Glastonbury 2025 was Glasto at its best.

0:00Miguel Hello and welcome to GlastoCast, the unofficial Glastonbury Festival podcast. And it's here, it's time for a review of Glastonbury Festival 2025. Jessi, we were both at the farm, back together again at the farm. Isn't that amazing?

0:24Jessi Yeah, it was brilliant. And I actually got to find you on multiple occasions, which, you know, we've tried that before and normally I bump into you once and never see you again. But despite the fact we were both working, although I had got my shifts done, it was really nice to see you pre-festival opening, gates opening, um, a couple of times. And then also once, once the gates were open. So it was very nice to see you and we're back on the farm.

0:47Miguel Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, I, I skipped the last 2 editions for various reasons that may come up later in the chat or not. And then of course I wanted to come back, uh, in, uh, volunteering or working capacity and it did happen. And, and it was just great. We will do, uh, separate episode where we're gonna touch more about on your volunteering and working experience. So the focus of this episode is really a review of this edition of the festival.

1:12Jessi So because Miguel was, uh, at the farm, but he was working during the festival all 5 days for 12 hours a day, we thought we would get a 3rd person on, um, because, you know, we all wanna know what happened to me, I'm guessing, during the 5 days that the festival was open and on. Um, but it'd be, we thought it'd be nice to have a, a 3rd person say their experience as well, and then Miguel can chime in with a few things he was able to do too.

1:39Miguel Yes, I did have mostly just nights free. So similar to our previous, uh, festival reviews on the previous years, uh, I'm gonna be asking you questions so you guys can make me jealous and, and, and tell me about all the good bits and miss and, and basically take me there with your own feelings and emotions. Well, I'm sure I'm gonna love it.

1:58Jessi I mean, you were there, Miguel. You were just You know, at the top of back of Big Round, just, uh, making sure things ran smoothly. But you're right, you did have some fun evenings, but we can tell you all about all the times where you were on shift, uh, and beyond.

2:10Miguel Okay, so joining us now we have Nikki, who answered our call on social media because we wanted to have this additional voice of someone who experienced the festival as a whole to help Jessi tell me all the things I missed. Hello, Nikki. Thank you for joining us.

2:27Niki Hey guys, great to be here. Thanks. Thanks for having me.

2:30Miguel Uh, I think, I think I'll, I'll, I'll be making some questions for both of you and then sharing my own experience of, uh, the, what I could enjoy. And I think to, I'll ask for a bit of context because I'm gonna jump right into a big question. So I've been going to, and a reminder to our listeners as well and to ourselves, I've been going to Glastonbury since 2011 and I've been to every single one except the last 2. So this was my comeback year. And Jessi, I think you started going like a year or 2 before me.

2:58Jessi Yeah, my first one was 2009, I want to say, or it might have been 2008, I think. Um, and I've been to every one since as well. I haven't missed any years. Um, obviously fella years. Uh, but this was my first year going as a volunteer. Every other time I've either had a ticket through the normal ticket sale, or for a couple of years I did have a boyfriend that got me in as a plus one. Uh, so my golden Glastonbury goose is no longer. But anyway, so I was a volunteer this year, and does that make it my 3rd It's Glastonbury, 12th. My maths is bad. Anyway, Nikki, how about you?

3:34Niki Yeah, my first one was 2010. And so I think that makes this one that's just gone my 12th. So Jessi, I reckon, I reckon yours is 13th.

3:44Jessi 13th. Okay, great. That's helped. Someone's done the maths and I can just bounce off that. Great.

3:49Miguel So I asked for this context because my first question that is going to set out the rest of the conversation is how do you rate Glastonbury 2000? How do you rank Glastonbury 2025? And I don't need a specific, is my, my, my, just maybe tell me, is it in your top 3? Is it in your top 5? Is it your best one ever? Nicky, I'm gonna, I'm gonna throw it to your guest, the question.

4:13Niki Um, yeah, it's, it's up there. Um, I think it's obviously very hard to choose. I'd say top 3 for sure. Um, I think my first one will always be a bit special, but I think post-COVID, Significantly the best one for sure. But yeah, I'd say, I'd say up there and in the top 3.

4:33Miguel Well, top 3 out of 12. So definitely a really good year. Jessi, what would you like to share for us?

4:40Jessi Well, um, I've been ruminating on this. What a word, hey? Um, since I got home and at first I was thinking like it was amazing, but 2013 has always been the one to beat for me. Like anyone who's listened to this podcast has heard me like go on about 2013 like it was some kind of, I don't know, biblical year. But, um, I actually think I've thought about this a lot and I think this was my favourite Glastonbury ever. I think this, I think this has become my number one. Wow. But I agree with you, Nikki, like definitely, definitely since COVID and we'll go into this, but like something was different this year and I think lots of things felt fixed and lots of things felt better and we can go into that. But like since COVID immediately number one by a long way. But I think in general, actually, this did I think I've been holding 2013 on a pedestal for so long that actually when I objectively think about it, this was better. And I, I, it was my number one.

5:34Miguel Amazing. Thanks for sharing. Yes, I think even though I was working most of the time, half of my days, I think I would say it's top 3 as well, potentially. Uh, and for the same reasons, I feel like I was there quite, I was, I did 12, 12 days of Glastonbury. I was calling it my journey, 12 days of Glastonbury. I was there for 13 at the farm, but 12 days of Glastonbury sounds better. Uh, and by the time my, my, my friends who ticket holders arrived on Wednesday, I was already telling them, uh, nonstop, uh, vintage Glastonbury. I kept repeating because I feel like the same, the same reasons. There was something that was kind of giving me the feelings of my early years at Glastonbury rather than my later years too, that even made me skip a field to give it a break. So probably we can discuss later why is that. Uh, and I think. I think it was Resident Advisor made an article as well, which they call it a powerful reset. So yeah, so I feel like that's the key here and reading comments online and on forums and Discords, it feels like this seems to be quite a consensus. I don't, it's terrible to say the post-COVID, but yeah, definitely it is the better of things then. So it feels like things got fixed and things were working like it used to and you could move around and you could make plans like you wanted instead of doing whatever was And yeah, so I needed to get the context for all your experiences to make this first big question. So it feels like we all have Glastonbury 2005 in our top 3. And Jessi, a very experienced festivalgoer, has the best ever.

7:16Jessi Yes, indeed.

7:17Miguel All right. Awesome. Well, I guess this sets us out for the conversation. So what should we do? Let me get a little bit more from you, Nikhil. So where do you camp?

7:28Niki Where do I camp? So, um, the last few years we've been camping at Kidney Mead, which I absolutely love. Um, I've camped at a few places before, but I think this is our 4th year that we've done, uh, Kidney Mead for, for multiple, for multiple reasons. I think one, now that I'm definitely a bit older, you value a quiet campsite at night and there isn't, it isn't noisy at all in the wee hours of the morning. So you can actually get some, get some sleep. I think it's like really well located. You're just by the Pyramid Stage. Like you can actually hear the acts from the Pyramid Stage at our tent.

8:10Jessi It's just down from Big Ground, isn't it? It's the one like underneath, sort of more towards like Gate C and West Holts.

8:16Niki Yeah.

8:17Jessi So like, yeah.

8:17Niki So where the, where the meeting point and Terminal 1 and all of that is, there's like muddy lane that goes up. So you just go up and then you cut in the hedges and that's sort of where we are. I think that they're like, there are 3 bathrooms around. There's one at the bottom and 2 at the top. And the ones at the top are actually clean for, you know, for Glastonbury standards, they're really clean. So I think that's like another important factor. We've got like, it does get packed quite early. So you need to get there, you know, relatively early. And then There's also, this is a bit of a geeky one, but there's a hedge, like a really tall hedge or trees on the east so that you don't get direct sunlight for that little bit extra in the morning as the sun's coming up because it blocks that. So your tent stays cooler that little bit longer.

9:07Jessi That's not geeky. That's like, that's what people need to know. That's like key information there.

9:14Miguel I love that.

9:15Niki Yeah. So we've been there for the last few years and yeah, I don't see ourselves like moving anytime soon. Also, my Um, my girlfriend, uh, does book readings at the storytelling tent at the Kidzfield, so it's just handy to be like really close to that as well.

9:31Jessi Do you, um, do you do the overnight queue, Nicky?

9:33Niki No, I do the overnight drive, uh, or bus, um, and sort of aim to like join the queue at about— this year we parked up at about 6, 6:30, um, and then joined the queue. But we were, we were, we were at our campsite at 9 AM. It was, it was really brilliant. The, the last year we went to Pedestrian Gate B where we had to zigzag for 2 and a half hours in the heat, uh, which was a terrible decision. But this year we parked just beyond the caravans and walked through the caravan field and entered through Pedestrian Gate C, uh, where there wasn't much of a queue. And yeah, we were like at the campsite and it's a 5-minute walk from Kidney Mead. So we were at the campsite at 9 AM or just after 9. Which is perfect.

10:19Miguel Good stuff. Good stuff. I was going to ask you to remind me where the campsite is, but then I realized Jessi was about to give the coordinates straight away.

10:28Jessi You know me, I know exactly where it is.

10:30Miguel And I was actually working just kind of on that side as well. I was positioned at the top of Big Ground, Big Home Ground, and near the site office. So it means every now and then I could kind of go down and see a little bit of the pyramid from far away. I did see Pope from really far for a couple of songs. Excellent. Thanks for sharing. It seems like you have your— the way you do Glastonbury down to a T. I think let's jump into what we did this year then. So Wednesday, which is the opening night, and we also always have the opening ceremony, but they've been trying to add more attractions around the site. Last year, of course, we had the drone show, and this year we will have a circus at the Pyramid. What did you do on Wednesday evening, Jessi?

