SCORCHIO! It was amazing being without the rain and the wellies at Glastonbury this year, but the sun provided its own challenges. The tents became unbearable by about 8 am, so no lie ins in spite of only getting to bed at about 6. Shade was like gold dust; every fence had a line of people squatting to get out of the sun. After a day of the relentless heat I caved and borrowed a friend's sunblock as I didn't want the complication of burning, and deciding hats were mandatory I bought a terrible one with "Sheriff" on it in red plastic like something out of a lego set. The Camelbak type thing I'd bought on a whim a few days before proved invaluable, whether filled with water or vodka orange, either washed the dust from my throat nicely.
Highlights included:
- Camp fires every night thanks to manly Gareth
- Rolf Harris, though he's 80 years old he was showing a whippersnapper MC how beatboxing's really done.
- Miike Snow's album shows only hints of the phat electro noize they pump out live. Loved it.
- Shakira was just filth. Sexy sexy filth.
- La Roux + Heaven 17 doing Temptation (not the rest of their set, it was shit.)
- NYC Downlow was filth of a very different kind, East London party times inna tent. Mind you the rest of the party village was just insanely awesome. Ohai Gomorrah! Thank god you're only around a few days a year or civilisation would like totally fall.
- Napping in a hippy tent. Wasn't even planned, it was just humid and comfy and we all drifted off.
- Scissor Sisters + Kylie (so SO gay). The rest of their set was good too, crowd pleasing hits interspersed with new stuff carried off on Jake Shears' drug-fuelled energy.
- Pet Shop Boys were surprisingly amazing. Great set. Fantastic dancers. Tune after Tune.
- The Kinks (well, 2 out of 5 of them). Gobsmackingly amazing. Several "Glasto moments" all rolled into one set, including Sunny afternoon, Waterloo Sunset, Days and Ray Davies being furious at having to cut his set short.
- Excellent food. N00bs assume that everything out of a van is shit, and certainly if you grab the first thing you find you won't be disappointed, but there's serious noms around if you keep a look out.
- Crossword solving. The easy one though obvs, we were hungover after all. Guardian sponsorship was apparent everywhere.
- Stevie Wonder was unsurprisingly amazing. Michael Eavis, however, can't hold a tune in a bucket.
- Pea soup mist and popup-tent-folding at 5 in the morning on the way back to civilisation.
It was a little weird being out and about without my camera but it was also oddly freeing not having the responsibilities of both looking after it and of documenting everything. Being with a bunch of friends all suffering from sleep deprivation meant a lot of hysterical nonsense was talked, which was similarly relaxing. It was just an easy breezy time, and in the days since I've had to stop myself dancing in the street to my iPod and skipping when I should be walking. Good times.
Though it sucked that it took 7 hours to get home there wasn't really any time for post-party comedown, what with the charidy gig on Wednesday where I knew everyone playing, London Pride on Saturday where we watched the parade, drank in soho then dressed up in 60s gear for Duckie's Gross Indecency and partied till dawn, then on Sunday was Tommy et al's massive BBQ.
On top of all the expensive party times I've just shelled out 400 quid to go to a web design class (and the dConstruct conference) in September! After thinking about it for a bit I decided I just couldn't pass up the opportunity of a day being taught by one of my favourite web designers, plus it can go straight on my CV, so there.
I'm now tired and poor. Hurrah!