Glastonbury 2008: Review #1

Glastonbury 2008

Bang for Buck or Dead as the Dodo

Rain, Wellingtons and Ponchos are just some of the words that are usually thrown around when talking about Glastonbury. However, I think Great-Fucking-Music should be the phrase on the tip of everyone's tongue, especially when talking about this years' festival.
Now I can't speak from experience from previous years as I've never been to Glasto; although I can tell you now that the biggest festival in the world has now been cemented without question as the greatest festival the world has ever seen.

After a storming 2007 that although was graced with a debut headline performance from the one and only Arctic Monkeys, it was undboutedly over-shadowed by the terrible weather conditions and simply uncanny supply on mud on show. I think there were more bands on show than blades of grass by the end of it and people had to resort to paying tractors to tow their cars out of the mud; hardly fair is it.


I feel Michael and Emily Eavis have put last years' problems behind them and started a-fresh, which includes a 25% increase on the site size, now covering an area of just over 50 acres. I'm not even sure a Russian launched ICBM could have disrupted the organisation and dedication for this years' party that I witnessed during the five days I was there.
Eavis Snr has threw the cat amongst the pigeons and took Glastonbury back to its grass roots principals when he booked Jay-Z. Ok, Hip-Hop has never appeared in such a prominent way before, but the principal of Glastonbury has always been to offer the most diverse display of musical talent possible to the public. He could have played the safe bet that Reading and Leeds did this year by throwing huge American rock bands Rage Against The Machine, The Killers and Metallica into the limelight to secure a sell out crowd.

Glastonbury however, despite all the criticism and hype, managed to finally sell out every single ticket by Friday afternoon, I can safely say thats a big f-u to the haters.Enough is enough, throwing the hype and gossip aside that includes the whole 'Jay-Z' saga down the drain, I'll just say one thing before tomorrow's first proper review post kicks things off. It really was just 'a little bit' special.
Let the most controversial Glastonbury Festival of Contempory Arts, begin...