After a hearty buffet breakfast in the Ibis, as I said we’re
slumming it, it’s off back to Bristol Temple Meads status and a train to Castle
Cary. Castle Cary is the local train station for the Glastonbury festival.
The train is packed but not with people. Most of our
carriage space is taken up by the thousands of cans of Strongbow and Fosters
that most folk seem to be taking with them. It must be a good sign if you can’t buy
anything that bad at the Festival and so they’re having to take their own.
We arrive at Castle Cary to face a huge queue for the buses
to the festival site.
‘Excuse me are you for Worthy View?’
I think they’re talking to us glampers.
‘Follow me please’
Cue a massive queue jump. In fact as we
are the only customers for Worthy View on our train we get a bus to ourselves.
Royalty or what?
We are dropped outside the festival entrance where we are quickly
wrist banded, although we have to give up the beautiful tickets with our photos
on them.
Then we are directed to our tent, one of many arranged in nice neat
rows. Our five star accommodation is called a two person Scout
Tent, although it’s certainly more roomy that our own tent or perhaps that’s
just the lack of dogs.
Worthy View is impressive in having its own showers, toilets,
shops, bar, several eateries and security to keep the riff-raff out (I mean the
rest of the 170,000 punters). We have a beer to celebrate our incarceration as well as to toast the Glastonbury Festival of
Contemporary Performing Arts which is 45 years old and, well, here we are. They have Otter Ales in the bar, that’ll do nicely.
Worthy View is at the top of a big hill, which while having
the added insurance that we are unlikely to get flooded out also offers a great
views of the massive Glastonbury site below which you can watch from the bar with a
jar in your hand.
The hill will also keep us fit even if it isn’t as fearsome
as some folk would have you believe. We head down to the festival to have a
wander around the site. Most of the stalls seem open already but equally there are
many things that are still being constructed.
We decide to catch a film in the Pilton Palais tent where we
watch Kingsman with Colin Firth and Michael Caine. No personally you understand, they are in it.
One thing we aren’t going to struggle for is food. There must
be hundreds of food outlets. Most are pretty inventive and even healthy. We should
be able to eat our way around the world this week and we start with Jamaican
Jerk tonight.
We also check out the Stone Circle and then get
trapped in it by the lively crowd that has gathered. Now is perhaps a good time
to escape, only that security won’t let us back up to Worthy View. Health and
Safety you know, they’re about to let off the opening night fireworks.
As the crowd gets bigger and more unruly, eventually they see sense or an impeding riot and let us through. At almost the same second the fireworks start, so that worked
well then. At least, once back up the hill, we get a great view.
(Wednesday 24th June)
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