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When festivals weren't ?300+ middle class w*nk


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I want to get to The Big Green Gathering this year. Did it a few years back as a litter picker (free entry & food :-)), but might buy a ticket this year. Not as expensive as other festivals, but it's full of hippies, travellers and the great unwashed, like festivals of yore :-)

almost. original "glasto" ( fe3ckin lol) was a quid or so and the likes of hawkwind probably were paid in drugs anyway.festivals and tours were loss leader to plug the albums


Now music sales are dead and the money is in touring. and if you want quality acts like Nick Cave ( fe3cking lol II) , then you need to pay proper money

My first glasto we parked a huge old campervan on a flat area up the hill from main stage, facing the stage - maybe 1/4 mile away, we had friends camped even nearer, they had a small fire going the whole weekend for pots of tea and heating up tins of food. There were loads of unscheduled gigs in private tents or outside them powered by generators, dealers had blackboards outside their tents listing what they were selling or openly roamed around shouting out what they had in stock, the stalls selling trinkets were many but casually organised, it absolutely poured down, we sold 40 gallons of wine and got busted by the hells angels - my mate who made the wine swapped 3 gallons for a massive slab of red leb.

There was a small white marquee, the base lines you could feel a mike away, when you went inside if was trestle tables at one end with loads of West Indian rastamans selling tea and biscuits, they were too wrecked to remember what you'd ordered and who had ordered it, the opposite end of the marquee was a wall of speakers, in between a crowd getting down to dub and reggae, spent a couple hours a day there.

When it rained too hard in the evening a dozen of us piled into the van and watched the main band from huge the front seat or seats behind, front window was massive.

It was a crazy show but so, soooo much more fun than nowadays - haven't been since 2000 as a result.

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