VOTE: Should I go to Glastonbury?

A bit of background for those who haven't heard of Glastonbury before. Glastonbury Festival has been running since 1970, organised by the farmer Michael Eavis on his farm.

To quote the Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Festival

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The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or Glasto, is the largest[1] greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. The festival is best known for its contemporary music, but also features dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and many other arts. For 2005, the enclosed area of the festival was over 900 acres (3.6 km²), had over 385 live performances[2] and was attended by around 150,000 people. In 2007, over 700 acts played on over 80 stages [3] and the capacity expanded by 20,000 to 177,000 [4].

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Glastonbury ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury ) itself is attracts a huge number of people interested in its history, mythology with Authurian legends, ley lines, etc. and has a distinctly alternative feel, with plenty of shops selling crystals, etc. and has a larger than normal number of vegetarian and vegan eateries. Glastonbury received national media coverage when, in 1999, cannabis plants were found in the town's floral displays.

The festival is far more to do with hippy ideology than corporate (though due to its growth has an element of that too).

If going appeals, then I'd say go, there's plenty to offset any concerns about Dairy. Be prepared for the infamous mud though.

michael eavis, aside from running a dairy farm (i'm pretty sure thats what his family has done forever, and its unfortunately a very common thing in the area) is a pretty great bloke. he does a lot- a LOT- for local, national, and international charities and aid groups.

plus glastonbury is a brilliant experience. i've been twice. its just down the road from my family. if you can get hold of tickets, i think you should go. hang out in the green fields. talk to the hari crishnas, chat with the green police, and the tipi people. enjoy the wealth of vegan food on site. take your wellies.

if you decide to go, don't try and drive down there, get the train into castle cary, or a coach to bristol, and take the shuttle buses from there. i'm pretty sure its set up for you better than it was when i went. the roads are so gridlocked for the week of the event that many locals just take the week of work and go away. and its not in or near the town- so don't expect to be able to nip in and out of civilisation!

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Not in or near the town? How far is it? One of my friends told me there were lots of veggie/vegan cafes in the actual town of Glastonbury and I wanna visit em

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glastonbury does have a few good veggie restaurants, especially for a small town, its like hippy mecca. it also has the tor, an abbey, the chalice well, and a bajillion crystal, healing, hemp, candle, wicca and other shops.

the festival itself is in the village of Pilton- i reckon about 5 miles or so out of the town, and up and down a lot of big hills and via winding roads.

if you want to visit the town as well as the festival (which i'd definately recomend doing- its brilliant!), i'd either go down a few days early, or do it for a few days after the festival ends. bear in mind that the population of the place dramtically increases during that period- everyone else does the same thing. we love it and hate it as locals, cos there are frigging wasted tourists everywhere and we can't get to work, but at least all the local supermarkets sell a lot of cheap beer, sleeping bags and tents for a week.

there is very little chance that you can or would want to visit both the town and the event together while the festival is on- the festival site is HUGE, and it'd be a big hassle to get in and out, cos its winding roads, packed with cars, total gridlock. there are shuttles, but i'd not do it. it took me 3 solid hours to get into pilton in a car, 3 days before the event, coming from 5 miles down the road- we eventually got dropped off and hiked in- if you left mid festival to visit the town you'd spend most of the day on the bus.

if you wanna visit glastonbury just before or after the festival, i'd personally try and reserve a bed in Street Youth Hostel (Street is a wierdly named very large village 2 or 3 miles out of Glastonbury town- buses run between the two places every 30 mins or so, but you could walk it) or in a pub like The Backpackers (is at the bottom of the town, has backpacker type accomodation) for a couple of nights. if you wanna do that, i'd do it sooner rather than later cos you won't have a chance if you leave it till the last minute- everyone else will be doing the same thing.

i'm sure its not anything i need to mention to you specifically, but i'd strongly advise that anyone going there doesn't go if they don't have a legally obtained ticket, or try and take any kind of drugs onto the site. entry is really strictly controlled- you can't get in without a ticket any more (people who offer to throw you over the fence will just nick your wallet and toss you directly into the police compound, or you'll break your arm in the fall), there is a decent police presence (including a temporary jail on site) and you don't wanna risk being caught with something you shouldn't have. anything you want, you can easily get on site- i know this both from being there, and cos a kid i went to school with OD-ed and died there in 2005.

hope that helps a bit!

the cows all go on holiday, lol. they won't be there.

i'd not worry about veganism coming up, or explaining yourself- the area is super veggie friendly, loads and LOADS of veg*ns are there, veg*n food vendors are everywhere on site with loads of international cuisine, almost all of the coffee stalls have soya milk, etc, and the green field is like veg*nworld. but i do now see your subtle point there *wink wink*.

it seriously feels like an alternate reality shows up for a week and plonks itself down in rural somerset. if you've never been to anything like it, you should prepare to be gobsmacked by the sight of random things like hordes of burly men dressed as dirty old grannies strolling past you and pinching your bum, (perfomance art) and big execs from london turning up in their beemers and spending a weekend chilling with naked american indians.