Some people seem to be complaining about the apparent lack of preparation for the rains, the music in the Overkill tent and that generally consideration from the punters point-of-view appeared to be lacking. Then others on here are stating that it was the best Glade that they have ever been to, in terms of community spirit, facing up to adversity and general ethos of the crowd.

I think that for me both of the above angles are true, in terms of there was a definite lacking in preparations being made for heavy rain whilst the crowd did an amazing job of still having a great time. However, I have one issue which was with regards to how the nature of the festival changed. Generally, I find that a Glade day is mixed between sleeping in your tent until just before lunch, getting some food, having a dance, chilling on some grass, wandering around random places, music, grass, wander, etc. until the afternoon/evening carnage properly kicks in, then chilling out in Pussy Parloure or ID Spiral and then bed. But this year that sort of a regualted cycle wasn't possible as there was no grass to sit on, very few seats around the place and anywhere with seats (Pussy Parloue, cafes, Dancing Divas, etc.) were absolutely crammed with people. The result for me (and it would appear to have been for many others as well) was that my days were much more full-on than usual: it was either dancing and getting munted or dancing and getting munted or going back to my tent... (I'm not going to start commenting on how the music also was a lot less raging than the last two years as that's more suitable for another thread...)

Did anyone else find this or is it just my own little experience?

Charlie wrote:Did anyone else find this or is it just my own little experience?

Nah, I think your analysis is pretty reasonable. The weather does affect things no matter how much we try not to let it. The inability to sit down and chill makes a big difference, as it does at Glasto.

I'd agree with a large proportion of what your saying m8,

I think the spirit was imencly improved by the adversity of the weather,

the buzz when the rain stoped on friday was unreal...

question is, does a heatwave make the glade. answer, no. but it certainly made it magical.

this time it was people's fighting spirit.

It would depend on a number of things. For example I was incredibly lucky - we pitched up on Thursday when it was dry, the spot we chose didn't have a river running through it, I got up at 7am on Friday to make sure I got some wellies (especially being size 12) and waterproofs, there was always some of our crew at the camp so no randoms used it as a walkway and thus it didn't get churned up, and at the end we got out of the carpark after 20 minutes thanks to a bit of scouting mission on how we could do it.

With all that in my favour, for me the festival was brilliant. However had I been trudging round for 3 days in my soaking clothes and mud-fecked trainers, with a waterlogged tent to sleep in and a 12 hour wait in the car park on the way home, my thoughts would probably be very different. There were a lot of things that could have gone badly wrong for people and it's easy to push aside one or two of these, but eventually you're going to snap.

Not being able to wander around definitely affected it, and with the music on offer, the company I was with and the vibe throughout I can't help thinking that it would have been the best of the 3 I've been to if only the weather had held out. As it was, it was still excellent. But I think for some people the weather put an immediate downer on things from which it was hard to recover.

To me the Glade Festival is all about lazing around near the open stages, and that is why I left. I take my hat off to those that stayed and still enjoyed the whole experience, but it is not for me. Maybe it's cos I'm old.

SiCo wrote:Maybe it's cos I'm old.

And lightweight.

thats pretty much what pushed me and my gf to head off saturday morning, after wandering from our tents near gate 1 to id spiral at about 10am i had a sit down with the wife and realised the only way I'd manage having to cope with all that mud was with an awful lot of mdma and a bit of anything else that i could get my hands on.

my gf isn't a big drug person, and I haven't got high for about a year or so. so it wasn't really worth it for me.

the majority who stayed and stuck through it clearly managed to enjoy themselves, though I imagine i'd have still been fucked off with what happened with the overkill stage, since thats the stage that I paid my 120 quid for.

largely based on gleek's (who's a guy I'll listen to as far as rigs and gigs go) very strongly worded reflection on this year's glade I am glad I didn't stick around as I'd have probably cried after venetian snares stormed off midway through his set.

anyway, we went to reading on saturday, stayed in a b+b and went round the town center on sunday, which was nice.

a horde of stampeding elephants couldnt have made me leave early.. guess i was more prepared (or just lucky) than most..

it seemed obvious to me to buy wellies before i went, did no one else check the weather forecast?

the only flooding i saw all weekend was by overkill, i'm glad i didnt travel between friday and sunday!

