What was your first festival?

[Dubversion]

1987 Glasto....I was diversifying from metal and New order, Elvis costello and julian cope broadened my mind.....(as did the pot I had just discovered).

that was a mad Costello set. didn't he do three - one acoustic, one just him and a drum machine, and then for the 'encore' wheel out a full band?

that was the year i didn't go and see Husker Du because they had a stupid name. It was their last UK gig

i've punched myself in the face for that repeatedly ever since.

 

[Xanadu]

Reading 2001. I had just turned 17. I got pretty stoned within a few minutes of putting up my tent.

 

[moose]

Deeply Vale, 1978.
Misty in Roots, The Ruts, Here and Now, Nik Turner, Steve Hillage, The Fall, Durutti Column, and a whole lot of mud.

 

[Ground Elder]

Brief visit to Rougham around 83 (?), but first proper festival, (i.e one where where I wandered off, got very stoned with strangers, lost my tent and danced for the first and last time to a samba band), was probably WOMAD in 1985.

 

[nick]

Elephasnt Fair in cornwall or somewhere - 1984, just after my A levels were done with.

Worked on a stall selling army surplus - remember seeing Linton Kwese Johnson while tripping

 

[Cpatain Rbubish]

I did acid on one of those festi...sat on a hill with a bunch of strangers and the man who's only words were ( for several hours):

' You're all nice people. Nice people, going out, doint it' repeat x 100

(it wasn't you, was it? )

I don't think so I did learn a new way to find your friends at festies there though whilst tripping. I decided that if I just sat in the middle of one of the busier walkways someone I knew would come past sooner or later. It is now my official means of finding lost peeps at all festies

 

[Cpatain Rbubish]

My first was Glasto 1986 at the tender age of 15, since then they have all kind of melded into one

 

[wiskey]

first proper festival, (i.e one where where I wandered off, got very stoned with strangers, lost my tent and danced for the first and last time to a samba band), was probably WOMAD in 1985.

oh well on that criteria my first festie wasnt until about 1994 (by which point i had been a vast variety of festivals over 14 years).

 

[saucisson]

that was a mad Costello set. didn't he do three - one acoustic, one just him and a drum machine, and then for the 'encore' wheel out a full band?

that was the year i didn't go and see Husker Du because they had a stupid name. It was their last UK gig

i've punched myself in the face for that repeatedly ever since.

yes thats the one....was muddy as well,.....also remember enjoying a triple whammy of PWEI, GAYBykers and Stump on the little stage....(far more primitive than the big multi/nme staged affair it is now). Someone drove a hire van that got stuck in the mud near main stage and it got torched as well I seem to remember.

 

[Biffo]

Also Glasto 86 for me. Couple of weeks before my 18th birthday. Pogues, Cure, Psychodelic Furs, some sun and some rain. Lots of cider and no poos for 4 days!

 

[wiskey]

i tried to research the womad festivals recently to find out how many were in cornwall. i found a site that is very useful (but not for my needs then). if i was ever going to build a website it would be a history of festivals in chronological order.

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

Reading '91, for one day only. And it pissed down with rain.

 

[refugee]

Do Hyde Park things count? If so :-
Jun '68: Pink Floyd, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Roy Harper, Jethro Tull.

If not:-
Isle of Wight, Aug '68: Tyrannosaurus Rex, The Move, Fairport Convention, Jefferson Airplane.

I didn't take a tent or any food to either. But I did take a bottle/tin opener. Made many friends and was kept drunk/fed for the duration.

 

[May Kasahara]

I'm fairly certain it was Glastonbury 1994.

Good memories: Orbital, Dub Syndicate, African Headcharge, Zion Train (when they were still good); sitting in the Saturday sunshine smoking my first blunt and feeling the bass rolling through the ground and my body; the very first memory of all, me leaving my final A level and getting straight into my boyfriend's car to drive down there...

Bad memories: ...with no sleeping bag, no blanket, no nothing (I was very naive ), which led to me getting shouted at; enduring a whole set of Galliano and getting a sunburn on my face because I was too mashed to crawl away in horror; boyfriend driving back half-blind with comedown madness on Monday and having a screaming rage attack at me because we took a wrong turn

 

[northernhord]

My very first festival was the stonehenge free festival 1983, I was a boney young punk rocker, what a fuckin eye opener

 

[Ground Elder]

i found a site that is very useful (but not for my needs then).

That's a great site and I've spent many hours reading the reminiscences on it, but it only really goes up to the early 80s. Surprised no one has done something similar for later festivals as yet.

