Danny Rhodes, 2000

2000 was the year of my first Glastonbury. My brother had been the previous year and told me I had to go so I went. We went to a lot of gigs in those days. As we lugged our stuff towards the entrance I remember the awe inspiring feeling when we reached the top of the rise and I saw the size of the place. We set up camp on the hill above the Pyramid Stage, leaving barely any room between our tents but when we returned after a jaunt somewhere, somebody had managed to squeeze their tent into the tiny space we’d left. You couldn’t move for tents.

It wasn’t all a friendly experience. I witnessed criminal gangs at work in the car parks, a mugging in broad daylight and someone tried to snatch my bag off me when I was searching for the New Tent to watch The Flaming Lips. I learned after the fact that the capacity was 100k but that over 200k attended. The overcrowding was dangerous in places. I read that they almost lost their license afterwards.

For all that, 2000 was my favourite Glastonbury, for the edge, for being a Glastonbury virgin, for the sheer sense of escape those few days afforded. I tried to capture something of that feeling in my novel, FAN, the sense of one world ending and another beginning.

I was finishing up teacher training at the time, about to embark on a real career. I remember pulling into a service station on the way home. It was about 3am on the Monday morning and I was due to start work at 830am. I was tired, dirty and hungry. I can’t imagine what I looked like or how I might have smelled. Walking into the service station and seeing ‘normal’ people felt strange, like I had discovered some secret they were not knowledgeable of. That’s the power of Glastonbury.

This picture was taken on the Saturday evening. I can’t remember who was playing on the Pyramid Stage at that moment but we went to watch Moby on the Other Stage, and so did everybody else! I lifted my brother onto my shoulders so he could take a photograph. I remember him turning around and saying something like ‘Fucking Hell, the crowd goes on for miles’. The sun was setting. Moby was playing Porcelain. Magic was in the air. It’s a moment that will live with me forever