SiCo wrote:To me the Glade Festival is all about lazing around near the open stages, and that is why I left. I take my hat off to those that stayed and still enjoyed the whole experience, but it is not for me. Maybe it's cos I'm old.

ditto.

i'm not bitter, being philosophical i knew i could still enjoy my weekend. i bought more clothes this time but feared i would use them all and be encrusted in mud, like swamp thing! couldn't get on trains & buses like that! wish i had a car now, somewhere to chuck yer mucky gear.

funny how, when the weathers right, i come out of glade cleaner & smelling nice compared to how i would on a normal night out!!

i am rather jealous now though

anyone who left is a huge silly billy!!!!

My boyfriend and i couldn't afford wellies so we charged around in bare feet during the day and when it got too cold for our poor wee tootsies at night we went back to the tent and binged on special brownies! Going back to the tent at night meant that we could really go nuts during the day instead of just lazing around, so i actually preferred the change in routine.

rainbowgirl wrote:anyone who left is a huge silly billy!!!!

My boyfriend and i couldn't afford wellies so we charged around in bare feet during the day and when it got too cold for our poor wee tootsies at night we went back to the tent and binged on special brownies! Going back to the tent at night meant that we could really go nuts during the day instead of just lazing around, so i actually preferred the change in routine.

An interesting way of making the situation work for you.

I spent about an hour in a really really long queue before I realized it was an ATM and not drugs someone was selling...................

Sperge wrote:

SiCo wrote:Maybe it's cos I'm old.

And lightweight.

shocking

"silly billy" is a nice way of putting it.

I left because everything got muddy, the tent was leaking, I didn't have any wellies and getting anywhere was so tiring, I couldn't properly stomp (and I like to BROCK OUT in the overkill tent) and everyone was just standing around most of the time, my fiancee lost a bag full of stuff, she hadn't been to a camping festival before and wasn't enjoying it so I was putting effort into lifting her spirits, I lost all my gear so that was all that effort getting it sorted and money wasted, and I just couldn't hack it any more.

It's a shame too, cos looking at the photos so far leaves me both gutted and pissed off even more at the amount of money I wasted, and that I'm now back at work, feeling completely demoralised

fuck the mud and the weather i had a great time!

I went with tent and waterproofs as i had read the weather forecast. Set up camp on the thursday, was stuck in my tent for 11 hours as i waited for the rain to stop....Friday afternoon, 1pm, ran out of my tent to greet the mud.

To be honest, i had a good festival this year as i was able to spend more time getting to know the people i was camping with and my neighbouring campers.
Although the spirit was (kind of) there, i didn't have as much of a great time as i did last year....
I agree with those who have said that those who were mashed 24/7 had a much better time than those who weren't.
I have never at Glade been off my face 24/7, but i was this yr, becasue a) i had nothing better to do and b) it made the time go quicker.

I really don't know if i'll be going next year, not because of the weather, but this is my 4th Glade, and i feel i've experianced Glade in everyway. I'd like to go back in a couple of years tho....

yup the original post completely sums it up for me...trying to work out why i feel so much worse this week than i have done the previous 2 glades...because there was no chilling out...it was either getting fucked up and raving or attempting to sleep in a damp tent. still had just as good a time as previous 2 years, just a bit more intense...

i had the best time ever, as good as the other glades, jus different.

there was always somewhere to sit if you looked

the atmosphere from people was amazing too. i had the best giggle ever.

spent the entire time walking around laughing my tits off

silly billy! yes!!!

the thing that niggles me slightly is if i go next year will there be something else i was totally unprepared for!

like, last year i burned, no sun cream. what did & what didn't i bring this year?!

doh!!

yeah i'm a big silly billy. rejoice!!