 

[Phenol]

Glasto 1984 I think
Went on the Saturday morning - came home Sunday morning
Saw The Cure and got mashed!

 

[wiskey]

That's a great site and I've spent many hours reading the reminiscences on it, but it only really goes up to the early 80s. Surprised no one has done something similar for later festivals as yet.

try this one http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/hawkwind/fests92to96.html

and i was suprised too which is why i toyed with the idea of writing one.

 

[fishfingerer]

Feile '94, Thurles. I had journo Eamonn Carr's VIP pass. Spent the entire weekend looking for my girlfriend.

Good: Blur, The Prodigy, Bjork.
Shit: The Cranberries, House Of Pain.

 

[Dandred]

Glastonbury 95 I was 16

 

[Fidel]

Strewberry Fair, I was thirteen drank a can of cider, saw lots of hippies sitting around and pissed skinheads being pissed skinheads around the in the toilet block. It was an eye opener if a little but shit.

Then a big break till stonehenge winter solstice 88 followed by Stonehenge Summer solstice punch up, then Glasto in 89 - The follwing years a bit blurred lots of glastonburys, free frestivals and squats. technivals...

Hazy high sunny memories

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Reading 92, a few days after my GCSE results. Only went for the sunday, but saw an astounding bill consisting of Melvins, Screaming Trees, L7, Pavement, Mudhoney, Bjorn Again, Nick Cave and, of course, the infamous Nirvana gig (the one in which Kurt came on stage in a wheelchair).

That day set me on a course of grunging which dominated much of my mid to late teens...

 

[perplexis]

Womad D) 1999.
Arrived, bought an 1/8 of cheap hash between 5 of us, realised that none of had brought any papers, baccy or other paraphernalia An error I have never repeated...
Can't really remember much of it, lots of hippies and small children everywhere, fabulous weather, saw Afro Celt Soundsytem, some Tako drumming, ummm, yeah, no it really is all a bit of a blur...

 

[editor]

My first several day festival was Reading ....working the beer tent when I was 19 in 1992... can't remember much about it..might have been the one where the stone Roses did an awful set...

Mine was Reading too, way back in the dawn of time when I was a l'il teen.

And here's the dreadful photographic evidence:
http://www.urban75.org/photos/reading/

 

[bluestreak]

hard to say really. i'd done massive all day gigs like metallica at milton keynes, and i'd been to free festivals legal and illegal but i cannae really remember any dates. although my mates had been to glastonbury from about 16 or 17 i never could afford any proper festivals until reading 96, which i guess was my first one. i was in the middle of a nervous breakdown and it pissed down with rain the entire time, and my tent leaked. i was camped with the arrogant wankers i'd been to school with who i realised by then i loathed. so i basically said fuck this shit and went off on my own for the entire festival. had a wonderful time, met loads of cool people, barely slept, saw rage against the machine, black grape, super furry animals, rocket from the crypt, all sorts of silliness happened. great times.

 

[BigTom]

pheonix 96 (assuming my memory is correct.. I also went to reading and V that year but think they were after pheonix).. Ninja tunes tent on sunday.. Nightmares on Wax.. the heat.. I musta watched some indie/rock bands.. but Icant remember any of them..

 

[boohoo]

i was camped with the arrogant wankers i'd been to school with who i realised by then i loathed. so i basically said fuck this shit and went off on my own for the entire festival. had a wonderful time, met loads of cool people, barely slept, saw rage against the machine, black grape, super furry animals, rocket from the crypt, all sorts of silliness happened. great times.

My first glastonbury I went with a bunch of people whose taste in music was quite different from mine and I didn't really enjoy it. The following year, I went with the same bunch and an additional friend or two, had other mates I could hook up with and ended up having a fantastic time!

After last weekend, I kinda realised it's easier not going to festivals with mates cos then you can wonder off and do your own thing and make new friends.

 

[William of Walworth]

After last weekend, I kinda realised it's easier not going to festivals with mates cos then you can wonder off and do your own thing and make new friends.

Where were you last weekend?

 

[Cpatain Rbubish]

although my mates had been to glastonbury from about 16 or 17 i never could afford any proper festivals until reading 96,

Nah, I've hitched to Glasto (can't remember which year this was) with a tenner(ish) in my pocket and 1/4 hash and had a great weekend Didn't go short of anything

 

[pinkfairy]

T in the park '94 or '95 I can't remember. Saw Skunk Anansie for the first time anyway and i remember Elastica playing!! Great weekend I was pretty wasted for the entire weekend and ended up in the advert on t.v for the next year which was pretty cool