The undeniable magic of the Ley Lines – Glastonbury 2024
Why has Glastonbury become a personality? The more you think about it the stranger it gets.
You hear of outlandish festival goers ‘recharging their soul’ or ‘warming their heart’. Leaving a piece of themselves on the farm. Sitting in the stone circle at 5 am for sunrise to gain some clarity and perspective. Wild.
Clarity? Perspective? More like sleep deprivation and a newfound appreciation for indoor plumbing.
But hey, that’s the Glastonbury personality for you – it’s ridiculous, it’s fanciful and somehow, it’s utterly contagious…
That’s right, Sam ‘outlandish’ Hunter here, nice to meet you.
Y’see, these off-centre claims feel much closer to the truth while you’re in the fields. It’s like stepping into memories of your youth. You’re in your own little bubble, yet open to everything around you.
And everything and everyone seems to be looking back at you, taking you under its wing.
It’s a taste of the golden years that you’ll never get back. A place that’s lawless in the way a child knows no bounds and has to explore everything for themselves – but this time there’s no adult to tell you what’s wrong.
In fact, the ‘wrong’ things are often the right things. There’s the possibility of stumbling across a secret set if you go off the beaten track; finding a stage that only 100 out of 200,000 people are at; chatting to a quirky soul at 5 am that leaves a mark on you as powerful as a branding iron.
However, I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews of this year’s Glastonbury festival. I’ve noticed that it’s one of the only festivals where each individual has a wildly different experience from the next.
Most positive. Some negative. All for different reasons.
It helps build a picture of the sheer scale of the place, but also the vibrations within it.
I’ve read of people going for the first time this, chasing this unexplainable phenomenon that everyone tries to describe, but left feeling disappointed.
This is why I think that Glastonbury isn’t for everyone.
Fight against it and you’re doomed. Try to find things and you’ll miss them. Follow the map and you’ll get lost. Try to do everything and the only thing you’ll have to show are six packs on the souls of your feet.
Even before it became the behemoth it is today, you can sense this same unexplainable feeling from past write-ups and footage. One that doesn’t really make sense. One of optimism and luck.
And it’s true. There’s something there that guides you with an invisible hand and tunes you into Good Times FM.
Coming from London, it was almost scary how friendly and open people were. The chain of serendipitous events that happen each day go beyond all logical reason.
Instead of questioning it, you’ve just got to allow it – or you won’t feel it. You’ll just see that everyone else can and start wondering why you’re not having as good a time.
Do you know how I know?
Bad Taste forever x