subject: Glastonbury in style [print this page] As a regular attendee at Glastonbury I promise myself every year that the next time I do it, I'll do it in style. Desperate to avoid another mud bath, this year I kept to my promise. Here is my experience of Glastonbury from a rather more civilised perspective.
This year my journey began at Haltwhistle in Northumberland. That's where I went to pick up my fab Orange VW Camper called Lucille'. Lucille is a beautiful piece of German engineering and is deceptively comfortable (there was just myself and my wife embarking on this trip). In addition to the camper hire we also opted for the cooked breakfast package which includes a full hamper of goodies which you can bang on the stove on your first morning.
Once all the paperwork was sorted we headed off. The drive to Glastonbury takes approximately 6 hours. We took a leisurely pace; stopping off a few times to make a cuppa - but the drive down was a "very pleasant experience" as the wife put it. We also managed to stop a local supermarket in Penrith to stock up on supplies.
Upon arrival at the festival we were directed to designated area where we could park up. In order to sleep in a camper you need to purchase a special ticket (75) along with your festival tickets. It's well worth it. Now over the years I've paid attention to savvy campers and picked up a few tips so we'd packed useful accessories like head torches, batteries and my ultimate take-along - an outdoor bean bag (you won't appreciate one until you've tried it). Please people - don't forget the accessories!
Once we were sorted we headed off for the bands and as usual there were the good performances and the bad ones - but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Walking back to Lucille we passed the toilets and we both felt a sigh of relief that for this year at least we could give them a miss.
Another major improvement on previous years was the ability to properly cook a meal in a clean environment. The breakfast was AMAZING (I like my cooked breakfasts) and we ate proper' cooked meals for the whole weekend. The luxury of having a proper bed to sleep in wasn't lost on us either and although I'm not saying that the site wasn't noisy (it was) I slept better than at any other festival I've been to.
More plus points were clean and dry clothes, DVDs, radio and mobile broadband. It was fantastic. So after 2 days of musical enjoyment we left the site and headed back. I can honestly say that this year was by far the nicest festival experience I've had and I'll be opting for Campers over camping from now on.
If you've always fancied going to a festival but have been put off by the camping give it a try.
