All the filth, none of the fury

So, after five days of typically variable British weather, I returned home in the early hours of yesterday morning sunburnt and coated in mud. With Glastonbury Festival over for another year, the only thing left to do is sum it all up.

Glastonbury is made up of many aspects, of which the music is only one. It is, however, the aspect which everyone concentrates on, and this year the running order was as eclectic as ever. The Pyramid Stage was dominated by NME friendly indie, and in that respect, it was a stellar line up. Issues with the PA system aside, there can be few complaints from those who camped there for the weekend, as they were treated to some great sets from some of the biggest acts in British and International music, including a Friday headlining set from the meteorically successful Arctic Monkeys, playing their first Glastonbury. No pressure there then. Sadly, despite the undoubted quality of the material, they simply don’t have the presence to carry of such a prestigious slot just yet, and the atmosphere fell a little flat, in stark contrast to the clearly deranged Bjork on The Other Stage, who was wonderfully, brilliantly mad.

Other musical highlights included a low key Pete Doherty solo performance in which he earned a field full of new fans, Brakes with their anarcho-punk and socio-political rants (what they said about Dick Cheney simply could not be written here) and Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly, whose mantra of ‘Fair Trade, Where Possible’, combined with a collection of protest songs which would make Dylan jealous, earn them the How Ethical! seal of approval.

As I said above though, Glastonbury is about so much more than the music, and this year that was more apparent than ever. With the I-Count campaign at the forefront of the festival ethos, and the Green Police ensuring that festival-goers took care of the farm in the way it deserves, the focus was clearly on the environment. Greenpeace even ran an eco-friendly speed-dating event (whatever that may be), which was very successful by all accounts.

There was the usual political edge to the festival, with the Leftfield Tent hosting a variety of debates and special performances across the weekend, including a day-long event on Sunday to highlight Shelter’s current social housing campaign, which including such Glastonbury luminaries as Tony Benn, Mark Thomas, and Billy Bragg, all of whom played to a packed tent, despite the fact that the sun shone for most of Sunday and some of the biggest bands in the world were playing just few hundred metres away.

If there has to be one complaint, it may be that the addition of 30,000 new attendees may have been a few thousand too many. With the weather as it was, people (sensibly) tried to stick to the pathways, whereas in good weather they would have walked across the grass. This meant that many thoroughfares suffered from severe overcrowding at peak times, making getting from one stage to another very difficult at times. I’m sure though, with better conditions, the increase in numbers would not have been so noticeable.

Overall, however, another great Glastonbury, with the ranked masses ensuring that nothing was going to dampen the party spirit. In true Glastonbury style, we came out fighting against the conditions, and I’d like to think we won. Roll on next year.