Glastonbury is the biggest outdoor festival of the performing arts in the World. It is so very special. I first visited around 1984 when there were small free festivals all over the country. Most folk walked in to Glastonbury for free though I think some paid. Today it’s attended by around 175,000 people and tickets cost £225, a huge metal fence 4.5 miles long and 3.5m high keeps ticketless folk out.
Folk that have not been only see it as a live music festival because that is what is shown on TV and it is where the main focus is. I find those big main stages just too big to enjoy live music, you end up just watching a giant TV screen in a field. Instead we head for the smaller venues in the green fields, Shangri La, Block 9 and Glasto Latino. Many of these areas are built using tricks learned from theatre and film set design and have a brilliant atmosphere. We work in the green crafts field, high on the hill above the worst of the mud. This year we were teaching woodcarving. I bought a lovely lime tree and milled it into 6″x9″ blocks bought lots of sets of Pfiel woodcarving tools from the lovely folk at Classic Hand Tools and taught folks the basics of woodcarving. We all had fun but most importantly the family all got free tickets in exchange for our work so it was our annual party together.
Is JoJo carving her oak panel from Maine?