While the overall line up this year was poor by other year's standards, they certainly spared no expense when it came to headline acts with U2, Coldplay and Beyonce doing the honours on the Pyramid stage. This was in direct contrast to last year where the main headline acts were relatively poor with the exception of Muse but the smaller, less well known and up and coming bands taking my interest and my poor little legs all over the site.
The first thing that everyone talks about when it comes to Glastonbury is the weather. I have been there nearly 10 times now and honestly I have never had the same experience twice, weather-wise and this year was no exception. After a downpour early in the week, the site began to churn up and by Wednesday we had all the national TV channels saying another mud bath was on the way. We arrived in early Thursday morning to a thunderous shower and our fear was that good camping would be hard to come by. Not to be so, luckily. We struggle through the mud and eventually got a nice dry-ish place to camp. Friday wasn't too bad weather wise until around tea time and from them on it just lashed all night which while not good for the revelers there, looked great on TV. Saturday wasn't too bad but Sunday was scorching. I think it was the hottest day I have ever experience there, it certainly felt like it.
But I digress, we got though it all and a great time was had by all. The one thing I really look forward to on my arrival back from Glastonbury is 1.a shower, 2. a sleep and 3. looking back at all the BBC coverage that I have recorded on TV while I have been away and as usual I was not disappointed. In fact, if anything this year, the BBC have outdone themselves in terms of production values and quality.
It was the first time that I had got to experience Glasto in HD with a 7.1 channel audio track. It was unbelievable. But apart from the actual quality of the picture and sound, it was just the way they cut the shots together and a generous use of overlay with band members and band versus crowd shots, they really surpassed themselves. We were miles away from the stage during Coldplay and U2 and while the atmosphere and sound were great and certainly enough to make up for the distance from the actual performance, it was only really when I got home did I truly get to see what was going on up front. I think that fix you and clocks by Coldplay came across on TV as amazing especially with the laser light show and the fireworks. It was awesome in person but how a person could look at it on TV and not say to themselves, I gotta go there next time, I'll never know.
Apart from the spectacular coverage, they must be commended on travelling around the site to all the little nooks and crannies to show everyone the hidden side of Glasto. I myself as a veteran, have still yet to see some of the places they visit. I don't know how they even find them, maybe it's just that they haven't drunk 10 pints of Sommerset's finest? LOL. But I for one do enjoy their little excursions to the far flung outer limits, both in terms of location and sanity!
Overall though, Glastonbury 2011 probably wasn't my favourite Glasto ever but just being there is really enough for me and allied to the BBC TV Coverage, as Elbow so eloquently put it on Saturday 'One day like this a year will see me right'. It sure will and roll on 2013 where the scramble for tickets is sure to be as bad if not worse than ever. I for one, can't wait.
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