent. There were plenty of people singing every word stood on the benches outside.
They seem to inspire the sort of devotion that the likes of DMA’s, The Reytons and The K’s get from their fans, and they have a similar anthemic sound. They’re on at a couple of other festivals we’re at this summer so we’ll be watching them again, and I’m really enjoying their stuff on Spotify since we got back.
I’ve got a feeling they’ll be back on a bigger stage in the future, though they played this stage multiple times over the weekend both this year and last year so there could be some sort of personal connection there that will see them back here? Either way, I expect they’ll be getting bigger.
The Showhawk Duo, Bandstand
I love the concept of The Showhawk Duo, dance classics from the 90s and early 00s played on acoustic guitar, with the crowd singing the choruses or even music parts. I know they play multiple times a year, including on the Bandstand often and I’ve walked past this stage when they’re on and caught a song or two from a distance, but never actually got a good spot and stayed for the whole set despite intending to every year.
We were walking past the Bandstand and I checked the schedule, and there they were, starting half an hour later! So we stuck around and it was brilliant. So entertaining, and I love how they don’t play the full song for some, just the bits people know, while others are the full tracks with everyone singing the whole thing.
They played my favourite dance song, Better Off Alone:
And ended with a brilliant full rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, with the crowd providing the vocals:
After this it was dinner and get ready for the shift. But we made the most of Wednesday and Thursday despite the volunteering, which I’m very pleased about, and we saw so much more than I expected before the “official” start of the music. A great start!