11:20Jessi Oh, Wednesday evening. Well, Wednesday, well, I'll start with Wednesday morning. So, I had been working Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Again, we're going to talk about that on another episode. So, by this point, I was free, which was an amazing feeling, but we did have, me and my couple of friends that were also Oxfaming with me, we had 3 friends that were arriving by coach on Thursday. So, we got up early on Wednesday, and because we're good friends, we took their 3 No, 2 tents into Big Ground. So first thing in the morning we just walked past the queue, which was quite a guilty thing to do with our, like, carrying tents and just walking past that zigzag queue at Gate B. Just went straight in and we popped their tents up at, yeah, like 9-ish, 9:15 kind of thing. So got them all parked and ready to go. Then I came back and had a shower, and then I went back in and went immediately to go and see my friend's stall. So they had a like a sort of clothes and jewellery store called La La Bazaar, and they were down just by the Theatre and Circus big top, essentially, just as you walk through from Williams Green. So I went to go and see them, and then we had a drink there, and then I bought 2 new outfits and spent too much money. It's very dangerous when you get paid the day that Glastonbury starts. So yeah, that was my splurge on Wednesday, but then We ended up doing the classic, what I love to do on Wednesday, which is just to go and park up essentially at West Holts, get a bench somewhere, be close enough to the frozen margs in the West Holts bar. And yeah, then we, we just had sort of an afternoon of telling people that's where we were, and then lots of people coming to find us and saying hi for a bit and going away. That's— so I saw Bilal there from, um, Festival Sounds. We actually also saw the Glasto thingy. which was, you know, obviously when you know who he is, it's like, ooh, famous. So we had a good chat with them. Uh, my cousin came and met me there. I think I mentioned in one of the podcasts that my cousin was going with her boyfriend and neither of them had been before. So she managed to find her way over to me there. Um, so we, we had a chat. Then some Oxfam people came and gathered. It was almost, it was kind of a bit chaotic. You know how it gets like when lots of different groups of people are sort of all around a bench and they're all chatting away, but it was really, really nice. Um, had a number of frozen margaritas and then we were deciding what to do. In the evening. So we didn't set off as a huge group, but there was probably 4 or 5 of us that were like, we're gonna go to the circus because it's new. We haven't, you know, obviously it hasn't been there before. And it was, yeah, it was really, really good. I'll be interested to hear if you went, Nikki. But so we got there and we got quite relatively close. I think we were in front of the first set of delay towers, but like sort of between, between the accessibility platform Uh, on the left-hand side of the pyramid and the sound desks, you know, the first sound desk. So we were pretty far forward as far as it goes on the pyramid anyway. And I just remember it being visually really, really cool. Like the amount of things going on to look at. It was a bit of a slow start cuz they were trying to get the crowd riled up, let's say. But, you know, the heights that these circus performers were being held at by a crane, it wasn't just You know, in a big top, you're limited by how tall the big top is. This was open air, so some of these people were dangling, I don't even want to guess how high, but it looks ridiculously high. There was lots of things going on, lots of fire performers, lots of drummers. The only thing was is that everyone in the crowd, and this kind of ruined it for me, but I do get their point, was sort of mumbling and grumbling about the fact that there was no music, and I had to keep telling people when they were getting really loud and annoying and talking away, I was like, There's no music because they've got no license. Like, there's, there's a reason there's no music. There's no amplification license on the Pyramid until Friday. And for anybody who wasn't there, what they tried to do was they tried to get the crowd to hum along. So, on the screens on the Pyramid, it was, you know, there was a guy cycling and they were trying to get you to hum in different pitches. And as, as the cyclist went steeper up the screen or whatever, the pitch went higher. And people were into it for the first couple of minutes, but— Then everybody kind of gave up, and then the circus started sort of— it was a slow buildup to a crescendo, and by the end of it, people were sort of— they'd kind of lost interest. And it made me a bit sad really, because what was visually going on was amazing. And if you— if we were even closer, we could just about hear the drums, because the drums were playing, but there was obviously no amplification. So, it would've been really cool if you were right down the front and could hear the drums and the singers and things like that. What would've been really cool, someone— I was talking to someone and they were like, if they'd have got people to To sing along, like if it had lyrics on screen, you know, things like Bohemian Rhapsody or Mr. Brightside, all the songs that are genuinely quite annoying if you hear them in the shop, but everybody knows the words, everybody knows the tune. And I think people would've been more engaged if it had been that, maybe, and it would've been clearer with maybe a conductor or something really trying to get you to sing along with it. But, so that's what I went to, is I went to the circus. I really enjoyed it. The only spoiler for me was that everybody around, by the time that it got, you know, to the most exciting part of it, everyone was kind of talking and mumbling, and some people were like, oh, I'm gonna go and watch the fireworks, which sort of ruined the moment a little bit for me. So I think it was a great thing to do, and I think they've got 2 years to think of a way to get around it. But yeah, what did you get up to, Nikki? Did you do it as well?

16:52Niki So yeah, a bit of context. We had the craziest journey to Glasto, um, in the sense that we were on Vancouver Island on the Sunday for a wedding.

17:04Jessi Whoa.

17:05Niki So we left Vancouver Island Monday morning at 8:30 AM, uh, had to take a ferry to Vancouver, flew back to London. We got to London like sort of midday on the Tuesday, came home, finished packing, slept for a little bit and then left at 2 AM to drive. So jet lag, tired, we were just honestly like quite knackered. But getting into the festival was the best it's ever been. The drive was also, you know, we didn't have much traffic. So all of that went really well. My sort of Glastonbury Wednesday tradition is I'm not far from you, Jessi, but you go to the West Holts Bar. I'm at the Brothers Bar, which I think a lot of other people do as well.

17:48Miguel Yeah.

17:48Niki So it's like, Set up your tent and as soon as you're done, go have a few Brothers, which will then aid your afternoon nap, which is what we did this time. So we had a few drinks, then just had like a bit of a power nap for a couple of hours. And then we kind of just went exploring a little bit. The licensing you talk about is so funny because we were at Greenpeace for a bit and there was like some sing-along happening, but you could only hear it if you were like all the way at the front. But it was kind of like a noughties sing-along, '90s and noughties. Sing-along, so you could get what they were doing on stage by everyone else singing. So that was fun. And then Croissant Neuf was great. Went to the bandstand there and there were like some acts playing over there. And I think like that's obviously smaller and they don't have massive speakers. So that did have sound and that was great. And then we did attempt to do the circus bit. It was a large group of us. I think everyone was really tired. So we sort of like approached the pyramid from the side and kind of went to like suss it out. And I think we got there like right at the start and had no idea what was going on. There was no sound. And as you said, it was like quite a slow buildup. So we just gave up very early and then had a couple of drinks at like the Village Inn around the corner. And I kept like peeking in to see what was going on. Um, but yeah, I think everyone was a bit knackered at that point. We had a few drinks and just had a fairly early night on the Wednesday, but it was, it was a great day and we know, we got to see the fireworks, the fireworks happening at Stone Circle, uh, from where— by the time we got back. So it was great.

19:27Jessi Nice. Yeah, I, um, I, I totally understand the fact that you were in Vancouver Island like 2 and a half days before. It's just madness. So yeah, that makes total sense. I think just one thing on the fireworks is that they set fireworks off at the pyramid, uh, only a few, like it wasn't the main fireworks display. And I don't know if it was just I dunno if it, I just never noticed it before, but the fireworks soon, very, very quickly became engulfed in their own smoke. And so you couldn't really see the fireworks going off in around the smoke, around the, around the, I mean, it looked quite atmospheric, but if you look back at pictures and videos, it looked a bit like just a big ball of smoke and no fireworks, which is a bit funny. I did then see a bit of the fireworks when I walked. So I walked past the Village Inn and then walked towards Southeast Corner, cuz that was where I ended my night. I went to Southeast Corner. corner. And on the way, we sort of stopped in West Holts and watched the fireworks that were by that point going off from behind the Stone Circle. And that looked really cool. But that's what we did last year with the drone show as well. It actually worked really nicely to see what was going on in the Pyramid and then enjoy the fireworks while, you know, from afar, rather than having stood in Stone Circle for however many hours waiting for them to go off. It was actually, the view is pretty good, you know, back from there. So, so yeah, it was nice.

20:40Miguel Awesome, guys. I'll go back a few days actually, because of course I arrived to Worthy Farm on the 19th. And the day after, I had a shift, but it wasn't actual work. It was only in the afternoon for some sort of induction training. So actually my night of the 19 at the crew bars were actually quite intense. I did wake up the next day on the tent, like it felt like any other night at actual Glastonbury where I wake up like, what happened? I'm in the tent. How was my night? But I—

21:09Jessi I'm glad you had one big night like that, Miguel, to be fair. Like if you only had one where you weren't like on shift at 8 AM, then I think that's the one to do it. Fair enough.

21:16Miguel Exactly. And also on that day, uh, on the first day after setting up at the campsite, I went for a little exploring of the, of the site, which of course was very early days. And I'm just saying that because I was able to go up the Pyramid Stage and that was quite emotional.

21:34Jessi When you sent me that picture, Miguel, I could have throttled you. It was—

21:38Niki As in climb on the stage?

21:39Jessi Yeah, he was on the Pyramid Stage. He sent me a picture and I was like, you little We couldn't go walk.

21:45Miguel We couldn't walk all the way to the front, but we did went to the top there at the back. And it was—

21:52Niki That's amazing.

21:52Miguel Yeah, it was just there. I say, let's walk until someone stops us. No one, no one did. Well, there was one guy, but then we used our charm and it was fine. And we also, I also took really nice pictures of Glastonbury signs. So it was a good day of exploring on the 19th and then, uh, quite intense night at the crew bars and then cut to Wednesday. So then this was already after a few days of work, but of course the first days of work before the festival opened for the guests was, they were a little bit easier, but Wednesday was the first very challenging day where the operation fully started and then I was supervising more staff and more volunteers and of course gates opening at the same time. So it was very challenging day. And by the time finished at 8, I just went back to camp, took a quick shower in the tap, really just washed my face and hair and went to meet my friends up the hill at the park. And we just did the classic walk to Stone Circle. And, but then we, we, we, as you say, Jess, we didn't want to do the same thing you said that we didn't want to do long, long wait and watch the whole ceremony and the chanting, even though it's quite nice. So we just stay up the hill around the park, uh, with some drinks and seeing the sun go down. And then we walk to the Stone Circle and we got there just a few minutes before the actual fireworks started. And we were able to reach sort of like nice spots closer up, going up the hill. And after that, we also went to Southeast Corner for what I call, well, everyone was tired as well.

23:31Niki Everyone was kind of like, I don't think we're going to do much more than that.

23:34Miguel But I said, let's go do some tourism around the Southeast Corner. And this was already kind of saying Going back to how things felt more like early years of Glastonbury where it was just working. We walked the southeast corner and, and we maybe touch on that later, but Shangri-La got the biggest refresher in recent years. And, and it was kind of things happening, not anything too loud, but of course there was already music, uh, lights, performers, uh, uh, and we did a whole walk around the southeast corner. Block9, Rum Shack, the whole thing. And then we kind of just walk home. We took it easy, but everything was working fine. It was great to see it. And I thought maybe Thursday will get harder. Maybe that's what's happening. And I don't want to celebrate ahead of time, but I had already the feeling on Wednesday that things were moving and working much better than recent years. How was your continuation at Sutter's Corner on Wednesday, Jessi?

24:31Jessi Yeah, fine. I mean, I'll admit I essentially Went straight to Maceo's. Well, no, we had a little look around kind of Block9, and we did go in the Mezz Yard briefly and got a drink there, but then we came back on ourselves and went straight to Maceo's, which is, you know, I've got used to having my crew bar, and I do love Maceo's a lot. But, um, I was going there to meet the guys from Oh My God! It's The Church. So I had a reason to go there, and it was very funny. I won't— I don't have too many stories from that night, but, um, the Reverend had a, what do you call it, a hip flask. Filled with holy water, which was very much very strong tequila that burned a lot, but tasted nice, but burned. Then we got chatting to, if you've ever been to the Meat Rack or NYC Down Low, you'll see that there are like 3, they call themselves the 3 Bears, and they're 3 gents, I would guess in their like maybe late 40s, early 50s, I would say, but they've got big beards and they are like sort of quite stocky men, not that tall, but really stocky men. And they essentially wear not very much. So essentially like a jockstrap. And then they were wearing these see-through aprons. So they were like PVC clear aprons and they had their, you know, lovely hairy chests and hairy arms. And they were in Maceo's and we got chatting to them. And funny story. So Amy was there with Church, who we interviewed just before the festival. And Amy was wearing a dress that she was telling me before these guys arrived. This is just a little anecdote, by the way. Before we met the 3 Bears, she was saying that last year the guitarist from Church took a photo with those, with the 3 Bears, and she had, because he, because the guitarist also has a big long beard, right? And a bald head. So, she got that photo Printed onto a dress, and she was wearing that dress and she was telling me about it. And then over her shoulder, I was like, what, those guys? And then she turned around. And so you can imagine they very much enjoyed seeing their faces on Amy's dress. And so it all got a little bit raucous after that. There were lots of shots of many kinds. If you haven't been to Maceo's, it does get very busy on a Wednesday. The, they have a main bar that serves all drinks, and then they have a little smaller bar off to the side that just serves shots. Shots and Cans, and we basically set up camp next to the Shots and Cans bar and were regularly doing many shots of tequila with our 3 bears. Oh my God, it's the church! And a couple of my friends as well. It got very silly, but it was a very fun night.

