Friday 24 May
Jeanette, Linda, Rosemary, Sue, Trisha, Wendy
Jeanette, Linda, Rosemary, Sue, Trisha, Wendy
We made our way to Wymeswold in Leicestershire to get ready for the Glastonbudget festival - three days of tribute bands.
Siobhan and I had taken Sue there three years previously as a surprise for her 60th birthday but we'd hired a camper van - we were camping this time so it would be a very different experience!
We were a select group of six after several drop outs for various reasons and we had five pitches between us so there was plenty of room to spread our tents and gazebo out. The weather was quite sunny and bright but there was a strong breeze blowing across the camping field which made it quite interesting as we tried to peg down the tents.
Sue and I (with a little help from a neighbour) eventually managed to pitch her tent, almost having to lay across it in the gusty breeze. Then we trudged backwards and forwards to and from the car to bring all our stuff in. I had totally forgotten about the glass bottle ban until I saw someone being stopped from taking their wine in.
On my nth trip the pimply yoof on security at the gate eyed the huge wheeled box of food and essentials I'd trundled across the grass with suspicion. 'Got any glass in there?' he asked. 'Of course not' I replied indignantly 'Look. All plastic' I said, pointing to the plastic bottles and plates artfully arranged on top. He did a cursory one finger search and waved me through. Once in the tent I was able to unpack the four blanket wrapped and clink proofed bottles of gin, the wine and the toffee vodka and the bar was ready.
Linda, Trisha, Rosemary and Jeanette arrived and we set about erecting a further two tents and the gazebo. Our camp was ready so we popped the candelabra on the table, got out the snacks and opened the gin to celebrate.
So off we went - having been assured by our neighbours in the next tent that he was really good.
He may well have been good many years ago but we were unimpressed with his portly appearance and fading voice so we wandered back to the big top to see who was performing there. It was the Prodigy and the place was jumping! After a great hour of enthusiastic dancing we adjourned to the tents and wrapped ourselves up warmly ready for well earned gins!
Jeanette went off to the loo and when she came back she said 'Ooh I needed that - I've just done four flaps!' She had to explain to us that she'd had such a big wee that the rubber bit in the bottom of the portaloo had opened and closed four times to flush it! Very funny. So that was our benchmark but no one managed to beat her and Jeanette remained the champion all weekend.
Perhaps the less said about the loos the better - they were certainly the topic of much conversation over the weekend!
Saturday 25 May
We managed varying degrees of sleep through the night with some noisy neighbours to one side who seemed to prefer their own music to that of the bands - and the noise from the people at the silent disco. The disco may have been silent but they weren't!
But we survived - even Trisha and Rosemary whose airbed had deflated in the night - and were ready to face the second day. We had a leisurely breakfast and then just sat around in the sunshine and spent the morning chatting. After several snacks and a pre-music drink we eventually set off to see some of the afternoon bands.
The weather was good so we took our chairs in and set up camp.
Overall there were four stages, with the main stage and the big top hosting the more well known bands then a smaller tent for other acts and another stage for local bands - so there was always music playing.
There was also a karaoke stage and as Sue and I walked past it we heard someone singing Queen's 'I want to break free'. He had such a good voice that we went over to investigate. It turned out to be a very skinny young man dressed in what seemed to be a woman's swimming costume, a pretty bad short bobbed wig - and very little else! But he had a great voice, huge confidence and some funky dance moves - and he had the small crowd whooping and cheering along with him as his little skinny legs skipped and twirled across the stage. No photos unfortunately - we were too gobsmacked. But definitely a highlight!!
The good thing was that our camp ground was the nearest to the arena so it only took five minutes to walk back to our tent for a drink or a rest when we had an hour between the bands we wanted to see. Very civilised!
It was still raining. 'Now what shall we do?' we thought. So we bought takeaway teas and coffees and headed back to the tents for a 'lock in' (well more a 'zip up'!) with hot drinks, biscuits and chocolate.
It was still raining and it was still morning.
'Now what?' we asked ourselves. 'Is it too early for a gin?' Perhaps it was but Linda and Jeanette had other ideas.
