Sunday morning-afternoon is a lethargic time, nevermind hangovers and lack of sleep, people are actually physically exhausted from standing, dancing, walking and trudging across a muddy site. Happily, it was sunny, easy like a Sunday afternoon actually. Lionel Richie kept us entertained to start our day of gig-going. As we stood on the periphery of the Pyramid Stage area, the crowd felt a little flat, clearly, like ourselves, lacking the energy and maybe even enthusiasm to plough into the crowd any further. ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’ and ‘Easy Like Sunday Morning’ drew the greatest reaction from the crowd but Lionel certainly did his best to keep up the banter with the audience – there it was again the ‘I can’t believe I’m playing Glastonbury’ face – in fact, his words were ‘About time!’. In what I believe was a reference to the Tunisia terrorist attacks that had taken place two days previously, Lionel urged us to be kind to each other, followed by a rendition of ‘We are the World’. I felt it missed the spot but he had good intentions.

Alt-J basked in the Sunday afternoon sunshine, drawing a smaller crowd then I would have envisaged. I enjoyed this set more than I thought I would. Sometimes Alt-J just seem a little fluffy for me but this experience reminded me that they can actually rock-out like the best of them. Colourful lyrics spawned entertaining conversations amongst our number, e.g. ‘..turn you inside out and lick you like a crisp packet…’, ahem. Sadly, I felt the production on the live footage that was being screened was distracting and well, overproduced. Lead singer, Joe Newman was certainly impressive with his live vocal ability. All in all, a great set that paved a way the way for the giants of rock ‘n’ roll.

Paul Weller and The Who would not have necessarily have been on my to-see list. I did watch the first 5 or so songs from Weller, which included ‘Changing Man’ and enjoyed it thoroughly. Looking very sharp, Weller seemed a little out of place in his well-tailored trousers and cashmere jumper. Nevertheless, he gave a high energy performance that was well received by the crowd and the perfect precursor to the headliners.

It’s at about this time you realise – right well I won’t be at the Pyramid Stage again this year or I won’t pass the Beat Hotel again this year, so you better pop in. Which we did and it’s pretty much like being transported to any Ibiza-uber club, and completely unintentionally happening upon Groove Armada and then the 2 Bears. We had some libations in the form of Pineapple Expresses (aka tequilla with pineapple and sherbet) and danced a merry dance ’til it was time to head for our final main stage performance of the weekend.

The final gig I saw in 2013 was Phoenix on the John Peel Stage and it was brilliant but it certainly had the air of a finale. The Chemical Brothers, from the first track they played, made the crowd feel it was the first night and they were going to lead us into one giant fiesta. And it never really stopped. Having seen The Chemical Brothers headline Rockness in 2007; even way back then it felt like they were past their best. They’ve had mixed success with records since then but this was like a band unleashed. Which was only supported and enhanced by a brilliant, eclectic, mind-bending, strange, non-stop video which accompanied the whole performance on the Other Stage.

A further embellishment came along in the form of two giant robots, that descended onto the stage and proceeded to shoot LED lights from their eyes whilst transmitting more imagery from the giant screens on their torsos. This was the most constant, relentless celebration of the weekend and was the highlight of the festival. A surprise and a delight brought to us in the form of a spectacular back catalogue and some new tracks, such as the infectious, ‘Go’ that left the crowd wanting more, and there was no doubt they would have stayed happily right where they were but for the inevitable end to main stage activity across the festival.

Our Glastonbury didn’t end there when we made the pilgrimage to Shangri-La our first and only of the weekend, mostly because of the sheer logistics of getting off site from there. A compulsory trip to Block 9 was frustrating as we really didn’t have any time left to explore the wonderfully tempting venues in this dystopian landscape. A extremely funny Drag Queen who was channeling Emelie Sande nearly tempted us into NYC Downlow but we pushed on for our final destination.

On route we encountered folk, disco, punk, soul and techno, to main but a few of the genres on route. We traipsed between venues, enjoying many different sites and sounds and meeting lots of happy, content, sometimes inebriated, people.
We rounded off our night dancing in one of the smaller clubs, the DJ looking like someone famous in disguise with a cowboy hat covering long blonde hair, a blonde moustache and glasses. He did me a huge favour though, and played that tune I had so been hoping to hear in anticipation of my time at Glastonbury, ‘Universal Everything’ by Leftfield. I was completely content thereafter and happy to leave this wonderful place that we have been lucky enough to experience for a second time.

Epilogue

Having decided to remain in Glastonbury for a day of recovery we made our way into the village early on Monday evening. Like any other time we were there in the previous 3 days, you could not actually tell there was a massive festival taking place down the road (except for in Tesco where the cider was literally stacked to the roof). Up to that point, everyone we met, including our absolutely delightful landlady, were so welcoming and happy for us to be there.
This was the first point of the weekend where we felt unwelcome. I feel I have to include this in the blog because it was part of my experience and speaks to a local perspective. Two women sitting beside us in a local restaurant basically berated us for going to the festival (although one seemed to turn on the other and defend us after a while), the basic gist was we were unwelcome, the festival has nothing to do with Glastonbury, it should be called the Pilton festival and Burt Bacharach is a joke. It was unnecessary; happily no-one got hurt.

That was the only negative experience of the weekend, Glastonbury is like no other festival, it’s the people, the performances, the history, the hippies, the philosophy of the festival, the good vibes, the facilities, the food, the venues, the choice, all the things you see and do and all the things you never get around to. Which ultimately means you’ll just have to go again when the planets align. Amen to that.