27:14Miguel Did you get the— I forgot how the reverend calls it, but did you get the sins you were about to commit in the next days already?

27:24Jessi The pre-absolution? Yeah, pre-absolution. I actually didn't. Oh no.

27:29Miguel I know I did.

27:30Jessi Now that I'm thinking about it, why didn't I do that? I bought him lots of tequila as well. I mean, he gave me tequila holy water as well. So, I mean, maybe in his mind he did that for me because I feel like I'd, you know, my sins didn't, you know, karma didn't— where am I going with this? I feel like I sinned over the weekend, but I didn't have any repercussions for those sins. So maybe he did the pre-absolution on me. Thank you, Reverend.

27:54Miguel Yeah, so a good start to the festival, I would say. So I do feel it was quite a strong Thursday. So what did you guys, uh, did on Thursday after you rested on Wednesday, Nikki?

28:03Jessi Did you—

28:04Miguel what, what, what, how was your Thursday?

28:05Niki Thursday was, yeah, I think Thursday, Glastonbury Thursday in general tends to be like my favorite day because you're not as dictated by who you want to see and you can just explore. And I think for the first time ever I had 8 hours of sleep the night before. So I actually woke up very fresh and we did loads. I think I started off at the Kidzfield watching my girlfriend do her storytelling session, which is really cute. Like, I think the last few years she's been doing it. The first time I've actually been to the Kidzfield, which is like its own festival in itself. It's insane. It's really cool. So started off with that. I'm trying to think what else we did. So much. We walked, we did like a bit of a lap of the Southeast Corner in the day just to sort of see what it was like. I think Shangri-La had music on, but nowhere else did. We caught the Fortet set at the Tree Stage, which was so good. And we actually managed to get quite to quite a good spot. We got there about 5 minutes before he started. And I was, I actually like Said we shouldn't go. It's going to be so busy. We're just going to be at the back and we won't be able to hear anything. And I was being quite pessimistic about it, but we got in and it was, it was fine. We managed to get like a decent spot. That tree stage is really cool. We watched him play for a while and then we sort of bounced around a bit. We were at Dance Village. We saw this act called Nuria, who was a DJ and she was amazing. And then we went to the West Holts Bar where Ezra Collective do this night called Situation Dance, which they've been doing for the last, I think probably about a year or so. It's just like, they just DJ and play really good music. And that was at the West Holts Bar from like 12 to 3. So we were, we were there for a bit, then went to the Southeast Corner. Um, and spent some time at the Azadi Stage in Shangri-La, which I really wanted to check out. Last year they had a— last year was the first time they had a South Asian stage, which was Arrivals last year. Yeah. And this year, uh, they changed it up and it was a really cool stage. So went to check that out. And then while walking back home at about just before 3, I think it's, I think it's the Sensation Stage. They were just doing like Sing-alongs with Linkin Park and Teenage Dirtbag and all of that sort of music. So we stopped for that and then headed back around 3-ish. But we did a lot of walking, a lot of exploring. And I thought like the weather on Thursday was also just perfect. It wasn't super hot. The, the rain in the night was like not annoying and didn't get things muddy, also cooled things down. So yeah, I think Thursday was my favorite day. Uh, as it tends to be.

31:02Miguel Amazing. Yeah. I think Thursday was the confirmation that things were— there was something different this year, you know, because, uh, on the previous editions when we— people were talking about overcrowding, Thursday was the day that then finally—

31:15Niki Yeah.

31:16Miguel Everyone, you could assume everyone has already arrived and it felt like it was just a lot of people walking and a lot of overcrowding and, and they were just moving around and not much to do. And then it feels like this year, People were spread out and there was something on in each corner of the site. As you say, the tree stage seems to be a good addition. I feel like Wood Season and, and, and Silver Hayes have improved a lot in recent years and they are pulling a little bit of the crowd with good offerings. So, and again, and then it's just me who I'm just getting released from work around 8 and I'm going out around 9 and I'm walking around site. And as you say, you went around exploring and you were expecting that it wouldn't work and it was working. So I'm going to keep banging on this, on this note of how things work different. Uh, was that your experience, Jessi, on Thursday?

32:07Jessi Yeah, I mean, we could just get into it now, you know, we don't have to follow the, follow the timeline, do we? But like, I totally agree with you because like the last couple of years, the Thursday has been where I've tried to go to something and just almost been not scared, but been like, God, this is too much. And I've had to like almost like run away from what I was doing and like go and sit down. And this is me who's normally used to crowds. But this year, I don't think I really registered it on the Thursday. It's just I did what I wanted to do and I didn't really think about it. It was more like Friday, Saturday, I started to go, whatever, whatever they've been tweaking and things. I think it's, yes, okay, Emily Eavis said they had a couple of thousand less people, 2,000 less people. But I think, as you say, it's just really being strategic about where things were.

32:54Miguel Yeah.

32:55Jessi thinking about kind of crowd management and how to ease crowd, how to get people around and where they're going to move from here to here, it really did. I was able to get wherever I wanted to go. So, I'll say what I did on Thursday. So, I actually just checked through my photos and on Wednesday I was like, I'm sure I didn't have that late a night on Thursday. No, no, I got back to the campervan at 5:00 AM. So, there's that. Because I was going, why was my first thing that I did on Thursday Doreen Doreen? Did I not do anything beforehand? So, I went to go and meet up with my friends again, coming in solo. The Oxfam area, and I think I had a look around kind of shops. I think I had some food, and then we all kind of gathered at my friend's shop again. It was a really good point to meet at. And then we all went to Doreen Doreen opening the Big Top in Theatre and Circus, which was brilliant. I went last year, but I think last year I only stayed for a little while, and we got there late, and we couldn't quite get in the tent. But this year we went sort of 20 minutes early. We were all stood outside, you know, they open the, open the big top and you run in and you get a good— we were right at the front basically for Darin Darin, and they are just brilliant. They just, just do the best songs that you want to hear, um, and they do like mashups. Like one of the mashups they did was, um, Darude, Sandstorm, and oh gosh, what was it? Something— it wasn't Elton John, but it was something like that. So it's like, you know, the, the, the sort Dance beat of Sandstorm, and then they come in with different vocals over the top. And it was just— if you haven't seen Doreen Doreen, they're like a band from Bristol. I've probably mentioned them before, but the band itself is fantastic. And then they have, I think, 4 or 5 female singers, the oldest of which is over 70 or just about to turn 70. She's in a mobility scooter. And then you have like, I think it's 2 or 3 ladies that are over 50, and then one lady who's in her 40s, and one lady who's sort of like 30-something. So, it's like this range of women all fronting, and they're all in amazing outfits. And yeah, they just do the best. They did, um, oh gosh, I should have thought about this beforehand, not Teenage Dirtbag, but it's a song like that. Um, uh, anyway, but they, they do all these songs that you know all the words to, and with kind of like a synthy, live band dance situation, and it was really, really good fun. So really glad we got to do the full Doreen Doreen thing. And then we left there and went to, as is tradition for my group, the Sports Banger Megarave, which was the first time I'd actually been into Shangri-La. So, um, Shangri-La had obviously widened right up, uh, which was really, really helpful for people who just wanted to like move through or like get to different areas. It didn't feel like a small town street where you were being forced forwards. We also had a look at the Dragon's Tail, which is the new kind of chill-out space, which is next to Shangri-La, and that was fantastic. I don't know if either of you guys went, but as soon as we got in here, I was like, this is what Shangri-La needed. Because sometimes when you're in the southeast corner, you've just seen something, or you've been at the front for a DJ or something, and you've got 45 minutes before your next thing, and you're like, all I want is I just want to like sit down for a minute and maybe get a drink from a bar, or maybe you know, fill up my water or maybe just chat to my friends about what we, what just happened or what the plan is going forward. And there never really was anywhere like that before in Shangri-La. If you ever tried to sit down, you just felt like you were in the way constantly because people were always trying to move around you. So really, really rated the Dragon's Tail area. And yeah, we went, we, so Sportsbanger was at Luna Stage, which was cool and I did enjoy it, but the only thing I'll say about it is it did feel much smaller than say like the Gas Tower used to. It kind of felt like the Shangri-La stage was the, the main stage. And there was obviously, you know, like the, um, South Asian one you mentioned, Nikki. What was it called this year? Sorry.

36:50Niki Azadi.

36:51Jessi Azadi. That was it. Azadi. So, so there was Azadi, there was another one sort of as you come in. So there were these smaller venues, but I feel like in previous Shangri-Las, there used to be like the Shangri-La main stage and then a second pretty large stage, whereas it felt like this time they were consolidating into one main stage and all the others becoming about the same size, sort of medium stages I would call them. So yeah, so I was at Luna. That was really, really good for a sports banger. I was there for about an hour and a half. We were at first outside the dome, so it's turned into like a geodome type thing, and the sound there was still great. Like, if you're outside the dome, the sound was great. But then I spotted my friend was like right in there, right down the front, so in I went after her, and we had a good time in there. Then we went to Toad Hall to see a band that my friend wanted to see called Good Health, Good Wealth, and they were great. I really, really enjoyed them. So they were, they were one of my discoveries. Like, how to describe it? So it's just 2, 2 guys. So how did my friend describe them? She described them as like the new The Streets, like a sort of like a Gen Zed The Streets essentially. And, and I, I got that vibe. It was a guy on a guitar that had, that was also sort of in charge of, I guess, a drum drum simulator or whatever, and like a keyboard, and then a sort of singer/rapper, and they were really, really good at Toad Hall, so I was very happy that my mate took me to them. And then I went to the circus again to see United Queendom, who my friend Louisa was actually— she was working with them in Theatre and Circus. She was like helping them do lots of like video content and various other things. She was almost their tour manager, I guess.

38:31Niki Yes.

38:31Jessi And she said, you should come and see this show, it's amazing. But she didn't tell me much about it, and she wasn't wrong. I think they play regularly in Brighton, so I won't ruin the surprise, but it is— it was circus, and I've seen not loads of circus, but I've seen enough. But I spent probably the entire hour with my fist in my mouth because I was just— and my eyes were bulging out of my head because I was going, You're going, no, they're not going to do that. No, no. Oh, and you're just almost internally screaming and externally screaming. It was wild, the things they were getting up to, the acrobatics and with fire and, you know, some of the things they were doing that had, you know, no safety ropes or no safety things involved. And you were just looking at it going, how is this physically possible and allowed to happen with you know, health and safety-wise. So really, really recommend that. Um, and then final thing was I met Miguel and we went to go and see Oh My God! It's The Church. So I, I really wanted to make sure that you came to that. And, uh, I definitely wanted to go on the Thursday just because I had things that it clashed with on the Friday. And it was really, really good. Uh, it did start to rain, um, which was the only time it rained while I was kind of out during the festival. Um, and I hadn't brought a coat with me or a poncho or anything, so I borrowed my friend's cowboy hat. But it It was very, very good fun. Miguel, you had quite a few of your mates join as well, didn't you? Come and join us.

