Oh my goodness me; I cannot believe it has been a whole week and a day since the last day of Glastonbury Festival! I must crack on and do my review before I completely forget everything! I’ve written loads, so I’ll split it into two parts….
In the evening we joined most of the 150,000 people on site, crammed into the sacred
Thursday, although not really one of the main days of the festival, had my worst band clashes of the weekend! We watched The Drystones – sort-of friends of my daughter’s and played at her 18th birthday party. I have to say I think they did a better job then 2 years ago, than seeing them this time at the Avalon Cafe. There was too much up and downs – they’d get the crowd going and then slow it right down again half a minute later. You didn’t know whether to sit down or get up and dance – most frustrating! Due to not being bothered to move (it was very hot) we watched Tell Tale Tusk who happened to be on next. Definitely the best accidental band I saw all festival and one of the best bands full stop. Electric folk pirate stuff with beautiful vocals and great songs. The power blew about 3
Then it was over to the Greenpeace field for a swing dance lesson. This was really good fun and the group continued to do demonstrations and lessons even though they obviously
So Friday came, along with the rain. The first act to see was the Stephen Frost Improv all-
Then it was Wolf Alice at the Park. Why is the Park so far away?! And it really chucked it down – we got soaked. Good job the music was worth it. We watched Wolf Alice at the John Peel stage last year and were brilliant then too. I didn’t see anyone leave due to the weather, so I think everyone agreed with me. A little bit of old-fashioned crowd-surfing finished the set off nicely.
Then to the Cabaret tent to watch the most awful comedian ever! Chris caught her set last year and would have left if it wasn’t for the rain. How did she get invited back? No-one was laughing at all. The rain stopped and I caught the and of Lulu at the Avalon stage. The re-jig of that field is really good in the fact that the cafe stage has the space it deserves and the actual main stage I think is higher, so I could see her really well even though the tent was full and I was right back by the bar. They also turned the volume up so the sound was good too (though I don’t know if that affected the act on in the cafe). Back to Cabaret for a bit. Then back to Avalon later in the evening for Molotov Jukebox. Most of these bands I’d never heard of before, but found through recommendations of the genre ‘Gypsy Punk’ on the E-festivals forums. Molotov Jukebox don’t quite fit into this category, but I’m not sure exactly which genre it would come under. I spotted a mention in the Electric Swing message board as well. There is a brass band, guitars, violin, drums and fronted by Natalia Tena (recognisable from Game of Thrones and as Tonks in Harry Potter) singing with a surprisingly high voice and playing the accordion. It’s very much a Mexican, carnival vibe going on, so lots of dancing and fun. Thoroughly enjoyable and discovered another band I definitely want to see more of.
On the way back we came by the Pyramid stage and watched the last few songs of Florence and the Machine. She was putting on an amazing show and I felt quite sorry for her as I’d never seen that field so empty for a headlining act – I think everyone went to see Rudimental. It is a shame Foo Fighters cancelled (particularly as they managed the 4th July gig). It was the main band I’d been looking forward to.