One of the most flamboyant festivals across the world, the Glastonbury Festival, returned after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regarded as a major event in British culture, the festival is inspired by the ethos of the hippie, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the free festival movement. Over two lakh people thronged the 50th edition of the music extravaganza and had the time of their lives.
The Croissant Neuf organizer told about the importance that the festival had in generating “the community feeling” among the staff and masses. She also spoke about the lavishness and the main headlines of the event that the attendees experienced this season.
This year the festival received the slot of June 22 to June 26th and saw performances by highly acclaimed artists like Paul McCartney, Billie Ellish, and Kendrick Lamar. However, managing around 100 different stages in over 30 areas across the vast Croissant Neuf, including over 3300 toilets, was a herculean task in itself.
“It’s almost an all-year-round job,” reflected Sally Howell, the organizer of the Croissant Neuf field at Glastonbury Festival in the blog.
She said that with around 175 people in her managing crew including site crew, stage and sound crew, tent crew, around-the-clock stewards, venue stewards, campsite stewards, and gate staff (not including the stage performers), the recruitment usually begins just after Christmas. Howell further stated that the stewards in her area just work for her and return every year for the job. Seeing the same face every year is bound to develop a familiar feeling among the staff. She calls it creating a “community feeling”.
Croissant Neuf is one of the longest-standing venues of the Glastonbury Festival. It included the main Croissant Neuf tent, where the main acts were played, a bandstand – where musicians played during the changeovers in the main tent, a café, a dozen exhibits, and a handful of stalls.
Howell points out by saying “Our field is a bit like a village green, really”.
The field had a pond, a garden, and seating areas, they all were hosted with a green ethos. The entire venue and all of the lighting and communication systems ran only on solar power. Even the Nightlife area Block9, whose headline stage IICON, shaped like a metallic head, took around three months to build and used nearly 100 tons of building materials.
Aside getting lost in the world of music, laughter, and enjoyment among all the glory of the festival, the main activities and attractions that the attendees experienced this season were – Lotus Flower Burning, Arcadia Spider, Drive-in Cinema, mega set from the Beatles legend Paul McCartney, The Spike, Shangri-La, and many spectacular performances by legends like Diana Ross, The Bicep and the Belfast duo Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar.
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