Jeanette had sangria. In a carton. We looked at it dubiously as she explained that her daughter had promised her that it was an okay end-of-festival drink - didn't need to be cold so it was alright to keep it until all the ice had melted in the cool bags and everything was getting warm.
We were still dubious but we tried it. And she was right! It was perfectly fine! So we polished that off.
We set up camp again in the big top with all the other wet bodies and Sue and I decided to plastic poncho up and venture over to the main stage to have a look at Dr Robert and the Cure.
The crowd there was sparse as the rain started to come down with a vengeance so we scuttled wetly back into the big top and did a bit of vigorous dancing to dry off.
Linda modelled her hat...
As the sun set over the portaloos we wandered back to our tents for the final time - tired but happy.
Monday 27 May
A final breakfast then it was time to pack up our gear and strike camp.
Then we posed for our last photos before we set off for home.
The end of a fab weekend!
We'd moaned about the length of queues, the state of the toilets, the inadequacy of the showers, the lack of consistency in searches, the paucity of tea vans, the noisy neighbours and a hundred and one other things.
But would we do it again?? Oh yes!..
Siobhan and I had taken Sue there three years previously as a surprise for her 60th birthday but we'd hired a camper van - we were camping this time so it would be a very different experience!
We were a select group of six after several drop outs for various reasons and we had five pitches between us so there was plenty of room to spread our tents and gazebo out. The weather was quite sunny and bright but there was a strong breeze blowing across the camping field which made it quite interesting as we tried to peg down the tents.
Sue and I (with a little help from a neighbour) eventually managed to pitch her tent, almost having to lay across it in the gusty breeze. Then we trudged backwards and forwards to and from the car to bring all our stuff in. I had totally forgotten about the glass bottle ban until I saw someone being stopped from taking their wine in.
On my nth trip the pimply yoof on security at the gate eyed the huge wheeled box of food and essentials I'd trundled across the grass with suspicion. 'Got any glass in there?' he asked. 'Of course not' I replied indignantly 'Look. All plastic' I said, pointing to the plastic bottles and plates artfully arranged on top. He did a cursory one finger search and waved me through. Once in the tent I was able to unpack the four blanket wrapped and clink proofed bottles of gin, the wine and the toffee vodka and the bar was ready.
Linda, Trisha, Rosemary and Jeanette arrived and we set about erecting a further two tents and the gazebo. Our camp was ready so we popped the candelabra on the table, got out the snacks and opened the gin to celebrate.
We'd looked at the line up for the evening and decided that we'd go over to see the last act on the main stage - Freddie Mercury.
So off we went - having been assured by our neighbours in the next tent that he was really good.
He may well have been good many years ago but we were unimpressed with his portly appearance and fading voice so we wandered back to the big top to see who was performing there. It was the Prodigy and the place was jumping! After a great hour of enthusiastic dancing we adjourned to the tents and wrapped ourselves up warmly ready for well earned gins!
Jeanette went off to the loo and when she came back she said 'Ooh I needed that - I've just done four flaps!' She had to explain to us that she'd had such a big wee that the rubber bit in the bottom of the portaloo had opened and closed four times to flush it! Very funny. So that was our benchmark but no one managed to beat her and Jeanette remained the champion all weekend.
Perhaps the less said about the loos the better - they were certainly the topic of much conversation over the weekend!
Saturday 25 May
We managed varying degrees of sleep through the night with some noisy neighbours to one side who seemed to prefer their own music to that of the bands - and the noise from the people at the silent disco. The disco may have been silent but they weren't!
But we survived - even Trisha and Rosemary whose airbed had deflated in the night - and were ready to face the second day. We had a leisurely breakfast and then just sat around in the sunshine and spent the morning chatting. After several snacks and a pre-music drink we eventually set off to see some of the afternoon bands.
The weather was good so we took our chairs in and set up camp.
Overall there were four stages, with the main stage and the big top hosting the more well known bands then a smaller tent for other acts and another stage for local bands - so there was always music playing.
