Glasto Goodness Part 17 – 2017

I went to Glastonbury for 20 years between 1997 and 2017, amazingly missing out on tickets just once (the rivers of mud festival in 2005!)

I’ve managed to piece together every programme, mini guide, ticket and mud-spattered wristband that’s been hidden away in boxes up in my attic for years (see them all here!) Sadly my addled old brain is incapable of piecing together enough memories to write a review for each year so here’s some great footage and photos I have found from Glastonbury 2017.

As this summer draws to a close so does my series of ‘Glasto Goodness’ blog posts. 2017 was the last year I was able to get a ticket for the festival and I am fully expecting it to be my last.

This was a landmark year as I celebrated both my 50th birthday and my 20th year anniversary of going to the festival. As a result we had an almighty blow out – one of my favourite years at Worthy Farm – and it felt great to have most of our Glasto gang back together following the sad events of 2016. Looking back now, and judging by the amount of photos and video footage I took, I must have sensed that Glastonbury 2017 was going to be my last one. I vaguely remember suggesting to some of our group that I might retire and hang up my old (walking) boots which had served me well at the festival for 20 years. Even if tickets were readily available in future years this just felt like it might be the right time to close this chapter of my life and to let somebody else have the chance of a golden ticket.

Four years on and that feeling hasn’t really changed. I still get a buzz from watching archive festival footage but the thought of trying to get a ticket and the ongoing disappointment of missing out has dampened my spirits for good. I think I’m getting too old for all that stress and for a week of partying hard and sleeping in a tent. I’m also not desperate enough to go to the festival that I’ll sign up to work on the gates there or empty the bins like a couple of my more dedicated mates have done in recent years! I think my only chance of going back to those fields in Somerset is if my talented stepson Youngr was asked to play the Pyramid Stage and we bagged ourselves some guest passes…what do you reckon Dario…?! 😉

For the above reasons I consider Glastonbury 2017 to be a special year even though the overall lineup wasn’t the strongest in my opinion. Standout performances came from Radiohead and the Foo Fighters, who headlined the Pyramid on Friday and Saturday respectively. Nile Rogers and Chic were also a class act who got the crowd jigging on a very sunny Sunday afternoon. Other highlights were ‘shoe gaze’ legends Ride who played the John Peel Stage, Elbow (secret set on The Park stage), King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (who we watched twice over the weekend – at Williams Green and on the John Peel Stage) and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn who drew one of the biggest crowds to the Pyramid on Saturday afternoon (yes, seriously – we couldn’t get near it!)

My artefacts

My programme, mini-guide, ticket stub and wristband from Glastonbury 2017

The Poster

My trusty old boots which survived 20 years of Glasto mud. Have I finally hung them up?

Some video Highlights:

Blossoms (“from Stockport”) returned to Glastonbury for their second appearance in 2017

Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg from First Aid Kit – Friday on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2017

Amateur footage of Ride – making their comeback on the John Peel Stage – Glastonbury 2017

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. We enjoyed these so much at Williams Green we watched them again when they played on the John Peel Stage. Apparently they also played at The Crows Nest so they got about the site that weekend!

Wish I’d seen his set on The Park stage but I didn’t (I was ignorant of his music until more recently). Mark Lanegan at Glastonbury 2017.

Nile Rogers and Chic got a full on DISCO going on at a very sunny Pyramid Stage, Sunday afternoon at Glastonbury 2017

The Foo Fighters opening their superb headline set on the Pyramid Stage 2 years after the band were forced to pull out of the festival when Dave Grohl broke his leg in 2015. This was one of my all time favourite Glasto performances.

It seems fitting to ‘fade out’ this post with the incredible Radiohead headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2017.
I think this was the 4th or 5th time I saw them at the festival and their performance in 1997 was a highlight of my very first Glastonbury.

More videos over on my YouTube Channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCguHEaFVq9S4984aR9oxDTg/playlists?view_as=subscriber

Some Photo Memories – are you in any of them?!