39:58Miguel Yes, yes, my friends joined us. And, uh, you mentioned earlier on this episode about meeting Glaston Thinking and meeting someone famous, but I must say you were being stopped every 5 steps over there. Hey, no, look, it was cute that you would try to like, oh, and this is Miguel, by the way. And people would just look at me like, yeah, whatever.

40:18Jessi No, it's firstly because I put my face on the internet a lot more than you do. Your voice is very well known, I think, but your face less so.

40:26Miguel I don't think so.

40:28Jessi Yeah, I was, I did get stopped. I think at that point there was, and the problem was, is at that point I was admittedly quite drunk. So you get people coming up to you and you're like, oh my God. So, and I did have a voice, which was good. So we did chat for, you know, we'd always chat for a couple of minutes with people, but, um, yeah, you're right. I mean, I do get people running up to me.

40:48Miguel People came to me saying you're the podcast guy and they say they were there because of our previous or last episode recommending it.

40:55Jessi Yeah, that's pretty cool, isn't it? Yeah.

40:56Miguel That was good. Yeah, it was definitely a good night. And yeah, it's one of the nights where I push a little bit more as well on the fun, knowing I would only sleep 3 or 4 hours and wake up for another 12-hour shift.

41:11Jessi Well, I mean, it was worth it. We had a really nice time. It was good. I'm glad we got to watch a band together.

41:17Miguel I really am.

41:18Jessi I've just remembered I've got one other little mini Glastonbury story from Thursday, which I think just encapsulates Glastonbury quite a lot. Between some of the things I was talking about, I think I was going from Toad Hall to meet my friends before the circus. I had said to myself, I need to buy myself a new pair of sunglasses because the ones I had with me were starting to break, and I was like, I'm going to get some now while I remember. And I thought, now's a good moment. And I was walking towards where I was meeting my friends near Theatre and Circus, sort of past West Holts and all those things, and there was a couple of shops there, and I saw some sunglasses, and I stopped and had a look, and I found a pair I liked. And the shop was pretty dead at this point because by this point it's probably what, maybe like 8, 9 PM, something like that. So people were off doing things and I happened to be, I was just carrying my empty kind of festival cup. It was one that I'd bought with me, but, you know, one of the plastic ones from another festival or whatever, but I was just carrying it and it was empty, had it in my hand. And as I was paying for the sunglasses, the woman was like, oh, you look fabulous and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, oh, thank you. I've needed this. And we're just having a little chat. That. And then she saw me like gesticulating with my hands and waving this cup around, and she was like, do you want a slushie? And I was like, oh, maybe. And she was like, just to be clear, it is alcoholic, very alcoholic. And I was like, I mean, then definitely I want a slushie. And she gave me a pint of mango and rum slushie that they had for their like staff, that they had a machine out the back. And she just gave it to me and just went, here's your sunglasses I paid £10 for. And it's just a giant mango slushie that was a whole pintful. I said to her, I was like, I would've paid like 20 quid for this at one of the bars. And she was like, yeah, well, you seem nice and you seem like you're having a great time and I just want, you know, if I can help you with that. And I was like, amazing, thank you so much. And that was very nice. And now I feel really bad because I can't remember the name of the shop, but I'll look it up. But anyway, so that's just a little Glastonbury love for you, was just chatting to someone and someone gives you a free slushy alcohol drink, which was lovely.

43:10Miguel I must say that it reminded me that every single night after stopping by the campsite to drop some stuff and then going out into the night, I would leave with my reusable cup. I got it the first night at the crew bar. So every single night when I would buy the first pint of Brodus cider, it was the first sip. It will feel so, it felt so rewarding. It was always so nice.

43:31Jessi Yeah. But yeah, it's always good to carry a cup with rounds with you, isn't it? I normally have one of the metal pint cups, but I think this year Because of Maceo's, and in Maceo's you pay a pound for the cup and so on and so forth. I think because of that, I just started to chuck a plastic cup in my rucksack.

43:46Miguel Yeah, that's the one I was carrying from the first night. I would just put it in my pocket and leave it.

43:52Niki Sorry, I've got, on that subject, I've got a top Glasto hack for you guys. I don't know where I was. I think I was on holiday in Lisbon. This must have been, yeah, about 4 or 5 years ago. And I just went into one of these like random shops, which has kind of like a, one of those like Flying Tiger sort of places. They just have the most random things. And what they had is this, it's like the top bit of a plastic bottle that fits on top of a can and it like clips onto the top of a can. And I thought I saw that and I was like, oh my God, I need to buy these for Glasto. So I get a bunch of those for me and friends, and they're reusable. But essentially what you do is you carry your bottle of like spirit with you. For me, it's rum. And then you go, whenever you go out, you just like go to an ice cream van or wherever and just buy like a cold can of Coke. And then you clip this thing on and you pour the alcohol in and it kind of is like a sealed bottle and it's reusable as well. And that way you don't have to like carry around a glass with you wherever you go. And also you can like put it in your bag because it doesn't leak. Um, so yeah, that, that is a top tip.

45:10Miguel That's an interesting gadget. Yeah, that's good to know, especially—

45:14Jessi Yeah, we've definitely talked about bringing spirits and buying cans of whatever, but we normally still put it in a cup. Like, I have a cup that hangs around my neck. Yeah, that. So, but so, so this was like a, a, a seal for the top of a can, you say?

45:27Niki Exactly. So it's, it's, imagine like the top— I'll send you a link for it after.

45:31Jessi Yeah, please do.

45:31Niki I can't imagine, but it's basically like The top of a, yeah, it's like the top of a bottle that imagine it's just like sliced off, but it's got like a clippy bit and then it just like clips onto the top of a can. So then like it turns the can into like a sealable bottle.

45:45Jessi That is amazing and I need one immediately. So yes, please do send me that link.

45:49Miguel Awesome. Awesome. So yeah, well, thanks for sharing, guys. Listening to you, I feel like definitely something I missed this year is of course, because I only had nights free and I could only enjoy a few hours or how much my body would accept in terms of hours of Something that I miss is being able to explore all these daytime areas or like Jessi Circus, or even we mentioned Nikki Croissant Neuf and all these other areas. I barely went to Greenfields because I would really leave my campsite around half 8 or just before 9. And at that time, I'm just going to go to sort of like peak areas, main stages. So thank you for sharing what you did in these other areas.

46:33Jessi Yeah.

46:34Miguel Uh, on Thursday before I met you, Jessi, I went to Williams Green. I went out, uh, which was quite far from me, but I wanted to go to Terminal 1. There was some South American artists, some of which I know. So I wanted to check a little bit of that. And also because it's an area that changed a lot since my last time, because last time I was there, we had Williams Green stage and everything. And then since then, you, of course, you have Carhenge, Terminal 1, and became quite a different area. So I want to check a little bit of that. So I went to check the, the, the There was a Brazilian artist. And also I learned just a few days before, uh, on the Terminal 1, if you, have you guys done the whole, well, I guess you call it immersive experience. You, you went through the actual—

47:15Niki I've not done it. I'm camped really near there as well.

47:17Jessi Yeah, I know what it is.

47:19Miguel A friend of mine who's an actor, which I haven't seen in a long time, he texted me, hey, I'll be doing this thing at Terminal 1, come and see. And I thought Thursday was the only chance I would have to try and actually go into the experience. So after checking the, the music bit, the stage, uh, the queue wasn't that long, so I joined the queue. And it's quite an intense experience, especially because I don't think many people who join the queue know what they're about to go through. And if you don't know, I think the whole idea is a subversion of the immigrant experience in the sense that if you're British, they're gonna treat you in one way. And of course I wasn't. I kind of go through without a little bit less of the whole treatment. I don't wanna give too much away, but definitely I feel like people leave there, it's slightly changed, or at least with some thoughts in their minds. And crazy enough, my friend, I wasn't able to— he didn't answer me on the day, so I wasn't sure he was going to be there. So I just took my chances. And he wasn't, but another actress I know was, and I had no idea they were also part of the thing. They were there. So that was fun because they saw me, of course, in character. And it was quite interesting, is in a room where you're going through sort of some security because the idea is that you are illegal immigrants trying to enter the country. and they're treating you quite badly. And on this room, they are shouting at you at a foreign language. And she was also Brazilian, so she's shouting in Portuguese to people. And then she saw me and when it was my turn, she changed to French, which was quite clever, I guess. So I was able to have a little bit of the experience as well. So I think it was very quick thinking and it was great to see that she was ready for when a Brazilian showed up.

49:03Jessi Amazing.

49:05Miguel Now moving to the main weekend of the festival, instead of doing day by day, because otherwise you're going to be here for long hours, let's just hear your highlights then. So it could be of any day, just give me what comes to your mind first. What was your overall highlights in terms of sets to start with? Nikki, would you like to share?

49:28Niki Yeah, so just to sort of readdress To reiterate Jessi's point earlier, I thought what made this Glastonbury so special and one of the best, if not the best, was just the crowd control. I thought the festival was noticeably less busy, whether that was, you know, on a Thursday and the fact that we could get into a Fortet set, which I thought would be completely rammed. So just like going around, we went to the Southeast Corner. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And normally in like previous years, I sort of go Thursday and Sunday and completely avoid the area on Friday and Saturday because just can't be bothered queuing for like over an hour to first get into the area and then get in everywhere. So I don't know what they did, but I just think massive, massive kudos to everyone involved for sorting all of that out. You know, even we went to see Charli XCX on the Saturday night. And the way they sort of managed the crowd, we were coming from like the West Holts side. They took us up on the railway track and they blocked every other entrance to the other stage and funneled people in from the back. And just like last year, comparing that to Avril Lavigne, where it actually was scary how busy it was, and we were like, we felt a bit crushed at times. This was just night and day and in how they've improved everything. So I think that was Probably like my main highlight of the festival was just how much better that was. In terms of the weekend and highlights, so many. It's always hard to like choose. I think I'm gonna say Ezra Collective on the Saturday. I absolutely love them. I've seen them many times before and it's just like, they're just a band that you can go and see and you will always have fun. I think most of our group was there for it as well. So we had, you know, we had a nice amount of friends with us. It was like sun going down, perfect weather, and they were just absolutely fantastic. Also thought Alanis Morissette was unbelievably good. She was so good. I thought she was like lip-syncing at one point. It was just amazing. And just the whole crowd was so into it. It was so good. And what else? I saw a lot of stuff at West Holts this year. There's a band called Glass Beams that played on the Friday that I thought they were fantastic. I'm so jealous.

51:57Jessi I really wanted to go to Glass Beams, but it clashed with something. But I'm so jealous.

