Glastonbury 2023 thread

[Daz39]

2 minutes ago, BreadBin said:

Sadly not. They get sent to charity if they are packed up but the ones that are still up get sent to landfill 

Decathlon (and I don't think they're the only one) offer a return system for specific used tents - they have a festival one for £0 and if you bring it back in decent condition you get a £30 voucher.

[toneknob]

16 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Just watched Nova Twins.

Everyone else should just give up.

Rock'n'roll!

Some bass player!!!!!

In awe....

 

Just catching up with their set for the first time. Best so far! (anyone got an effects board run-down?)

 

[Jonesy]

5 minutes ago, toneknob said:

 

Just catching up with their set for the first time. Best so far! (anyone got an effects board run-down?)

 

 

Don't know how accurate this is.........

https://equipboard.com/pros/georgia-south?gear=effects-pedals

[oldslapper]

Enjoying catching up with the Jacob Collier set. 
Not my usual cuppa, but it’s great. Love how he got the crowd holding that 3 part harmony at the beginning. Beautiful. 
Robin Mullarkey playing his bass vi. Nice. 

Edited June 26, 2023 by oldslapper

[casapete]

Just finished watching Elton now, and as already said, great bass playing and sound too

( SWR Goliath 6x10 lurking around). Elton’s voice better in some places than others, especially

when he didn’t clip his phrasing but overall pretty good for 76. Never been that keen on Davey

Johnstone’s guitar playing TBH - bit too distorted and ‘rawk’ for some stuff - ‘Are you ready for love’

for example, which was also too fast and devoid of any of the original recording’s wonderful groove.

Partially saved by the great choir though. Even so, glad we watched it - Mrs CP has always loved Elton,

and we were hoping to catch him live at some point which sadly wasn’t possible, so this was the next best thing.

 

( Wish he’d also had Kiki Dee on for the duet - she’d have made a better job of it and would

have been a nice gesture on EJ’s final UK gig).

Edited June 26, 2023 by casapete

[BreadBin]

2 hours ago, Daz39 said:

Decathlon (and I don't think they're the only one) offer a return system for specific used tents - they have a festival one for £0 and if you bring it back in decent condition you get a £30 voucher.

Yes, this requires them to be packed up and not just abandoned like the majority do

[Cato]

I've never really had much time for Elton John, I've never particularly liked his voice and I tend to associate him with Phil Collins and Michael Bolton and all the worst of the bland mainsream AOR stuff of the 1980s.

 

Having said that I think his set last night has won me round, I really enjoyed it and I've had various Elton tunes stuck in my head all day. I think I'm going to start working through his back catalogue later to see if I've badly misjudged him. 

Edited June 26, 2023 by Cato

[borntohang]

The festival themselves are great about the clear up - the fields are pasture for the rest of the year so there is an entire economy of workers and volunteers there for days afterward to make it liveable for cows again. Unfortunately some of the punters seem to have the idea hedonism also means conspicuous consumption.

 

Last time I worked there was a chap at my gate who had bought a banger car for a couple of hundred and stuffed it with five-man worth of camping gear; the other four in his group came up in a separate vehicle and they were planning to abandon the whole lot, including the beater car, and travel back in one vehicle so they didn't have to pack anything up . He claimed it was cheaper than petrol for two cars, but considering the price of the festival plus all the gear I could only conclude that some people have too much money and very little sense. I kept seeing that photo of the guy who had built an IKEA double bed in his tent in the news and wondering if he was going to bother taking it away again today.

 

The general culture of the festival is really against that sort of behaviour, but apart from weighing people in and out to try and track/ban offenders I'm not sure what else could be done about it.

[Lozz196]

Just watching The Pretenders, really good. I got about 4 songs in on Blondies set before having to give up, good band but her vocals, nah.

[oldslapper]

18 minutes ago, Cato said:

I've never really had much time for Elton John, I've never particularly liked his voice and I tend to associate him with Phil Collins and Michael Bolton and all the worst of the bland mainsream AOR stuff of the 1980s.

