newbie
undisambiguated
J77 said:
Indeed. What has made Glastonbury so special is the emphasis on creating a participative event for those who are there. It's changing, of course. Now there's a lot of focus on the entertainement for Mr & Ms couch Britain who watch the McCartneys on the TV. There's also, troublingly, signs of a management culture. One that's as much concerned with bottom line profit for shareholders as for providing extra value for attendees (eg I sensed less effort on painting fences and bins this year, so there were more slabs of green fencing which smacked of money being saved rather than spent on creativity for us who were there). Although, not to be negative, in places the spark really was still there: the white tunnel was absolute magic and so much nicer than last years horrid walkway.
But those changes stem from the massive increase in popularity (not to mention a cultural change towards seeing festival as passive consumer entertainment, rather that communal, active bring what you seek to find). As ever more people have found out what fun it is there have had to be compromises. Back in the day, when a few tens of thousands paid to go through the wooden entrance at the top of Muddy Lane, and a few thousands wandered across the back fields where there wasn't a fence, most of the modern issues weren't on the radar. The two node years, where the changes have been most dramatic, were whichever year in the 80s was so gangster ridden it led to police on site forever more, and 2000. Both, in their way, responses to increased popularity; both necessary if the festie was to continue; both marking the end of an era; both causing nostalgia for what went before.