52:01Niki Yeah, they were really good. And like, I've heard some of their stuff before. I don't know them massively, but they sort of were like my surprise that blew me away. And then Nile Rodgers was amazing. I think he played at Glastonbury before and I saw him then and I was like sort of rallying all my friends to be like, let's go see Nile Rodgers. And a few of them were like, I don't know any songs. And I was like, you will know every single song because he's written so many songs that you have no idea about and he would play all of them. So I think that was just like, yeah, a nice happy kind of Sunday afternoon. And then straight after that, we went to see Parcels, who I love as well.

52:40Miguel Yeah.

52:40Niki I think those are probably my main highlights from the weekend. But yeah, everything was spot on and so much fun.

52:49Jessi I feel like we had the same Sunday path, Nikki, because I did Chic and Nile Rodgers and then Parcels, but we left Parcels early to get to Prodigy. Did you do Prodigy afterwards or?

52:58Niki I didn't do Prodigy. We were, we, I think like as a group, everyone wanted, some people wanted to see Overmono, so we just stayed over there and then And again, like being at the West Holts, like strategically you just get to the southeast corner easier and you don't have to really queue. So I think like no one was really that fussed on a headliner that night. So we decided to just stay around there so that we can get to the southeast corner early.

53:22Jessi Yeah, that's a fair— I've done that many a time. But yeah, but Prodigy. So my, going into my highlights, my highlights were the Prodigy. I've seen them a number of times. Right? But there was something about— they're always amazing. They're like, they're always just, yeah, you just almost get lifted up with your need to dance. You're like, oh my God. But there was something about that Sunday thing, something about the Other Stage. I don't know, like the lights were more intense, the crowd was absolutely wild, but there was still enough space. Yeah, it was— Prodigy were up there with the top for me. So Alanis Morissette, when— I was going to chime in, but I thought I'll just wait for my turn. But Alanis Morissette was actually my number one if I had to put it down to one. We went early and saw Lewis Capaldi. We sort of knew it was going to be Lewis Capaldi by that point. By the morning it was pretty much confirmed, and I was like, let's get a good spot for Alanis and it'll be really nice to see Lewis as well. And then as soon as Lewis came out, like, there was not a dry eye in the whole field. Everyone was just like rubbing their eyes, like trying not to cry the whole time. Um, just because it really felt like a moment of him, just, just seeing him come out. And, you know, he's normally quite a chatty bloke, or at least he comes across that way on social media, which obviously I know is not necessarily the way they are. But just to sort of feel his emotions, you could like feel him sort of looking out at the crowd and being like, you know, of all the things that have happened in the 2 years and the last time he came up to that crowd and stuff, it was, yeah, it was, it was really, really nice. And everyone was singing along and the sun was out. And then Alanis was mind-blowingly good. I knew she would be good. I hoped she would be good, but there was a part of me going, oh, is she, you know, is the voice gone, or is she, you know, gonna not sing it in the way that we all know and things? And just the set was just— the people next to me were probably a bit annoyed because I was screaming quite loudly most of the words, but we were all, you know, everyone was smiling at each other, so I'm sure it was fine. There was a moment, obviously, she did Ironic, like, kind of in the middle of the set, and I was worried if that people would leave afterwards But I mean, I was quite far forward, but I don't really think that happened just because of how good she was. And in Ironic, there's a moment where it goes, it's like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife. And me, like, I'd seen a thing online about everybody bring a spoon to Alanis, and I had brought one, and I didn't think other people would do it. But when she sang that line and I thrust my spoon in the air and then looked around and saw that everyone else was doing the same thing, it was a wonderful, wonderful little moment as well. So love Delanis. Parcels were great as well, just to say. Like, I really wanted to see them, and I was a bit gutted to leave early, but I knew that I wanted to be in a good spot for The Prodigy. Um, this all feels— I'm missing out Saturday. Oh, Saturday. Okay, so Saturday my headliner was Scissor Sisters, and I was really in many minds about it. I was really worried about which one to choose. But as I knew would happen with Glastonbury, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna see what happens on the day and who I'm with and where feels right. And I, and the friend that I was with at the time was like, I'm going to Scissor Sisters and I'm meeting Faye and Steven, our other 2 friends there. He's like, I'm gonna go early. We wanna make sure we're inside the tent. And Miguel knows this, but I'm not a Woodseys girl. I don't, I don't think I've been to Woodseys since Since probably like 2015, it was probably like when, you know, John Peel, whatever. I just don't go. I'm just always like, you know what, I can't be bothered because, because it's a tent, because the things that I want to go and see there are the things that, you know, you're not going to be able to get in for. I'm always a bit like, oh, I just won't even bother. But my friends sounded like they had a plan and I was like, you know what, Scissor Sisters, I've seen videos from their recent tour and I'm sure it'll be amazing. And we got there early enough and we got inside the tent and we were in the front third as well because we'd gone down the side and then gone in sideways. We there. We saw the end of Tom Odell, who was actually really good as well. And then Scissor Sisters were just— I can't describe the vibes inside that tent very well. Like, everyone was jumping the whole time, and people were just hugging each other and putting their arms on each other's shoulders and like turning to strangers and singing in their face. And, and then they brought— Scissor Sisters brought out Jessi Ware to start with. Like, Jessi Ware was on stage for a couple of songs, I think. She She was a guest singer on a couple of songs. Then Beth Ditto from Gossip came as well and did Filthy. And they also had Ian McKellen come on stage and he did this like monologue, which I'm sure is a famous monologue and I'm gonna get a lot of flak for not knowing what it was from. But he came out on stage and everyone's jaw just dropped and everyone was just staring at the screens and the stage. like, is this actually happening? And then the whole tent just started chanting Ian McKellen in the Jeremy Corbyn, you know, oh, Ian McKellen! And it went on for like 10 minutes. And then Ian McKellen was like shell-shocked and just looking at us all like, oh God, is this really— And honestly, yeah, I could go on about this for hours, but I was— I've since watched the Dochi set and that looked incredible. It was only 45 minutes as they scheduled it to be, which would have upset me if I was there because it felt like she only did 4 or 5 songs, and I know quite a lot more of Doechii's songs than that. So that would have been, been a bit of a— so I'm, I, that I'm quite glad about. I've watched the Charli set and it looked, again, the crowd for that looked wild. You were saying, Nikki, like it looked like everyone was just fully living their best brat life. But I am still happy with my choice because I think if I'd been outside the Whizzies tent, I maybe would've thought differently. But again, it was just such an incredible Saturday headliner and yeah, really, really good time. And, and just go harping back to the, you know, scheduling and the crowds and things. I'm not gonna repeat what's already been said, but I, I really noticed like on the screens and on the app, you were getting these warnings in advance. Like, you know, don't, there is no access to Woodsies. Don't come to Lord Sett.

59:48Niki Yeah.

59:49Jessi Or that was the first one I got on Saturday was no entry. Sorry, not the first one. Obviously the first one was Kneecap and Bob Dylan, obviously. But I mean, for the headliner, the Saturday headliner, the Woodsies one came through first. Like, don't try and come to Woodsies, no access. And it was on the screens and it was on your phone. You got a notification through. I then got one for Doce about half an hour later, for West Holts, similar thing. And it just felt like obviously that was the, that was the key point, the Saturday night headliner where everyone was gonna be divided against like 4 big players. Or more even. There's even more than that. And it just felt really, really well organized. Again, we, we left there, never did I feel, you know, everybody pouring out of the tent at once. Um, we then went to Arcadia, but we went via kind of Silver Hayes and we stopped in Silver Hayes for a bit, then went up to Arcadia and sort of were coming face to face with the Charlie crowd and stuff. And never did it feel too much. And I really expected that Saturday night to feel too much, even though people were divided. I thought that was the night that everyone was gonna gonna, you know, be trying their best to move around and, and, and get to places. And it just felt fine. Busy but easy. I, I, the one caveat to that I will say is that obviously because I had a crew wristband, I was able to use crew toilets. And I did feel like when I came out of Woodsies and then went past, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4 toilet blocks through and out the other side of Silver Hayes, that the queues for the toilets were pretty crazy after the headliners finished. Um, so I will say that, like, I found it very easy because I was able to wee behind, you know, like an extra layer of crew. But anyway, um, yeah, really, really good times yesterday night. Arcadia was great. Anything to add just while I remember what other things I want to discuss? Um, like, how, how was it after Charlie for you, Nikki? Where did you go after Charlie?

1:01:38Niki Um, Saturday, I'm looking, I've got my Clash Finder up now.

1:01:41Jessi I'm literally— That's what I'm having to look at my phone and be like, wait, what did I do?

1:01:46Niki Yeah, after Charli, we met up with some friends. We went to Silver Hayes for a bit, which was fun. I think we tried to catch a bit of Confidence Man. Oh no, sorry, Confidence Man was at The Park that night. But we went to Silver Hayes for a bit and then roamed around, went to Arcadia, which again, like in previous years on a Saturday, I would not even dream of attempting.

1:02:13Jessi Mm.

1:02:14Niki But we got in. like close-ish. It wasn't too busy. And I think like on your point of like not going to John Peel Woodsies, that's something that like, you know, I've tried to do before and then you land up just being outside of the tent, barely being able to hear anything and it's just not enjoyable. So I've just blocked that stage out unless it's someone I really, really want to see. But I think after, after this year, I'm going to have to revisit that and, and, and probably spend a bit more time at Woodsies. But yeah, so Saturday night we went to Arcadia and then after that went to the Southeast Corner again, which was again really easy to get into. There was no queue. I think this was probably around 3 AM after Arcadia got done. So I think not that many people were going in at the time, but we went there for a bit, just roamed around a few of the stages. There's something, you know, something happening in each one. So we'd stay for a bit, have a drink, and then just move on to the next. And yeah, that, that was sort of the end of our, our Saturday. But yeah, we, we walked a lot and went to a lot of different stages this year, a lot of different sections, because it was just that much easier to do so.

1:03:23Jessi Yeah, exactly. It just really felt much easier to move around. Um, I was at Arcadia Saturday night as well. I actually did Arcadia Friday and Saturday, having gone to the festival going, I don't think I'm going to do an Arcadia night this year. It was like just, just going by my like, you know, my app or my Clash Finder or whatever. I was like, no, I think I'm going to be elsewhere. But, um, Friday night was— we did, um, my friends were going to see Romy, and we got there for Sonny Federa beforehand, and it was really, really good. That, that night we got all the way to the Dragonfly, and we were basically by one of the legs, which was great, and we stayed there till closing. And then the Saturday night, we arrived quite a bit later, and by that point it, it was a lot busier, but we still Still nothing like the last couple of years where you've arrived and it's busy, as you said. Like, we got close enough, we had space enough, and the sound was really, really good. So yeah, the Saturday, Saturday was, was really good for that. My 2 latest nights were Friday night and Sunday night, of all things. The Friday night, we stayed until Arcadia closed, and then we tried to see, um, who's the guy from Orbital? Phil Hartnell. Phil Hartnell? Am I saying that right?

1:04:30Miguel Yep.

