In 1970, Glastonbury was a humble new festival for ‘free thinking people’. Entry cost £1 and you were given free milk for the duration.
Today Glastonbury attracts more than a quarter of a million people from all over the world. Tickets cost £335, reassuringly expensive enough to keep the riff-raff out. You’re more likely to pitch your tent next to a corporate lawyer than anyone devoted to the counter-culture. Glasto is the culture now — and in 2023 the culture is the exorbitant cost-of-living. A pint of beer at the festival costs £7; half a pint of Coca Cola is £3.
Most events at Left Field could easily be staged at the Tory party conference later this year
Glastonbury is still primarily about music, thank goodness. The festival continues to attract stratospheric talents — young and old. This year it will be Guns N Roses, Lana Del Rey, Arctic Monkeys, and Blondie, among many others. But it’s also about politics and, increasingly, very safe bourgeois politics posing as left-wing radicalism.
The festival’s success is down to its founder Michael Eavis, who has pushed boundaries and rejected conventional ideas as to what is cool. In 2008 Noel Gallagher criticised the organisers’ decision to choose Jay Z, the biggest hip hop star in the world, to headline. Mr Z responded with the rebuttal ‘that bloke from Oasis said I couldn’t play guitar, somebody shoulda told him I’m a fucking rockstar’. He knew he oozed rock and roll regardless.
But the appeal of Glastonbury is meant to be escapism, the freedom from judgement and the stifling rules which dictate everyday life – no one will look down you if you have a vodka Red Bull and pinger for breakfast or if you haven’t showered in five days. You can be free from responsibility, from the grip of mobile phones, emails and expectations.
That element is becoming lost – because attending Glastonbury is now a social (upper middle class) and political (leftie) environment. The ‘free thinking’ is gone. It’s now just tired Corbynism, reheated and repeated.
This year, in the ‘Left Field’ area, there will again be a series of events curated by Billy Brag, inevitably. These include: ‘One Minute to Midnight: Can politics deliver on Climate Action?’, featuring Ed Miliband and John Harris; ‘Power in a Union: A Year of Strikes and Solidarity’. There’s also ‘Can we save the NHS’, featuring something called ‘We own it’.
‘As the shape of the post-pandemic world begins to form, it’s clear that people are more willing to stand up and be counted,’ says Bragg. ‘Workers are striking, agitators are mobilising, and the fight for truth and justice is becoming ever more urgent. At Left Field, we’re responding to this clamour by bringing you voices from the front line of the struggle in debate and performance.’
This radical talk, from a 65-year-old white male, rings false. Most events at Left Field could easily be staged – with only slightly different casts – at the Tory party conference later this year. It’s also all so conspicuously boring. Each ‘debate’ will be another ‘set’ — a rehearsed routine without the musical relief.
Perhaps Glastonbury needs to appeal to its younger audience, who aren’t interest in hedonism and causing trouble. Gen Z famously drink less — at £7 a pint you can’t blame them. They disagree less too, instead of arguing in the pub they’re interested in social issues and self improvement.
That’s all well and good, but it’s not rock n’ roll and we should all stop pretending that it is.
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