Saturday 5 July 2014

24 Hours at Glastonbury Festival

Last weekend me and my sister-in-law managed to get 4 and half hours sleep in the space of 48 hours (from 9am Saturday morning to 9am Monday morning), all because of one crazy, mad (but utterly brilliant) local festival.
 
 
Day in the life of a Glastonbury Festival Offsite Steward
 
 
I know, catchy title isn't it?
 
 
Anyway, here's what we got up to (literally) over the space of 24 hours...
 
 
10am - We'd been in the festival the previous night to see Elbow and Arcade Fire (who were both fab!) and we knew we'd be working hard over the next couple of days so a bit of a lie-in was definitely needed. Andrew got the tea and coffee ready while we were getting up.
10am - tea and coffee
 
 
11am - While we were packing our bags ready for the day, Andrew prepared a big fry up to start the day right.
11am - Breakfast fry up
 
 
12pm - This was the scene in our back garden. We're about a 20 minute drive from the festival itself so the fact that it was raining at home didn't necessarily mean that it would rain down there but it wasn't looking good!
We packed wellies, raincoats, umbrellas and bin bags just in case.
12pm - Rain
 
 
1pm - I made some bacon rolls ready to eat during the overnight shift.
1pm - Bacon rolls
 
 
2pm - The car was packed and we were ready to go (this is what my sister-in-law's car looked like after just one visit to the festival car parks).
2pm - Muddy car
 
 
3pm - We picked up our parking pass and headed towards the blue car parks. All the car parks are colour and number coded but you still have a job to find your car again!
3pm - Glastonbury car parks
 
 
4pm - After a 30 minute walk from the car park, we were almost at pedestrian gate C, right next to the theatre and circus fields.
4pm - Walking into the festival site
 
 
5pm - We managed to catch the end of Lana del Rey on the Pyramid Stage and then popped into the Yeo Valley tent for some frozen yogurt, managing to time it just perfectly as the heavens opened!
5pm - Yeo Valley Frozen Yogurt
 
 
6pm - The rains began to clear and we watched Robert Plant do his set on the Pyramid Stage.
6pm - Robert Plant
 
 
7pm - My sister-in-law headed off to see the Manic Street Preachers on the Other Stage while I went off to see Marcus Brigstocke in the Cabaret Tent.
7pm - Marcus Brigstocke
 
 
8pm - I had a bit of a wander around in-between Marcus Brigstocke (who finished at 7.30pm) and Goldfrapp (who were on the West Holts Stage at 8.30pm).
8pm - Glastonbury Festival
 
 
9pm - Right in the middle of Goldfrapp's set!
9pm - Goldfrapp
 
 
10pm - I met up with my sister-in-law at a little tent called The Cake Hole (which we always make a beeline for) as they sell cake, pudding and custard! I had Banana, Chocolate and Cinder Toffee Cake with a generous helping of hot custard and a cup of steaming hot sweet tea.
10pm - Cake and custard
 
 
11pm - The last visit before heading out for our shift at midnight, we stopped off at the West Holts Stage to see a bit of Bryan Ferry.
11pm - Selfie watching Bryan Ferry
 
 
12am - Signing in for our 8 hour shift! Our Carnival club mans two areas in Pilton, a farm on the main road and a little lane in the village itself. That night, me and my sister-in-law were watching over the farmyard.
12am - Checking in for our shift
 
 
1am - The view from the back of the farmyard over the festival site (the bright lights on the left are from the celebrity helipad).
1am - The festival site at night
 
 
2am - Keeping myself awake by reading magazines and books, whilst also keeping an ear on the radio just in case there's anything happening.
2am - Magazine reading
 
 
3am - The main road was still full of cars driving along; the light on the left is one of the farmyard barns and the lights on the right are vehicles!
3am - Cars still driving past
 
 
4am - It's just beginning to get light over the festival site.
4am - The sky's just beginning to get light
 
 
5am - Dawn had well and truly broken. It's amazing what a difference one hour makes!
5am - Dawn
 
 
6am - We managed to spy spots of blue sky up above the clouds.
6am - Blue sky and clouds
 
 
7am - Looking a bit brighter and with the possibility of a nice day!
7am - Daylight
 
 
8am - Our shift was over and we're on the way home to a well-deserved comfy bed.
8am - The Drive Home
 
 
9am - And we're home! Back to bed for a few hours sleep before getting up and doing it all over again...
9am Bed
 
 
 

14 comments:

  1. Wow, must have been a long weekend! Glad it was worth it though :)

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    1. Definitely worth it! Although I'm glad it's only once a year, I don't think I could do it more than once! :-) xx

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  2. No idea how you managed to stay up so long! I think I would have fallen asleep midfield! xx

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    1. With great difficulty is probably the answer! The worst bit is between about 4 and 5am, that's when your eyelids really start drooping :-) xx

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  3. What an adventure! Although I am of course most excited about the idea of a festival tent serving hot custard xxx

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    1. It's such a good little place! The elderly guy serving even gave a discount (cheap teas and a free brownie) because he spotted our staff wristbands! :-) xxx

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  4. Wow it looks like you had so much fun! I've always wanted to go to Glastonbury but tickets always seem to be sold out within hours.How do you know when to buy them? Anyway,the food & music look awesome! :) I would love to see Lana Del Rey.xx

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    1. You can do the registration online bit all year round I think and then tickets usually go on sale in October, I think it was a Sunday morning last year but I know they were sold out really quickly. You have to either sit on your computer refreshing the page to get tickets or find some organisation who works there and they you can get in for free! :-) xx

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  5. What an amazing experience! You must be shattered......but I suspect it was worth it. :)X

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  6. I admire the workers, especially doing the night shift! I think I'd rather pay the ticket price!! We had a fab first Glasto and can't wait for next year - fingers crossed we get tickets!!

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    1. Ooh, glad you enjoyed it! It's good fun working there, there's thousands of us, definitely hard work but so worth it! :-) xx

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  7. Once a year would be quite enough I think! But a great 48 hours, excellent bacon sarnie prep too - clearly you're not new to this!
    M x Life Outside London

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    1. Haha, no that's 9 Glastonbury Festival's worth of experience! :-) xx

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