1:04:30Jessi Anyway, well, the guy from Orbital, Phil Hartnell, I think was playing at the Bimble Inn at 3 o'clock, like as Arcadia closed. So obviously we and everybody else tried to go up there, and the Bimble Inn is very, very small, so we didn't get in there. But we then went straight down to Southeast Corner on Friday night/Saturday morning, had a really, really great time in there. Uh, and then me and quite a few of my friends went home, and me and just one of my friends, John, were in Maceo's until about 6:30. Uh, and it was quite wild in there. considering it was daylight. And some girl thought I was C-Matt, which was quite funny. Um, me and, me and John were dancing. I was very hot still at this time, so I was fanning myself with my hand fan. And this girl just ran up and she had sunglasses on and she came up to me and then she was like, me and my friends, and like pointed over. And I looked over and all of her friends were like staring at us, like as if they were watching, like, oh my God, what's gonna happen? And then she just talked at me for about a minute. She was like, I just wanted to say, I just think you are absolutely brilliant. brilliant. Um, I, you know, just what you were wearing earlier today, you looked amazing. What you're wearing now, I love it. We're just, you know, you're just so brilliant. And I just, me and my friends, we just had to tell you, like, I just hope you've had the best day. And I was like looking at her blinking, like my brain turned to mush at this point. And I looked at Jon and he looked at me and we both looked as confused as each other. And after about a minute she was like, what was it like up there on stage? And then it like clicked into my head. And then I just said to her, I was like, I'm not a performer. I'm not an artist. And she looked at me and she just sort of stopped for a second. And then she slowly raised her sunglasses and locked pupils with me and was like, oh, me and my friends thought you were C-Matt. And I was like, no, darling. And then she was like, oh, I'm really sorry. We have had some psychedelics. And I was like, okay. Anyway, so that was my Funny Friday story. Um, but yeah, I think, yeah, so Friday night was a, was a late one. And the one thing I was gutted about, but I've— it's not like my usual Glastonbury, you know, normally the week after Glastonbury you, you see things that other people have done or you watch the BBC footage and you're like, I'm so annoyed I missed that. I actually didn't have much of that feeling this year, but the thing I was annoyed about missing in the moment was I love Bob Dylan and I saw them at Shambhala. I've seen them a number of times and I was really planning on going to that and then staying for Kneecap as Um, but considering I got back at the— back to the campervan at 7:30 in the morning, um, I was not able to rouse myself until after that, until after I got the notification on my phone that said, do not come to West Holts, it is full. I was like, oh. So, so I missed out on those 2, which was a bit of a shame. But yeah, what did you— what would— what were you able to see, Miguel, Friday, Saturday, Sunday? Were there any, if not headliners, but like, were there any like late-night DJs or things you saw? Oh, did you come to Sub Focus on Sunday?

1:07:19Miguel I feel like that would be No, I didn't do Icon this year. It's a shame. As I said, that's the shame of this year is that I missed going to some spots. But first of all, I think we're all in agreement that this year moving around was much easier. So you could go to Arcadia and if it wasn't doing well, you could go somewhere else and you could keep doing that until you find your night. So that was really good. And then saying that, even though it was easy to go around, I was bound then to the energy that I would have and to the fact that I have just done a few days of 12-hour shift and I have more to go. So I was bound just really to that. And that meant I would have to make decisions. By the time I went out each night, I had already done like 40,000 steps. And then I need to give a shout, something I forgot, is to the Worthy Shuttle.

1:08:12Jessi Oh, I'm so jealous you managed to get the blooming tractor, Miguel.

1:08:16Miguel The whole, the whole, the whole 10 days I was using nonstop. And I think if it wasn't for that, my enjoyment of the festival would have been lessened. Uh, even before the— even before in the early days when it was just some of the crew there, uh, you could get the land train from crew bar to crew bar, and there's a stop in front of my campsite. So you could get the— to— if you stop first at the tow and hitch, and then if you want to go to Maceo's, you could go to Maceo's. This is before the crowd arrived. Of course, during the show days, it was a little bit more challenging, but I could still get in front of my campsite, uh, Worthy shuttle, which, well, just to explain, it was a shuttle available for the crew, uh, which sometimes it was, it could be just a white van, uh, but the fun times it was the land train, which was just such a—

1:09:02Jessi Party tractor.

1:09:03Miguel Yeah, party tractor. It was just so cool. So I could get in front, uh, just by the door of my campsite. I could go straight into the back of house of Parks, the Park Stage. Oh, so every night I'll sometimes make a decision on that. Like, uh, after I would arrive to the campsite, drop some stuff, have a shower and like, okay, can I walk? Do I want to walk? Do I want to conserve my energy? And if I would see the shuttle stopping by, I would just jump on it and say, which way you're heading? I'm going towards the park. That will do. So I will make some decisions based on that as well.

1:09:37Niki Okay.

1:09:38Miguel Because if I knew there was something later I wanted to go and see, for instance, on Friday, I knew I wanted to go see Kate Tempest followed by Catrião e Paco Amoroso at Shangri-La Stage. That's, that was something I was looking forward a lot. So it was K-Tempus around midnight and Catrião just after. And then when I saw the land train going past my campsite and it was going to the park, I checked what was going on and it was Self Esteem. I said, yeah, I can enjoy some Self Esteem. So I took the, the Worthy shuttle there, watched a bit of Self Esteem from just from the top of the park, which it drops you at the backstage. So then you have the crew bar, so you can easily get a pint, use toilets, and then go outside and watch it from the top there, which you have a good view. That was really good. And then speaking of the ease of movement this year, by the time it finished, my friends also arrived and they were going to stay at the park to see Anoni and the Johnsons. So I watched the first couple of songs. And then again, my mind from the previous year is like, oh, if I don't leave soon, I'm screwed. But then I walked from the park stage to Shangri-La stage and I was there in the blink of an eye and it was so easy. There is a little route that not many people do or know that you kind of go through this back area and then you enter from the top of the dragon circle. Yeah, you go through Stone Circle and then it gets you to this access route to the Dragon's Leap. And then suddenly you blink, you're there in front of Shangri-La Stage. So it was so easy. And then, uh, uh, Kate Tempest was probably my highlight at the Shangri-La Stage. It was so, so huge and so emotional. And I think Kate Tempest has been my highlight of many, many Glastonburys.

1:11:15Jessi Uh, I love Kate Tempest. Tempest. I've seen him a number of times over the years, but like, I think this year, now that, you know, he's— I know he was they beforehand, and before that he was she. Um, so like, I think this time it's almost like I've seen videos and like it looked amazing. Um, and didn't he finish on George Michael Faith or something? My friend was saying it was amazing.

1:11:41Miguel Yeah, so of course they play, uh, at a— was it West Holts or The Park? But this set at the Shangri-La stage on Friday, with Shangri-La all renewed, refreshed, and with everything going well throughout the day. So the fact that I walked there from The Park and then suddenly I'm in front of the stage so easily, they come out, the sound was so good, the crowd was so into it, and I was just— at one point I was sobbing nonstop. And then at the end it was Freedom, Freedom by George Michael. And honestly, my good friend was with me We were hugging. On my walk there, I saw this guy walking by them alone and say, where are you going? I say, I'm going to Shangri-La to see Kate Tempest. And say, well, you're about to go into the crowded way. Come with me. Which again, vintage Glastonbury, you know, just make friends on the way to a set. And they were mind-blown that I took them there like so quickly to this different route. So again, vintage Glastonbury. I'm going to repeat this many times. So yeah, it was insane.

1:12:47Niki Yeah.

1:12:47Miguel And the whole thing was to do the double set because I was really, really looking forward to Catriau and Paco Moroso, which also they had a set earlier. I don't know if it was the same day or the day after, and I think it was West Holts, like early in the afternoon. But I was looking forward to this set again in the, let's say, intimacy of Shangri-La compared to West Holts or compared to Park Stage. But sadly, the set was delayed and quite delayed. delay, like 30 minutes or so. And by the time they come out, and this, I'll repeat, I was, at that time, I was on my 6th 12-hour shift, like I think. And this was, and I made, I told myself I'm going to push myself tonight to see these 2 sets. But the fact that it started 30, 40 minutes late, and when they finally came out, the crowd was very, well, they got a little bit cold of waiting so that I watched the first 2 songs and the vibe is not there. And then suddenly I feel like I remembered that now I'm going to have to do a long walk back to campsite and I feel like I need to leave now. Otherwise, otherwise I'm going to, I don't know, pass out in the middle of the walk. So I left after 2 songs, but my friend who stayed, she texted me the day after and say, oh my God, thank you so much for telling me to go there because it really, it got really good after apparently when the crowd finally warmed up. So that's, that's a shame. I'm quite Well, I am annoyed they started late. So, but that's one thing.

1:14:19Jessi You're allowed to be annoyed about that.

1:14:20Miguel Yeah, I am. I am.

1:14:22Jessi You're like, dude, I've got work in 5 hours. Come on.

1:14:25Miguel Exactly right. But yeah, K-Tempest is my highlight. The next day, kind of similar. I think I took the land train and it was quite funny. And again, very vintage because during the show days, the land train It's quite wild. At one point, it will leave the stage road or the back of house roads and go through some crossings with the whole crowd, and everyone is looking and thinking, what the hell is that? And quite coincidentally, I went past and one of my friends, she saw me and took a picture of me and then said to me, is that you there? So all this coincidence, all these little magical moments, you know, were happening again this year. So I took That, and my plan was to go see Charlie. I did mention that on the last episode. We had a discussion who was going to be your headliner of that day. And that's one of the days as well that my wristbands came, became, was, were very useful because I got out. I don't remember where, but then I was coming to the side to the other stage, but they were blocking already and directing everyone to go up the railway tracks. So that means probably they were pushing everyone to join from the far away from the back. And they're like, nah, I don't want this. You know, I deserve to be close. So that's when I saw a little door there with the security. And I went there, but I just, I had like 3 wristbands with me, like a crew, build and break, and production. So I just flashed it. And then I went to the back of house and I was able to walk around and then leave right at the front of the left side of the Other Stage. So that came very handy, you know, those wristbands.

1:16:07Jessi Nice.

1:16:08Niki I need to get myself these wristbands. You guys have had a very different experience.

1:16:13Miguel Yeah, yeah, this corridor connecting all the main stages were quite nice. Yeah, that same thing happened on Sunday. Well, so basically, let me go back to Charli. I went to see Charli and you read comments now after some people saying it was disappointing and it was just, I don't know, Auto-Tune and she's dancing or singing, but it is what it is, right? I don't know what people were expecting. And I wanted to be able to look back and say, Brad Semmer was there, even if it's towards the end of it. So I had a party and I think it was a party. I feel like she was happy to be there. If you wanted something extra, she was having guests everywhere. So why not have a little, I guess, at Glastonbury? Lorde was there, but I think Lorde didn't want to take from the, well, the day before she did a secret, not secret set at Woodsey's where she decided to play the whole new album, which is, I guess, an artistic decision. So I think she didn't want to detract from that by joining as a guest Charlie XS. That's my theory at least. So yeah, I think you can say it would be nice if there was a guest at Charlie XS.

1:17:22Jessi Yeah, that was my one thing watching it back is that like it was really cool. like the fire and the like rain on the stage and like burning of the Brat flag and stuff. It was really cool. But I think everyone expected her to have guests was the only thing.

1:17:37Miguel Yeah, she did something extra, but again, it wasn't Primavera levels, but also Primavera gave Charli headlining spots. So I don't know, but I enjoy it. It was a party and I checked that on my list. Brat Summer. Or maybe, is it summer when it starts? Anyway, that summer I was there. That's what I'm telling my grandkids.

