One of the problems of having a festival on a dairy farm in the middle of nowhere is that roads designed for the odd horse has to cope with 175,000 people arriving from all over the country and indeed world.
Whilst the festival itself has a massive phone mast thanks to EE’s sponsorship, on the small roads leading to the festival you are often lucky to get a G data signal nevermind 4g.
Nevertheless technology can be a wonferful thing. Last year we were stuck in a massive tailback because 1 campervan had broken down. when i finally connected to google maps i spotted a turn off that amazingly wasnt red! We were skeptical but managed to whizz down to the festival gates in a few minutes, saving us literally hours sittimg in traffic. Try doing that with a paper map!
This year the oracle (google maps, not teletext) told us the roads were quiet. We were sceptical but it turned out to be true.
There was one little hiccup where the AA sign said Glastonbury festival straight on but google maps and GPS both told us to turn right.
Split second decision. Did the technology know a sneaky route avoiding the traffic?
After the third round of AA signs saying no access to Glastonbury festival / recalculating, we turned back and traffic was fine.
Another technological marvel is a kindle packed with childrens shows to keep the little one amused!
In my day I had to wait for the summer holidays to catch my favourite show (Top Cat) but kids growing up with on demand get used to watching what they want when they want!
Unfortunately he can neither reach the tablet on the headrest nor read the list of titles as he can’t read yet! So we had a couple of stops at services to change show!
I had looked at all sorts of solutions so that I could change show from the front, from running a monitor from the kindle in the front to using team viewer, but each ran into problems.
The relatively smooth drive wasn’t matched by the trip from car park to camp site! A 20kg tent, 14kg of chairs etc etc etc were too much for out trolley even though it claims it can handle 150kg. It kept toppling over and the axels bent.
But we were luckier than many with the same trolley who’s wheels came off all together.
After 4hrs of stopping and starting we finally reached the welcome sight of the camp site!
When I came on my own I threw my tent open, pinned it down and I was good to go! Taking it down was another story.
Big family tents are of course less easy! How do you put up a tent which needs 2 people to erect whilst keeping a 3 year old amused on the hottest day of the year after a 4 hour slog? With great difficulty that’s how!
When I was a kid and I was thirsty I’d eat a digestive biscuit or pack of salty crisps to make myself even thirstier so that I’d enjoy my cup of tea even more!
Likewise after a gruelling few hours, the simple pleasure of our regular meet at the cider bus, catching up with friends from across the country and beyond who we haven’t seen since last year, and a drink in your hand becomes a monumental pleasure!
We also got a good tip, where usually I’d go to the stone circle to watch fireworks, turns out from the back of the pyramid you can see all 3 sets of fireworks! I didn’t even know there were other fireworks!
The wee man was full of beans, after much running around we got a rather nice pizza and back to the tent!
The gruelling afternoon nearly forgotten, and my Sunday it will be but a distant memory!