There was also a karaoke stage and as Sue and I walked past it we heard someone singing Queen's 'I want to break free'. He had such a good voice that we went over to investigate. It turned out to be a very skinny young man dressed in what seemed to be a woman's swimming costume, a pretty bad short bobbed wig - and very little else! But he had a great voice, huge confidence and some funky dance moves - and he had the small crowd whooping and cheering along with him as his little skinny legs skipped and twirled across the stage. No photos unfortunately - we were too gobsmacked. But definitely a highlight!!
The good thing was that our camp ground was the nearest to the arena so it only took five minutes to walk back to our tent for a drink or a rest when we had an hour between the bands we wanted to see. Very civilised!
We bopped, boogied and sang along to Billy Idol, Simple Minds, Phil Collins, Erasure, the Pet Shop Boys, the Killers, Eurythmics, Kasabian, AC/DC, Pink and lots of others. Even the bands we didn't particularly like were good!
So another day of great bands and we spent our time going from one stage to another as we saw some great tributes. When it got a bit chilly we took our chairs into the big top and settled in there - walking back to the main stage from time to time to see what we were missing.
Jeanette wanted to go to the silent disco but after realising that it didn't start until midnight we revised our plans, there was no way that we could stay up that late! So instead we managed a quick gin before we were all ready for bed - all that fresh air was knocking us out!
Sunday 26 May
We woke up to grey skies and RAIN!
We got up and dressed and then huddled under the gazebo to eat breakfast. We said our goodbyes to Rosemary who had to go home and contemplated walking over to one of the vans get some hot drinks.
As it was still quite gloomy and chilly we decided to go to the breakfast tent for a second start to the day so off we went. Surrounded by a fug of cheery, damp people all with similar thoughts we felt much better after mugs of hot drinks and hearty big breakfasts.
It was still raining. 'Now what shall we do?' we thought. So we bought takeaway teas and coffees and headed back to the tents for a 'lock in' (well more a 'zip up'!) with hot drinks, biscuits and chocolate.
It was still raining and it was still morning.
'Now what?' we asked ourselves. 'Is it too early for a gin?' Perhaps it was but Linda and Jeanette had other ideas.
Jeanette had sangria. In a carton. We looked at it dubiously as she explained that her daughter had promised her that it was an okay end-of-festival drink - didn't need to be cold so it was alright to keep it until all the ice had melted in the cool bags and everything was getting warm.
We were still dubious but we tried it. And she was right! It was perfectly fine! So we polished that off.
Then Linda produced a box of dark fruit COIDERR! We were very happy and forgot about the rain. In fact we were so happy that we forgot about the music too for a while.
But that's what we were there for so we set off between the showers.
The crowd there was sparse as the rain started to come down with a vengeance so we scuttled wetly back into the big top and did a bit of vigorous dancing to dry off.
A bit later on the clouds cleared and the weather started to brighten up so we wandered off to look for food.
It was still a bit chillier than the previous days but at least the wind had dropped and the sun was out.
Linda modelled her hat...
More great bands - Sterophonics, Thin Lizzy, Robbie Williams, the Kinks, Guns n Roses, Oasis, Elvis (Trisha and I wandered off to watch him for two minutes so that if our neighbours [who'd told us he was wonderful - he wasn't!] asked - we could truthfully say that we'd seen him), UB40 and the absolutely fantastic Pink Floyd tribute who played virtually all of the Dark Side of the Moon album - fabulous!!
As the sun set over the portaloos we wandered back to our tents for the final time - tired but happy.
Monday 27 May
A final breakfast then it was time to pack up our gear and strike camp.
It was still a bit showery and blustery but we managed to get most of it dismantled and stored between the squalls.
As we deflated the last tent we all ended up lying on it in a heap laughing. Think this about summed up the weekend really.
We trundled the last bits and pieces to the cars.
Then we posed for our last photos before we set off for home.
We'd moaned about the length of queues, the state of the toilets, the inadequacy of the showers, the lack of consistency in searches, the paucity of tea vans, the noisy neighbours and a hundred and one other things.
But would we do it again?? Oh yes!..
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