1:18:00Niki Yeah. Miguel, same experience for me. Like literally everything you said, I completely agree with. Yeah, I really wanted to see her. I'm really glad I did. I don't know. Yeah, the people that were complaining, I don't know what they were. Exactly. Yeah. This is a Charlii show. Yeah. It would have been nice if they had guessed.

1:18:17Miguel I guess maybe it depended where you were on the field and the fact that now, I think we mentioned briefly, but the changes So the other stages were very welcoming. So maybe it depended where you are, but I had fun. I was planning to go on Prodigy initially, but then going back to the fact that I was making decisions based on my energy level and like, oh, I was very dead that day. And like, if I don't have the energy to go right into the middle of Prodigy and actually do a Prodigy concert, I feel— I felt like, oh, you know what? I'm going to take it slow. And the same thing, there was one route of the land train that would drop you backstage of the Pyramid, which is quite fun. And that's the one that I was in the campsite. I saw the same thing. I saw the land train. I ran to the driver, which way you're going? And then he said, I'm doing the stage route. So you go to the back of the Pyramid? Yes. Okay, let's do this. So suddenly I'm being taken on the train, on the land train to ride at the back of the Pyramid. Uh, what, 30 minutes, 40 minutes before Olivia Rodrigo decided to go to Olivia Rodrigo. I'm, I, I know the singles. I'm not very connected, but I thought like I wanted to do the Pyramid experience, I guess, as well then. So I decided to go to that because to take it chill, I guess.

1:19:31Niki Ah, yes.

1:19:32Jessi I know what you're about to say.

1:19:34Miguel And then it was fun. I was at the back of the Pyramid. I went to catering. They had a table of cakes. I had a slice of cake before the gig. And then I found myself just next to the pit, which was quite insane. It was just, I was just there. The stage is there, 80,000, 90,000 people to the other side. But of course, the view wouldn't be great there if I couldn't go right into the pit, but I was just in the door of it. So there's a door that takes you right to the outside to the pyramid. So it was just me surrounded by 12-year-olds with their families. And I'm not going to lie, it was quite emotional to see young children live that moment. They were so on it. And to see the parents looking at the children and then me looking at the parents looking at the children, I felt I felt some feelings. And then amazingly for the parents, Olivia Rodrigo decided to bring Robert Smith, which there's no mystery here, is one of my favorite bands. So that was cool.

1:20:35Jessi Yeah, that was the bit that I remembered. I was like, I remember this now because Robert Smith from The Cure came out and you sent a picture like, what is going on?

1:20:42Miguel So I quite enjoyed that experience to be surrounded by young fans and families and taking like really slow. And again, she It was very, it was such a fun headlining act and she's a great artist and it was a good closer for, in terms of the main stages for me. On Sunday, Jessi, you were texting me and it was on my Clash Finder. You were saying, let's meet at Marquee Belay. But that was gonna start like 2 in the morning and I was working on Sunday and Sunday is the egress. So I was expecting, I was working on Monday. So I was predicting it was gonna be a challenging day as well. At one point after Olivia Rodrigo, the trigger, I did ask myself, would it be wild to go to Dragon's Leap and take a nap, put my alarm clock in 1 hour, wake up, see Marc Rebillet, and then walk to my tent? And then I decided that yes, it would be too wild. Did you end up going there?

1:21:40Jessi Well, I mean, best laid plans. I— so yeah, so we finished Prodigy, and then my friends really wanted to see Sub Focus at Icon, and we were worried it was going to be a bicep situation. Well, and just in general, it's the last night, let's get into the naughty corner as quickly as possible. So we went from Prodigy, we stayed till the very end, we didn't want to miss a second of Prodigy, but it was like as soon as they finished, it was like, right, everyone knows where we're going, follow us. Like, you know, military operation. We're not stopping for the loo, no, no stops, just, you know, follow us. Got into Southeast Corner and it wasn't that bad. Like, again, like, we'd obviously just predicted it to be worse than it was. We had like marched over there as quickly as possible. We got a really good spot at Icon. Like, this was the first time I was planning on going to see a bit of artwork at Genesis, which is obviously also in Block9, and then coming back. But my friends were persuading me because, because Sub Focus didn't start for an hour essentially, uh, but my friends were just saying to me, don't be silly, just stay with us. And, and they were right in the end. Um, but we were right down the front and in the middle at Icon, and it's the first ever time that I've gone to Icon for a full set and stayed. I did do Fortet a couple of years ago, but I've probably said this in the podcast, but my friend got ill about 40 minutes in, and so we had to leave. So, but this time we were literally right in the middle, and it was so good. I, I was actually going, now this is what I think Icon— I've just always struggled with the people they get on. It all felt a bit like plinky plonky, beep beep beep beep kind of music. And to actually have some like drum and bass with some real like sound oomph behind it, like was really, really good. And then the plan was to go from there to Marc Rebillet, and, uh, we were— 2 of our friends split off because they were like quickly like, we've got to get there. So they ran off to get into Shangri-La, and we were going to amble, you know, follow them. But we got persuaded by John again, who was the bad influence that stayed up with me till 6:30 at Maceo's, who was like, like, look, I can't remember who was on after Sub Focus, but he was like, they're good, we've got a really good spot here, vibes are high, like, you know, there's a lot, there's enough space, we've got drinks in our bags, there's a bar right there, like, we might as well stay here. And so I got persuaded to stay there, so missed Marc Rebelle. However, the one thing I will say is that we did move into Shangri-La sort of slowly. I think probably we probably left about 20 to 3, which was 20 minutes before Marc Rebelle was due to finish, and we made our move into Shangri-La. Shangri-La, and it was pretty busy still at this point. We had to stop once or twice because we lost someone and then found them again. But by the time we got in there and got to the stage, it was maybe like 5 past 3, so he'd just finished. Lots of people had obviously, I think, said, I'm gonna see Mark Roberley and then I'm going to go to bed. Obviously all the sensible people who were probably driving on Monday and things. They had a band on afterwards that were really, really good. But the funny thing about it was is that we got to Shangri-La.

1:24:38Niki are.

1:24:39Jessi And if you remember, there was a platform at the back, which was like above the sound desk, which had some stairs going up to it. And I'd seen people on it like a previous night, but there was never very many people on it. So, I don't know if they had like a numbers limit or whatever. And there was a guy at the bottom and a velvet rope and whatever. And my friend Lottie is very, well, she's very brat, if I'm honest. We were walking past and then Lottie was just like, I want to up there. And off she stomped and talked to the man. I don't know what she said to the man, but then the 4 of us were being allowed up onto this platform. So after Mark Ribbley had finished, uh, and we spent the next like hour and a half up there. There were only ever maximum 10 people up on this platform, like, which is less than I'd seen before. And we kept peering over the edge and the man was not letting anybody else up. There was still a security guy there. And so we, we just felt like we had this like private viewing platform of Shangri-La As the— I was about to say the sun was coming up. I mean, it was a foggy morning, so it was more like as the world was getting lighter. But the tunes on there were amazing. The last hour was like Chris Tofu and friends. So loads of people. So Amy was on this. I was on the platform looking going, I think that's Amy, as in creative director of Church. And then Danny, who's the saxophone player of Church, was on stage playing saxophone. It was Just chaotic in the best way that Shangri-La can be. It's now daylight. It's Monday morning. We're drinking the last of my friend's hip flask that he happened to find. You know, we were just up there being chaotic, dancing like silly beans. At some point we were rolling around on the floor doing teddy bear rolls, 'cause that seemed like a— we had so much space and it seemed like a good idea. And we stayed up there until Shangri-La closed at 5 and then we went to the Stone Circle and we were at the Stone Circle until 7 on Monday morning, which I've never done before and was eye-opening to say the least. There are a lot of people who you're just kind of looking around and going, I really hope that none of you have to drive within the next 12 hours. Um, but probably quite a few of them do, but there you go.

1:26:51Niki I think Stone Circle on a Monday morning is like my favorite. We didn't do it this year. I think We were just so, it was so knackered. But normally, as I said, like my, I do the Southeast Horn on a Thursday and Sunday. And I just love Sunday night because a lot of people who are stupidly working on the Monday, if you can get out of it, leave early. You know, we had some people who were leaving Sunday night or leaving early Monday morning. But I feel like Sunday night and especially Monday morning at Stone Circle. Circle, you know, are the people that just want to hold on to the last dregs of the festival. And I feel like they're my people, you know?

1:27:33Jessi Yeah, it was almost like post-apocalyptic up there. It was like, you're just looking around at Stone Circle on a Monday morning and like, there's a lot of stoned people, right? There's a lot of people that go up there and, you know, smoke weed and look a bit sleepy. And there's a lot of people who are still swigging from hip flasks or whatever. There's a lot of people just with giant smiles on their face, just like giggling and looking at their friends, but there is this weird post-apocalyptic— yeah, post-apocalyptic. Everyone's a little bit dirty and quite a lot dishevelled. Like, headdresses are wonky, hair is messy. There are like spills down white t-shirts. There are, you know, people's— like, if someone had like gems on their face, half of them are like falling off or like, you know, they're half peeled off their face and flapping around. on their face. It just is the funniest, like, post-party but still a party to look at. It's very funny. How about— sorry, Miguel, you were talking, I interrupted. Did you go up there this year? No?

1:28:33Miguel No, I was just going to reinforce what Nikki was saying about the Sunday to Monday morning, and it's my people as well. And for me, and it's the sentence I was repeating nonstop to my friends, vintage Glastonbury. Right, guys, thanks so much for sharing all your So your experience at Glastonbury 2025, uh, uh, I think we all agree it's one for the books, uh, our top 3 and top 1 for Jessi. Uh, and I think I just have one question to round up our conversation and our review of this year's festival, which is a very classic question that we always make to our guests and not only on the review episodes, but so Nikki, what was your Glasto moment? Uh, the one memory you always associate with This year?

1:29:17Niki This, it is hard to sort of put it down to one, but I'm gonna go with Thursday night, which I said Thursday is always my favorite day, and it definitely was this year. But Thursday night we hopped around loads from, yeah, from Dance Village to Southeast Corner, and then we were at the West Holts bar for quite a bit. And Ezra Collective were doing their Situation Dance Night, which was just like 3 hours of them DJing and playing all sorts of great dance music, which in itself is awesome. I was with a friend of mine who's like a massive Fred Again fan and has an Adore You tattoo on him. And lo and behold, we saw Fred Again on the outside of the West Holts bar, just chilling with his mates. And then my My friend didn't really want to like bug him or approach him, but then we saw a couple of other people were, and he was just being really friendly and nice. Um, so he eventually went up to him and my girlfriend sort of did a quick intro and was just like, hey, just let you know, my friend here is a massive fan. He's even got an Adore You tattoo. And he was just so sound. He just gave my friend a massive hug and everyone he was like meeting who recognized him or whatever, he wasn't, you just like gave everyone like a massive hug and I briefly spoke to him more so just to get intel. And I was like, are you doing any secret sets? And he was just like, nope, just chilling this year. And then later on during when they started playing one of the Ezra Collective songs, I had like a whole bunch of glow sticks with me as I normally tend to do. And I sort of just broke all of them and like threw them into the crowd. So there we were on a Thursday night at the West Holts listening to Ezra Collective. Everyone had glow sticks all around and Fred again was happily bopping along at the back. So yeah, I think that was a Glasto moment, you know, amongst the many Glasto moments that you get.

