I've never been to the festival, and it's certainly not on my bucket list. I steer well clear of it for all sorts of reasons:
1) I don't enjoy camping
2) I keep away from drugs
3) I don't like staying up late
4) I get nervous in large crowds
5) It's no fun wading through mud
6) I don't want to be rained on
7) I dislike long queues for awful food and squalid toilets
8) I'm likely to be so far from the stage I can barely hear the music
9) I don't like being surrounded by litter
10) I prefer to listen to CDs in the comfort of my own home
I've only been to an outdoor rock festival once, and that was the Isle of Wight festival in 1969, which featured Bob Dylan, the Who and 29 other bands, most of them now long-forgotten.
I can remember very little of the music, partly as I say because of the distance from the stage, partly because I spent so long queuing for food, partly because I was exhausted and sleeping. So even without taking drugs I managed to miss most of it. Rather a waste of the admission charge, which no doubt was astronomical.
As I've explained before, I haven't been camping since I was 13, when I went to a Scout camp and was solidly rained on for a fortnight. Everything was swimming in mud, the tents were leaking, my clothes were permanently damp, and I couldn't wait to get home again.
Some people may enjoy roughing it for a few days, but I think I'll stick to my domestic comforts and all mod cons.
Not to speak of the price of tickets to be rained on/dehyrdated for lack of water points, live in insanitary conditions and all the other joys you note...
ReplyDeleteIt takes a certain type of personality to enjoy this kind of outdoor entertainment and you don't have it. And neither do I.
ReplyDeleteSome of my friends had enormous fun at some of these and can disregard everything you listed in their blissful enjoyment at the camaraderie and music and the actual experience of coming together.
Daughter would go back to Burning Man in a heartbeat. I would find it an appalling form of hell.
XO
WWW
Your list looks exactly like mine! I've actually never camped, but I know I would hate every minute of it. Hubby says I can't say that having never tried it, but I say you don't have to try some things to know you won't like them. I've never been struck by lighting or bitten by a shark either, but I know I wouldn't like it.
ReplyDeleteThe only outdoor concert I've ever been to was to see Tori Amos. I love her music; one of her CDs is in my car CD player now, but I didn't enjoy the concert. It was in Georgia in July, so HOT, and I could hear untalented fans butchering the songs better than I could hear her singing them. Plus at home, or in the car with the CD, you can play the songs you love over and over again and skip the ones you don't like.
www: Indeed, a certain type of person enjoys everything about Glastonbury, however rough and ready, and good luck to them. But it's not for me.
ReplyDeleteDanielle: You're right about not having to try something to know if you'd like it or not. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like being kidnapped or nibbled by rats.
Good point about the discordant fans drowning out the singer. And yes, if you play a CD at home you can just play the ones you like.
I've enjoyed camping in the past, but I don't like crowds and loud music so would never go to a concert like that, either indoors or outdoors.
ReplyDeleteWe don't even like the local evening concerts in the park. Way too many mosquitos. And you haul all that gear out there just to have to haul it all back again. Once was enough.
ReplyDeleteI gave up camping in the eighties, and that included a bed with a mattress camping. There was a band that groupies used to follow. The Living Dead? I can't remember. Once the band mentioned performed by me, and my daughter brought a group of groupies to camp in my studio and have running water and a hot breakfast before joining the fray.
ReplyDeleteJean: The sound levels can be quite deafening sometimes. I can remember when I was young a few concerts that left my ears ringing for hours. Luckily no permanent damage!
ReplyDeleteLinda: Talking of all the gear, so-called disposable tents are now very common over here. Hundreds of them just get left behind for the concert organisers to deal with and they probably end up in landfill.
Joanne: They were lucky to get running water and a hot breakfast before setting out. I can imagine most festival-goers must be pretty grimy by the time they go home!
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be a coach potatoe. Listening to a CD has really nothing to do with an open air concert. Your list what you do not like and all the lists you posted already on different subjects seem endless.
ReplyDeleteChloe: Well, if you don't like my posts, you're welcome to stop reading them. Of course listening to a CD has nothing to do with a live concert. I simply prefer the former to the latter.
ReplyDeleteAnd no way am I a couch potato. I can't stay still for five minutes. Ask my partner.
I'm not critisising , it's only a statement and I'm just surprised about all the things you do not like.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of your list. I doubt that we ever would have enjoyed an outdoor rock festival, for much the same reasons.
ReplyDeleteCamping, though, is something we've enjoyed for almost as long as we've been together. Our very first camping trip was tent camping in Yellowstone National Park when our first-born was just a few months old. We now have a 25 foot long motorhome for our camping, so, at our age, we're not really roughing it.
Chloe: I imagine most people have a long list of dislikes and a long list of likes. Isn't that normal?
ReplyDeleteMike: Jenny has always hankered after a campervan/motorhome but we just wouldn't use it enough to justify the expense. And I prefer holidays where I don't have to do any driving.
I must say, that I'm not so focused on my person. The only thing where I have real dislikes is in politics.
ReplyDeleteI have had my share of roughing it out school day camping and during the early days of my travelling job / career when India did not have the kind of connectivity that it now has. I have slept on railway waiting room benches, on the floor etc and have travelled by bullock carts and used to bicycles to travel to distant villages from main towns. I learnt a great deal from such roughing it out which lessons stood me in great stead in my fairly rapid growth subsequently.
ReplyDeleteI however would not like to get there now with my physical condition being what it is but, your post revived some very poignant memories. Thank you.
Chloe: How about religion? Or veganism? Or modern art? Or tattoos? Or plastic surgery?
ReplyDeleteRamana: Sounds like you've done quite a lot of roughing-it, and learnt a lot on the way. I can't say I've ever travelled by bullock cart. Pillion passenger on a motorbike is about all I can offer!
Well I have an opinion about all this, but no likes or dislikes. I do not see the interest.
ReplyDeleteChloe: That's an interesting distinction between an opinion and like/dislike. I need to think about that. For example, you can say that X is a terrible driver, but that doesn't mean you like or dislike them, you're just giving an opinion on their driving skills?
ReplyDeleteNever been tempted to go to a music festival, for all the reasons you mention, plus my inability to deal with crowds.
ReplyDeleteLike you, Nick, I prefer a little comfort in life!
Captain Custard: Crowds are really frustrating, because you can only move at the speed of the crowd, which is usually a snail's pace. Also I hate being hemmed in by other people. I like plenty of space around me.
ReplyDeleteI had a day pass for the first V Festival in 1996, Hylands Park - it was really good actually! Very hot, and food was good. And I hate crowds! Pulp were the headlining act. I couldn't do the camping bit though - and the loos were horrible.
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Ms Scarlet: That shows how out of touch I am, I've never even heard of the V Festival. Apparently it's still going under the new name Rize Festival. Every rock venue I've ever attended has had horrible loos. I think they must only clean them every five years.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of camping and a music festival would be a nightmare to me with the crowds. My oldest daughter went to one overnight one and my son went to a 4 day one in Canada. Daughter hated every minute of it, but my son loved it. I think you have to be a super easygoing type to enjoy such a thing.
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ReplyDeleteToo many typos, so I'm starting over!
ReplyDeleteIt's not my thing, either. I don't particularly like crowds and prefer at least simple accommodations. A rustic cabin, even, but not so much a tent.
Yes, a mystery to me why people like festivals too. But then I often don't like the music either, and never have, even when I was young. At least, not enough to make a special effort to listen to lots of it. Which is strange since I do like music and often listen to live music in more civilised surroundings!
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