REVIEW: Glastonbury Festival, 27-29 June 2008.

 

(5 stars)

This year’s Glastonbury became the most controversial yet before the doors even opened. The media bandwagon jumped on the festival like a pack of wolves and repeated headlines about poor ticket sales, criticism of the booking of Jay-Z as a headline act and talk of mud apocalypse. In true Glasto spirit though, all the criticism was pushed aside and everyone was just out to enjoy the festival together. Glastonbury is different to all the other festivals. It's like another world. The 180,000 people on site can forget about their troubles and material life as anything is accepted for 5 days of the year on Worthy Farm. The atmosphere this year was one of the most memorable to date, it was not out of the ordinary for people to break into joyous cheers around the site for no reason at all. Luckily, the weather held out for the most part and except for some showers and mud on the Thursday and Friday, the rain gods looked down kindly upon the farm this year.

The Jazz World stage boasted a host of talent on the Friday evening with Lupe Fiasco providing some essential hip hop foundations for Jay-Z’s Saturday night headline slot. Fun Lovin’ Criminals and then Estelle followed with a collection of feel good, crowd friendly numbers. It was then over to the Park area to check out London’s finest rapper: Dizzee Rascal. Instead Franz Ferdinand were playing a surprise set and Dizzee’s set had been postponed until later. It was amusing to watch the hip hop heads attempt to get into the totally different style of music. Meanwhile, the BBC Introducing stage was pumping out the best in drum&bass and we caught a heavy hitting set from Sub Focus. After being transfixed by beats and bass lines, a trip to the dance village was in order. The highlights of the night there were Fatboy Slim playing to a crowded Dance East Tent, Bookashade Live and of course the Stanton Warriors mashing up on the outdoor psychedelic G Stage.

After the music finished on the main stages it was time to check out what the all new late night area, Shrangri-La had to offer. Covering over 40 acres and having a licence until 6am was a recipe for late night madness. The TNT Club which played everything from live jazz infused hip hop and funk to grimy electro beats had a buzzing atmosphere. The Tilted Disco made all the late night revellers even more wonky after a drink or two as the dance floor was tilted at an angle and furniture was attached to the roof upside-down. The futuristic gothic industrial themed Trash City area was also a hit with the crowds. The cheers sounded as flames erupted from the DJ tower in time with the beats.

The musical line-up on Saturday was phenomenal, but with big names come big clashes. After selecting the best of the best, we went on a musical journey that began with the incredible talent of Shlomo and the Human Beatbox Orchestra. Shlomo took us on a rollercoaster ride of beatbox sounds that included collaborations from Get Cape.Wear Cape. Fly. and an entire choir of beatboxers spitting out rhythms that ranged from drum & bass to folk music. Then it was over to the Pyramid stage for the French, Spanish and English lyrics and melodies of Manu Chao. Over on the Other Stage, the crowds were set jumping by Hot Chip and an electro-charged collaborative performance of ‘Wearing My Rolex’ by Wiley and Hot Chip.

Then the time came. All the hype, criticism and rumours that had surrounded Jay-Z’s performance at Glastonbury must have had some effect on the public as one of the largest crowds to ever grace the fields of the Pyramid Stage converged to hear the Hova’s set. There were mutters of whether Chris Martin would perform. Would Beyonce come strutting her stuff on the stage? Would Linkin’ Park collobarate on ‘Encore’? In the end, Jay-Z squashed the criticism like an ant under his Timberland boots. He did it like he had to do it: entirely on his own. After a prolonged intro video comprising of all the negative press, members of the public talking about Jay-Z and a particularly snide comment by Noel Gallagher that Jay-Z had no place at Glasto, the rapper himself walked out on stage playing 'Wonderwall' on a guitar and singing. He was soon joined by over 100, 000 fans laughing and singing along in amazement. He quickly fired into a string of hits such as '99 Problems', 'Hard Knock Life' and 'Big Pimpin’'. He talked of change as images of Barack Obama popped up on the oversized screen that projected his image out to the thousands of fans that watched on. He allowed the fans to boo an image of George Bush and cheer as an image of the Queen flashed up to coincide with the lyrics of one of his powerful accapellas. He ended with his trustful ‘Encore’ and left the crowds cheering for more. Surely this performance should go down in Glastonbury history as one of the best thought out and innovative headline acts to wow the pyramid stage.

Sunday came too quickly but with the mud now fully dried out and some sunshine peeking through, everyone was thankful. Mark Ronson played a fun-filled but predictable set over on the Other Stage and was followed by the Pidgeon Detectives who attempted to get the crowd going by jumping off various speakers and parts of the stage. It worked. It was time to get warmed up for the Sunday headline performance of Groove Armada on the Other Stage. Caspa & Rusko provided the ultimate in dubstep over on the G Stage and had the crowd raving along to their classics, ‘Cockney Thug’ and ‘Hammertime’.

The end of the festival was in sight but spirits could not have been better. Groove Armada played a surpisingly up-tempo electro infused set with the highlights being extended versions of ‘I See You Baby’ and the relaxing melodies of ‘At the River’. The lightshow was incredible and rivalled that of the Chemical Brothers who filled the same slot last year. Groove Armada's set came to a close with flares erupting from the crowd as people bounced around and sang along to ‘Superstylin’’.

The music was at a very high standard this year, but at the end of the day, it is the people and the beautiful festival site that make Glastonbury. The critics have been silenced, hats off to Glastonbury. It is still the best festival in the world.

By Toby Clarke.

Photography by Oleg Tolstoy  http://www.olegtolstoy.co.uk/