Glastonbury 2009 – It was another great one

I am back in London now. Glastonbury was another amazing experience.

I arrived in London on Thursday evening with a plan on how to reach the festival fields but without having booked anything. BIG MISTAKE. I knew it was going to be an adventure getting there given my late arrival into Heathrow. Unfortunately, the coaches to Taunton (a small town 30 mins drive from Glastonbury) were all booked. I was planning to spend the night traveling and getting the first train there. Instead, I got a coach to Reading, a train to Taunton, and then shared a taxi to Glastonbury with someone I met at the train station.

Arrived at the grounds around 2am and started the search for somewhere to camp. Another BIG MISTAKE! 🙂 It was raining all night so I thought that I should play it safe and set my tent at high grounds, which I did. I hadn’t noticed how steep it was. I was sliding towards the entrance of my tent every night 🙂

 

The festival was absolutely amazing. I spent lots of time absorbing the vibe and atmosphere of all the shows and stand up comedy in tends on Friday. Lots of ethnic food and moving around. I did see The Ting Tings on Friday and some other bands but that was really about it. Mostly comedy till very very late. Friday was raining almost all day/night. It started to get muddy.

    

Saturday and Sunday was a mixture of music and outdoor shows. The weather was gorgeous throughout.

      

Music-wise, I liked Bruce Springsteen, Spinal Tap but I really really liked The Ting Tings, Madness, and Blur. Blur, in particular, were amazing at the very end. As always, I was at the very front for most of the performances 🙂

    

After Blur, I queued for the first buses to the train station at 3am. That’s when the skies opened again 🙂

 

I am spending the night and Jim‘s and Kath’s place in London before heading back to Seattle tomorrow. Good opportunity to catch up with my co-authors as well (Jim and Ian). After they finished with their day job, we were able to coordinate the next steps for our Web book and have technical discussions over beer 🙂 Went for some great Indian food with Jim and Kath at the end of the night.

 

Another great Glastonbury experience ended. I’ll try my best to be back next year!