Glastonbury Festival. Getting in...

Anyone going to Glastonbury in a van or something that i could hide in back. Really want go to Glastonbury finding ways to get in.

 

Security searches all vehicles entering the site, including the backs of vans and caravans. You can more or less walk on site if you go a week before the festival and can say you are crew for someone (you need to give a name), but they do a wristband sweep before the festival opens, so you would have to stay hidden. Good luck, it's not easy anymore!

 

Stillcrazy, do the Teepee Valley folk still arrive early and set a teepee circle or has that changed since Sid's death? If they're still there they would be a good connection to make because if they still come they'll know all the crews won't they?

 

There's still a tipi field, but Glastonbury has been really "cleaned up" since the old days. I don't know who camps in the tipi field these days, I know a few people who bring their tipis and camp there, but I'm not sure who everyone else is anymore. Several years ago, Michael Eavis, who owns the land, fell out with the travellers, and I don't know if the Tipi Valley lot were included in that.

This is not to be confused with the posh Tipi Field, where they rent out brand new tipis to rich wannabees for huge sums of money so that people can play hippie for a weekend. The "real" tipi field is still around, it might be worth checking it out. Clue: the posh Tipi Field is laid out in straight lines, the real tipi field is quite anarchic.

I can't give out any names of people on the internet to help the orginal poster.....I could lose my own job at Glastonbury and it's already hard enough to get crew jobs.

Nice to talk to you Ranger, I've missed you.

 

We get there about a week before the festival and they usually haven't issued wristbands yet, so we have to collect them a couple of days later. So you wouldn't especially stand out until then. But as I said, usually on the Tuesday before the festival, they do a wristband sweep. Quite a few people manage to avoid the sweep though.

If you do get in like that, it's probably a good idea to ask around and see if you can make yourself useful to the crew. That could potentially give you somewhere to camp, as you obviously can't use the public camping fields if you're in early and supposed to be crew!

 

Missed you too Stillcrazy...in the old days the Tipi Valley crew were the first in folk. I got rousted there by the cops along with everyone else as they wanted to search the teepees and as the gals 'cleaned house' we guys ran interference. Tipi Dave in the center of the circle started yelling 'You want to search? Search me!' while stripping buck naked and I got in the way as much as I could demanding they inspect my papers and talking of having come from the All Tribes deligation to the UN. Meanwhile the gals got into the teepees and 'hashed out' the situation and gave us the all clear to let them ln...

 

Lol Ranger! That brings back lots of memories of similar situations!

At the moment, I am frantically sewing clothes for a stall at Glastonbury, a bit pissed off that I didn't know until 6 weeks ago that my handmade clothes were wanted! I will be putting my clothes on someone else's stall or a sale or return basis, but I'm told that my creations are different enough to sell well. A friend described my style as "angry hippie/fluffy punk"! We'll see. Right now my eyes are going doolally from cutting out magenta zebra stripe fabric!

 

Magenta zebra stripe fabric! That should be a real eye catcher...
Good Luck!

 

Cool. I hope they sell well. Alas, Pilton (for that is what Glastofarians call it) is not what it used to be, but some of the local old freaks still attend. There was a fracas involving some of the less friendly travellers a few years ago, after which Michael banned them all I think. The teepee people would not have been involved. There were people among the travellers around then who were not hippies and didn't share a philosophy, whom real old hippies like Rhino, I remember, told to stop pushing all their energy out of their bus tailpipes and start looking after their children. It is a real shame that the old green field lost a lot afterwards. A friend of mine was told that the old festival goers (ie the hippies who really were the original festival) were no longer welcome. Andrew Kerr's 1971 festival was the best and truest to the principles we hold dear (never mind the music, which was excellent) - and all free.

 

The festival has been a fortress for some years now. Best work there like a lot of locals do. I worked at a siteworker's caterers and then a backstage cocktail bar for some years.

 

Crew jobs will be virtually all gone now, and for a lot of them, it's an "old boy's network", i.e. you have to know someone. But it might be worth trying the litterpickers if you want to work. I think you have to pay a deposit, but you get it back after you work. Sorry I can't be more helpful, Pilton nowadays is more or less "everyone for themselves" when it comes to getting in. We are lucky, we have contacts from the old days, but even crew ticket allowance is reducing every year. It's just not what it used to be! On the bright side, the Stones are playing this year!