 

Having said that I think his set last night has won me round, I really enjoyed it and I've had various Elton tunes stuck in my head all day. I think I'm going to start working through his back catalogue later to see if I've badly misjudged him. 

I know what you mean. My preference is up to 1976 culminating with Blue Moves being my favourite album. Not a massive fan of anything after that. However, that performance last night was fabulous and very nostalgic for me. 

[drTStingray]

9 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

It was more to do with the mix than the Stingray, a Precision would have sounded just as good with that mix, once again a lot of performances suffered because of rubbish sound engineers, on TV at any rate

We’ll have to agree to differ here - I do agree the mix has a great deal to do with it but I’ve been around long enough to recall just how awful many Precision basses sounded live in bands in the 60s/70s, with the exception of simplistic root and fifth stuff - I can think of a number of situations where what I would call a decent bass sound via a Precision was had - as much down to the bass player as well though - Louis Johnson with Billy Preston (but sounded much better and more articulate in the later 70s with Stingray, Sabre and other basses); Alan Spenner with various artists (but sounded a million times better and you could hear the intricacy and articulation of his superb playing more clearly when appearing with a Wal in the late 70s) - I was lucky enough to see him perform at the Roundhouse at the end of the 70s - that Wal bass sound (an original JG series) was amazing. Robert ‘Pops’ Popwell with the Crusaders and Olivia Newton John. 
 

As I say, many people will differ with the view, but Matt Bissonette’s bass sounded very supportive - an excellent mix and sound - and for those interested he appeared to be using the front (series) switch setting on the SR5. Background rumble it certainly was not!!! 

[SteveXFR]

There's been helicopters going back and forth all day today taking rich punters back to London. 

Not very environmentally friendly having all those helicopters taking people in and out of the festival. I always thought it was just for the headline artists but anyone with enough cash can arrive by chopper.

They like to claim its all very green but there's tens of thousands of cars, probably hundreds of generators and a mountain of rubbish. 

[rOB]

I'm enjoying the set by Los Bitchos. Hadn't heard of them before. Not sure how I'd describe the genre, anyone care to enlighten me?

[drTStingray]

46 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

There's been helicopters going back and forth all day today taking rich punters back to London. 

Not very environmentally friendly having all those helicopters taking people in and out of the festival. I always thought it was just for the headline artists but anyone with enough cash can arrive by chopper.

They like to claim its all very green but there's tens of thousands of cars, probably hundreds of generators and a mountain of rubbish. 

Agreed - as with everything, people with money can afford to buy their way around ‘environmentally friendly’. Mind you, are you sure it’s not the remainder of Elton’s entourage 😉🤣 I recall someone discussing a fascinating piece of info years ago - the daily bill for flowers for Elton’s properties - ran to the tens of thousands (when Sterling rates were actually twice those of dollars, in the days before the populace was charmed by lies and idiocy resulting in a B 😀)

 

Now if you arrived this year by shuttle bus from the rail at Bristol, the vehicles have been fully electric. 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

38 minutes ago, rOB said:

I'm enjoying the set by Los Bitchos. Hadn't heard of them before. Not sure how I'd describe the genre, anyone care to enlighten me?

I need to check them out, I saw they were had a deal with Hiwatt so must be doing something right!

[borntohang]

37 minutes ago, rOB said:

I'm enjoying the set by Los Bitchos. Hadn't heard of them before. Not sure how I'd describe the genre, anyone care to enlighten me?

Great aren't they? The genre is a variation on Cumbia. 

[mrtcat]

My wife's sister and three of her mates are currently working on the Glastonbury site doing the clean up. She's done it for years and loves it. Every year there is this bull***t narrative in the same old right wing dross media outlets about how this generation of festival goers are all totally entitled and how the festival is an environmental disaster. 

 

Over 99% of tents actually get taken  home and the site has its own full recycling facility that allows all waste to be hand sorted and everything that can be recycled is recycled. Also no products in single use plastics are sold on site. 

