So it’s taken a while to recover from Glastonbury 2024 and I suspect that’s because our older bodies simply do not bounce back very fast after a four day binge-fest. All that walking! All that talking! All that singing, dancing, drinking, hugging, laughing, eating, drinking, drinking, drinking….and when you’re older you have to manage the distances you walk, how much time you’re standing and what you drink. You might as well forget about water, as it means you have to go and find yet another revolting loo. So we’ve discovered that the trick is to drink wine all day so that you’re so dehydrated you don’t need to do very many pee’s and you can therefore plan for them tactically. I suspect the question I heard most amongst my group was “do you need a wee?” Even if you didn’t need one at that very moment, it was always worth giving it a try in case the next loo stop was hours away.
So if you’re ever wondering whether you’re too old to do Glastonbury – remember what Chris Martin said during his set this year:-
“Everybody go low, unless your over the age of 75, in which case just close your eyes.” So we’ve got a few years yet of relying on those slightly dodgy knees to get us up again.
I have lost my voice entirely. This is not only the fault of Glastonbury as it was a week ago, but it hasn’t helped. Add the football, my youngest son’s birthday and Robbie Williams at Hyde Park into the mix and it’s hardly surprising I can no longer speak!
So….for the record, here are some of our Glasto 2024 highlights. We all had an absolute ball and loved every minute. So much love and joy and anything frankly seems possible when you’re there, dancing amongst strangers who become your friends. Most nights weren’t tooooo late, so we had enough energy to get up and out for some of the earlier performances in the day. We’ve learnt to pace ourselves over the course of the day so that we’re not walking and standing all day which is too exhausting. I’ve been going for long enough now that it’s embarrassing that I still haven’t got my bearings. Just no sense of direction at all, so I have to make sure I’m glued to my friends for the entire time. Such a feast for the eyes and ears and … anything goes, which I love. The weather was literally perfect. No rain, quite overcast, except for Saturday which was extremely hot. Good it didn’t stay that way as there is no shade and sunstroke, drink and drugs are not a good combo. Did hear from my kids about some awful incidents of seizures and paramedics and I do wonder how many people actually fall extremely ill….or worse when they’re there. It’s not widely discussed.
Check out the babies in the pram!
THURSDAY 27TH JUNE
Arrival day and my son’s girlfriend’s 30th birthday so we went in for a look around and met up with them all at San Remo for a celebratory drink. We then walked up to the new Scissor (lesbian space) tent to watch a friend’s daughter perform.
Our cute festihuts:-
FRIDAY 28TH JUNE
SQUEEZE: Marvellous – was with my friend from uni and it brought back memories of listening to them in our halls of residence over 40 years ago
OLIVIA DEAN: A star in the making. Exquisitely beautiful, engaging, spectacular voice, very cool. Loved her – as did everyone else. The boys especially!
PJ HARVEY: Caught the end of her set. Interesting.
THE VACCINES: Walked up to meet a friend in the Woodsies area – packed, so we couldn’t get in, but they sounded great
LCD SOUND SYSTEM: Excellent
DUAL LIPA: Very slick and professional. Sounded great and was very well choreographed. Watched with my daughter and her friend:-
SATURDAY 29TH JUNE
FEMI KUTI: Son of legendary Nigerian Afrobeat innovator Fela Kuti with a massive team behind him. He was excellent – as was his son who came on to do the most spectacular sax solo with the longest hold of one note ever. They also played with Coldplay later that evening.
CYNDI LAUPER: The sound wasn’t great and so we took the executive decision to get out of the boiling hot sun and find some shade so that we didn’t peak too early. Not sure what happened – same issue with Shania Twain and Diana Ross a few years back.
DON LETTS: Iconic documentary film maker, author and reggae DJ who we all love to go and see in The Glade.
KEANE: Wonderful. His voice still sounds great. Check out Lewis Capaldi who was standing and singing along next to me. We all found that very moving given we watched his powerful performance last year and his decision to step back from his live shows for the sake of his mental health:-
THE STREETS: Love them, hard to get to though with so much else going on, so could hear them from afar as we made our way back from the Black Pumas
BLACK PUMAS: I think they were my favourite out of all the bands we saw this year – their song “Colors” is incredible and they have a lot of other great tunes.
COLDPLAY: They were incredible. Chris brings such joy and seems to be the epitome of humanity. He is hugely inclusive and makes us all feel the love and bringing on Michael J Fox for “I will Fix You” was incredibly moving. He was wearing what appeared to be a red Kabbalah string through an ear piercing and many signalling bracelets and flags and T-shirts, all of which had significant messaging and support for people in the world who are suffering. It’s not a surprise that they are invited back year after year – they should probably have been given the Sunday closing slot to be honest. They make the crowd feel such jubilation.
SUNDAY 30TH JUNE
PALOMA FAITH: Brilliant. Her voice sounded great, she was funny and strong and looked amazing.
JAMES: Another old favourite
SHANIA TWAIN: Again, sound issues, so we left.
AVRIL LAVIGNE: Was sorry to miss her – everyone loved her, but we were too far away and couldn’t get to her in time.
BAXTER DURY: Son of Ian Dury, he’s not dissimilar in many ways. A sardonic raconteur and a very interesting man to watch.
THE NATIONAL: Love them anyway, so was very happy they were playing. Clashed with The Gypsy Kings which would have been good and overall a strange choice of bands for the finale as SZA pulled a very small crowd to the Pyramid Stage.
ANYWAY, another year over where we all say, “that’s it, we’re too old, lets not go next year” – but given 2025 is a fallow year, I’m sure when the time comes rolling around again, we might just feel differently. It’s a joy to spend quality time with really good friends and the memories we make are invaluable.