1:31:21Jessi I mean, that's amazing. I think my friend, I'm gonna tell her about this and she's gonna be really jealous of that.

1:31:27Niki But yeah, it's just, it's so nice when you meet a famous person And they're just so sound. I also bumped into— I'm talking so much about Ezra Collector, but I do love them. I bumped into the drummer, Femi. He was on his way out of the Southeast Corner on Saturday and I was on my way in and I just went up to him and said how much I love the band. And they were just so— he was so nice and he spoke to me for about 5 minutes about how long I've been watching them for. And yeah, that really made my night. We had like a proper 5-minute conversation. And yeah, that was great too.

1:32:02Miguel Amazing. Amazing. And Jessi, what about you? And then again, don't need to be a Glasto-specific moment. Could be what you're taking from this year. It could be your summary, your final roundup from Glastonbury 2025.

1:32:13Jessi Okay. It's really, really hard because I just think in general, everything this year was amazing from the volunteering, which we'll come to a different episode. Just, I just felt really myself, and I just felt really happy, which, you know, not to get deep for a minute, but I was worried because it's the first one that I have done single— first Glastonbury I've done single since 2019. And I feel like the last couple of Glastonburys, you know, I've had a— had an experience which I wouldn't have got, you know. I was just worried that I had this amazing thing and now I don't have that anymore, and now obviously I'm going single, and how is that feel, but I just felt really just joy in my bones and in my soul for so much of it. It was just a free, happy feeling. There was no— it made me realize that actually my relationship that I had before, you know, not that I ever had rose-tinted glasses on it, but it was a really nice moment to feel like, do you know what, you are okay on your own. Um, you know, you did have a good thing, but it wasn't the thing you needed for the rest of your life, and it's gonna be okay. And that— and I think just that, just that, that's the sort of summary of the whole thing, is that it really made me feel better about myself and my life and just how things have panned out. And it was a really validating moment. But I will give my top 3, and they are music related, which is very unusual for me. But Alanis Morissette Friday, I will remember forever. Scissor Sisters Saturday was so much better than thought it could be and blew away any cobwebs of, oh, you're missing this, you're missing this. No, I had an incredible time and it was worth every second. And then Sunday, The Prodigy, that was the one sort of headliner set that we had all of my ragtag group of 10 of us, I think there were total friends, and we all managed to get there for one headline set. And I had people on my shoulders. We were all just like, again, that was just a set that I will remember forever. So those 3 things, music, Musically. Non-musically, probably the silly platform in Shangri-La on Monday morning will probably be a memory that me and my friends have for a long time. And the fact that I did quite a bit more circus stuff this year, it really made me— I loved spending more time in that area and made me wish, like, there was, as always, more days to Glastonbury. But if that was a whole separate festival, I would go because I just— even spending as much time as I did there this year, it still didn't feel like enough. So overall, one Glastonbury, the best time, really validating for me, really nice having like a smaller group of friends and being more mobile. And whatever they've done, you know, crowd management-wise, slightly less people, you know, splitting the crowd. As annoying as clashes are, like, it makes sense. You get to do more in total. You feel safer. And just those like crowd management moments where they You know, made you walk a little bit further or closed off this way. It worked. It, it just felt perfect the whole way through. Can't gush about it enough. Wonderful.

1:35:16Niki Yeah.

1:35:17Miguel Amazing. No, thanks for sharing, Jessi. And you say you don't want to get deep, but I'll allow myself to get a little bit deep. But if you remember, we came out from 2018 feeling terrible, like we did something wrong because things didn't work as well as we wanted 2018. And we thought it was our fault and we couldn't really explain. And then we had big plans for 2020. what we needed to make different. I was really looking forward for the 2020 festival, the 50-year celebration, and in my mind, I had to do better then. And then of course, we had forced cancellations, and then the first one after COVID was when everyone came back and saying, what the hell was that? People had concerns. People actually got scared in a few moments during overcrowding or whatever happened. We discussed in the podcast what was the issues that caused it, if it was tough to move on, if it was more people that jumped the fire. And then I, that led me to skip 2 Glastonburys because I thought I needed to give it a break and figure out what was, what was going on, if it was the festival, if it was me. So to come back this year, and I was able to come back in a working capacity, even though the balance wasn't as well as I wanted, but I was able to be part of the festival. We're going to talk more on the other episode, but it was quite nice. Someone one day went past me and said, you must be important, you have a radio, which is not true. I was not, was not important, but I did have the radio, so it was quite nice to be able to put a call and say, hey, I need more signs down this lane. And if someone would come and do that, hey, there's a hole on this, uh, uh, uh, the cars are scraping the ground here. The ground is uneven. Then someone, I would put a call, someone would come and fix it. So that was cool. And then it was my small sample, uh, group of people, which is my core group of friends who started going in 2019, which is when I started to have all these weird feelings, mixed feelings about the festival. And now to see see them experience this year and where I felt, even though I had only half a day available for me, it was back to my early years at Glastonbury and to hear from them that they were experiencing it differently. I'm gonna steal Resident Advisor and call it a reset.

1:37:21Niki Yeah.

1:37:22Miguel And this year got me excited for the future. Again, what I, I probably should have done a second on this episode, or maybe it would be a future episode to discuss what, what did change or what worked, but maybe it doesn't matter But I think my memory from this year, then, to be— not to be too cringe, then is the people, is my crew. I had a fantastic crew working with me. I met a lot of people and then to see my friends sharing this random moment throughout the day, which would remind me from Glastonbury of past years. I asked them to give me their review first and they all said that they did felt different as well and they were thinking themselves to maybe give it a break here and there. But of course, we are going to have the following year anyway, but then now they're excited. They want to come back right away. So it was, I think the memory is this, is Glastonbury back or whatever happened. And then my highlight is really the people. And I didn't mention the, my really closer of Glastonbury, of my 12 days of Glastonbury, which were actually 13, because I had a shift on Monday finishing at 8 in the evening. So by the time we finished, really everyone was gone. And at that time it was my 10th of 11, 12-hour shifts. So I worked 120 hours in 10 days. So we, we went back, we went back to campsite, we had a shower, it's done, we finished, we made it, we conquered. And me and a couple of my crew, amazing people I met, we went for a little wander. And by then I realized I hadn't gone to the Stone Circle the whole festival. So we, we went to the Stone Circle. Surprisingly, the crew— we thought that some of the crew bars would be open, but Toe and Hitch, Arcadia was closed, uh, the one on the, on The ground was closed, but by that time, oh, we're just gonna, let's go walk to Maceo's. And it was supposed to be closed, but the fence was a little bit open and we could hear some voices. So we went through and it was just like 10, 12 people. So it was basically just Block9 crew, but they look at us and say, hey, come along, help us empty the kegs because otherwise it's always gonna go to waste. So it was a really good, nice closer to the festival, which started on the 19th where I said I had a really big night out in the crew bars and now it ends. by helping Block9 crew to finish the case. So I was just pouring pints myself at the back of the bar, which was quite nice. And with a really good company of people who spent the last 10 days doing 12 hours with me. And then, yeah, so my highlight, as cringe as it is, is just my friends and the crew that helped me conquer the challenge that we faced.

1:39:57Jessi I love that. I think, you know, we've We all love Glastonbury, and I've, like, the last couple of years have been good, don't get me wrong. Like, they've not been bad, but there was definitely a feeling of coming home this year and being like, oh, they're like, the Glasto blues have been there, don't get me wrong, but the blues have only been related to, oh God, I've got to wait 2 years to do this again. There's no like, oh, I should have done this. There's no like weird like anxiety of like, oh, I messed it up. Oh, I could have done it better. Like, it, it was what it was. And yes, okay, I missed a couple of things, but it— there was something about the people and there was something about how it was managed and there was something about just the vibes that were like— me and Miguel talked about this at length, like, not on the podcast and on the podcast, but with the whole ticket thing. We were like, you know, everybody always says, oh, it's going to change the crowd. Oh, it's going to change the crowd. And I, I hadn't actually thought about that, you know, in the days running up to the festival. It was one of the things on my list of like, oh God, is this going to be weird this year? There's going to be loads of people who don't get it. There's going to be loads of people who don't understand, who don't understand the Glastonbury way. But it was better somehow. Not saying that any of the usual crowd, but I think because the site was managed better, however they managed to do that. And I do agree, Miguel, we should do an episode on that, but do some research beforehand and see who we can get one as a guest. But, um, however, whatever happened, I just think the vibes were so, so high, the whole— that it was impossible for even a newbie to not get it immediately on site. Like, they arrived and they were like, oh, okay, right. And they knew what to do and they knew how to be. And yeah, it just led to my best Glastonbury ever. There you go.

1:41:41Miguel Okay guys, well, thank you so much for sharing, uh, all your experience and all your thoughts about Glastonbury 2024.

1:41:49Niki 5.

1:41:49Miguel There's a long way to the next one, but we're gonna be following all bits of information. We're gonna be releasing episodes, looking for new guests. Uh, there will be a new episode, uh, an episode after this one coming where we're gonna talk a little bit more of our working experience. Uh, Nikki, thanks so much for joining us to answering your call on social media. It was really nice to meet you. We're gonna meet each other in the field in 2027, I believe.

1:42:13Niki For sure. Uh, thanks, thanks so much for, for having me. It's been so much much fun. Um, I could talk about this for so many more hours, as I'm sure you both can as well. Uh, but yeah, it's been so much fun and a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

1:42:30Jessi Oh, it's been so lovely to have you. And like, we always love when we get someone on that can talk about it for hours as much. We, we normally— I can't remember what I said to you, Nikki, but we normally, when people are like, how long do you think it would take? I'm like, well— and I have to normally be honest and be like, I mean, me and Miguel talk a lot and it normally takes at least 2 hours. Um, and then obviously we chop it down a bit, but most of Our episodes are like well over an hour, normally over an hour and a half. But yeah, it's just so nice to have someone who, you know, has your experience as you do, and so you can talk about it like we can, sort of previous years compared to this year. Also for you to be doing the festival a little bit differently to either of us, which is great, and just to speak so enthusiastically. And yeah, it's been lovely having you.

1:43:11Niki Thank you.

1:43:17Jessi Well, once again, we've talked about this for hours, but it's been wonderful having Nikki on. We do have at least another 1 or 2 episodes planned kind of off the back of this year, so I know it's usually a long wait, but we will do our best to get a couple more out. However, we haven't done this for a while. We really, really would love to hear your contributions, and we'd love to get loads of these. So even if you've just got, you know, a sentence to say or even a word. We're really looking for as many of these as possible. If you go to contribute.glastocast.co.uk, you will find a voice recording direct button on our website where you can record a little up to 2-minute segment for us. We're actually looking for much shorter than that, but if you could finish the sentence for us, my GlastoCast Glastonbury 2025 was... If you could record that for us, whether it's a word, a sentence, a mini story, or a couple of things, we would love to put in the next episodes, which is coming out, you know, not— hopefully not very long after this one. We'd love to get a load of those together and put them together and add them to the episode. So just one more time, if you have the time, if you could go to contribute.glastocast.co.uk and record a little mini voice message for us finishing the sentence, my Glastonbury 2025 was... and off you go. We'd love to hear from you.