 

https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/information/green-glastonbury/our-green-policies/waste-policy/#:~:text=All cans%2C glass%2C paper%2C,our on-site recycling facility.

 

Essentially, although there is a huge amount of litter left, the organise expect this and plan for it properly. Don't forget, there are numerous media publications that want division and love to try and get people angry about something because it sells clicks and papers.

Edited June 26, 2023 by mrtcat

[borntohang]

Just now, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I need to check them out, I saw they were had a deal with Hiwatt so must be doing something right!

They do, yeah. Not much of our stuff onstage in geenral this year but we had LB playing in the warehouse this morning. Some nice lingering shots of the backline too, thank you very much Mr Beeb Cam Op. 

[SteveXFR]

34 minutes ago, drTStingray said:

 in the days before the populace was charmed by lies and idiocy resulting in a B 😀)

 

Bastard? We've all had one or two of them

[SteveXFR]

I'm watching Editors now. I definitely recommend checking out their set on iplayer. Excellent performance 

[MichaelDean]

@SteveXFR they actually used 100% renewable energy sources this year, which is probably more than just about any other festival. At least they're trying. Like Coachella, that has about 40k more attendees at 250,000. I had a quick peruse on their website. No mention on how they power anything, no mission statement to ban single use plastic or list of banned items due to environmental grounds.

 

I also don't know how you logistically get 210,000 people (roughly the population of the entire urban area of Norwich) to a site only accessible by A roads for a few days without letting them drive. I've also done the coach from Leeds once - it was a horrible experience and I can see why most people drive. Mind you, all of the coach tickets still sell out.

 

I do agree that helicopter usage is disgusting though. There is no need for it for anyone. 

 

It's a tough industry to be in and try to have any green credentials. Glastonbury are probably leading the pack. 

 

[SteveXFR]

3 minutes ago, MichaelDean said:

@SteveXFR they actually used 100% renewable energy sources this year, which is probably more than just about any other festival. At least they're trying. Like Coachella, that has about 40k more attendees at 250,000. I had a quick peruse on their website. No mention on how they power anything, no mission statement to ban single use plastic or list of banned items due to environmental grounds.

 

I also don't know how you logistically get 210,000 people (roughly the population of the entire urban area of Norwich) to a site only accessible by A roads for a few days without letting them drive. I've also done the coach from Leeds once - it was a horrible experience and I can see why most people drive. Mind you, all of the coach tickets still sell out.

 

I do agree that helicopter usage is disgusting though. There is no need for it for anyone. 

 

It's a tough industry to be in and try to have any green credentials. Glastonbury are probably leading the pack. 

 

 

How many of the hundreds of food vans are running on diesel generators though? 

The Arcadia spider can't be particularly environmentally friendly with those massive flame throwers

[MichaelDean]

Just now, SteveXFR said:

 

How many of the hundreds of food vans are running on diesel generators though? 

The Arcadia spider can't be particularly environmentally friendly with those massive flame throwers

As per the link and poster, the food vans are all run on bio fuels and electricity. The MASSIVE wind turbine was powering most of them. Seriously, the hum of generators was much less than in previous years. It was really noticeable.

 

The spider is stupid. No defense of that. 

[EssexBuccaneer]

4 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

There's been helicopters going back and forth all day today taking rich punters back to London. 

Not very environmentally friendly having all those helicopters taking people in and out of the festival. I always thought it was just for the headline artists but anyone with enough cash can arrive by chopper.

They like to claim its all very green but there's tens of thousands of cars, probably hundreds of generators and a mountain of rubbish. 

If Dave Grohl can take the train to Glastonbury, what excuse can anyone else have? 😀

[BreadBin]

The Arcadia spider is fab!

If you haven't got mildly smashed and danced under a giant metal spider shooting huge flames into the air while trapeze artists swing overhead and 2 blokes in chain mail suits standing on Tesla coils shoot lightning at each other then frankly you haven't lived! 🤣🤣