Kinky Does Glastonbury, 2022

 

On Monday 20th June, just after 5.30am, we hit the road, rocking up at Worthy Farm shortly after 9am. Despite an absence of three years, it felt like we'd never been away and we excitedly hugged our festival trading family before cracking on with the task in hand and were all set up (with beers in hand) less than twelve hours later.   

Over the years it's got harder and harder to get tickets for the festival so two of our original Glasto gang, Steve and Cat, work as volunteers whilst Stuart, Kim and Lily (who wasn't even born when I first blogged about Glastonbury HERE) come as our crew - filling their car with stock and, rather than Jon & I playing all weekend, we work hard selling our gear instead.

Glasto 2016 (the muddy one) 

Kim & Lily weren't due to arrive until later in the week but the remaining five of us spent the evening in the Kinky shop, boozing and chatting until the early hours.

Tuesday was spent putting the finishing touches to the shop and catching up with more of our trader friends. There are almost 30,000 workers on site before the festival opens its gates at 8am on Wednesday morning and we made a few sales before rolling down the front and heading up to the Stone Circle with a bagful of beers and watching the Summer Solstice sunset. 

When the public arrived on Wednesday we were ready and waiting. 

After a respectable day of sales we shut up shop and spent the evening with Steve, Cat and Stuart outside the Bread and Roses bar. We were now sharing Worthy Farm with 220,000 people, something that, during the height of the pandemic, we thought would never happen again.

Thursday's dress hadn't seen the light of day since 2018. Several visitors to the shop gasped and asked to buy it, including one of the festival headliners who I didn't recognise until it clicked who she was a couple of days later - we're so useless at spotting celebs!

On Thursday, the band stand is the only venue with live music so, being directly opposite, our area (William's Green) was rammed and there was no way anyone could access our shop even if they wanted to. Not that we were that bothered, we poured ourselves a drink and revelled in the madness.

Kim and Lily arrived just as Dom did. We met Dom and her husband at Truck in 2016 and have bumped into one another at various festivals over the years. 

When we rolled down the shutters and met up with the gang for a few drinks outside we'd covered the pitch fee - I'm always happy when that happens!

On Friday the live music started with Ziggy Marley opening the Pyramid Stage. Although there were loads of bands I wanted to see, working at Glastonbury makes it tricky as, due to both the immense size and busy-ness, it can take up to an hour to get to some of the stages meaning being away from the stall for up three hours. However, I made an effort for Wet Leg, my current favourite, and leaving Jon in charge, headed off to the Park Stage with Stuart, Kim, Lily, Lily's friend Izzy (the daughter of a fellow trader she'd befriended in 2019), teenager Amelie (daughter of our End of the Road trading neighbours Shilpa Silver) and Logan (the teenage son of another trader).

We expected the crowd to be big but not quite as massive as the scene that confronted us when we arrived forty minutes after setting off. Whilst Stuart, Kim & the little ones stayed a safe distance away, me and the teenagers squeezed as far into the crowd as we could. We couldn't see a thing but loved every minute.

Minutes after I'd got back my blogging buddy Vronni's brother Julian Littman arrived to say hello. Just like when he popped in to see us at Cornbury in 2019, there was a couple of fans in the shop and seemed very impressed with our celebrity mate.

Other than singing the latest Bond film song, I know nothing about Friday night headliner Billie Eilish but Lily's a fan and as the Pyramid Stage is so close, it seemed like the easiest option. 

That purple fake fur bucket hat was from trading neighbour Gary's stall, Karma. I'd forgotten how cold Glastonbury gets at night. 

A combination of the cold and a dull set saw Jon and I saying goodnight to the guys halfway through the evening. We were tucked up in bed by 11pm - not very rock and roll!

We had some gusty wind (and a bit of rain) in the early hours of Saturday morning, hence the market clamps anchoring the curtains to the stall. 

Stuart's tee shirt was part of a donation Tim Burgess made to a charity shop in Manchester in 2019, he'd been saving it to embarrass Jon with for three years! 

(If you don't know what I'm talking about read THIS)

Trade-wise, Saturday was slow. Not that I blame anyone, I never used to shop when I went to Glastonbury as a normal festival goer either. We were very grown-up (for once) and didn't drink any alcohol until after 6pm....maybe that's why the day seemed slow!

Ever since the line-up had been announced, all the gang agreed that we had no interest in seeing Paul McCartney, Saturday night's headliner, but the Pyramid Stage was so close and we were intrigued as to who the special guest would be so headed up there.

Whilst I can't say any of us were that bothered about Macca's performance we were beyond excited to see Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen (it's a shame they couldn't have been with him throughout the two and a half hour set rather than just doing two songs each). Whilst Live and Let Die was magnificent, we all agreed that Hey Jude has to be one of the most irritating songs of all time. 

After some more night-time rain, Sunday turned out glorious.

Business was brisk and the day flew by. Stuart kept Jon company for the final hour whilst Kim, Lily and I raced off to catch Years and Years over on the Other Stage. They were fantastic!

The Other Stage was heaving but we managed to reunite with the gang in time for the Pet Shop Boys. A band I've never given much thought to until they made a guest appearance with The Killers back in 2019. Now I love 'em!

Back at Kinky's we'd have chatted all night if we hadn't got long drives ahead of us the following day - none of us wanted our week on Worthy Farm to end. It took Jon and I seven hours to break down the stall on Monday and another five and a half to drive back to Walsall (with an obligatory stop at Gloucester Services for tea).

On Tuesday morning we woke up feeling bruised, battered and rather rough....but that's another story.

See you soon!

 

A Week of Secondhand Clothes

All systems go! The trade tent, stock, non-perishables and booze are in the van, the Kinky Shed has been reorganised so the gear we need for Cornbury can be loaded as soon as we get home from Glastonbury, plans for an exciting blogger meet-up between festivals have been finalised and the holiday bag is partially packed, ready for a Greek getaway less than eighteen hours after we get home from festival number two. We've sorted out our outfits & I've dyed my roots, Jon's filled the tank with fuel (£130!) & scribbled down a list of fresh produce he needs to shop for and there's the legal paperwork for me to complete and hopefully, at 6am on Monday morning, we'll be on the road to the Glastonbury festival.

Despite the busy-ness you'll be glad to know that I've been wearing clothes, although not today, it's been a glorious 30°C and I've been in a teeny-weeny triangle bikini since 9am. I mentioned in my last post about finding lots of things for me during our stock hunting trips - some are already packed for Greece and here's a few of the others.....

This denim boiler suit was £2. Annoyingly the labels have been snipped out but the quality is exceptional. Along with my silver Lottas, bought from eBay a year ago, I wore it on Sunday morning when we popped into town to shop for some festival supplies. 

These Urban Outfitters flatforms were another £2 find. I wore them with my Lucky Brand dungarees, vintage Ayesha Davar shirred cheesecloth blouse and recently charity-shopped basket for an early morning swim & a Spoons' breakfast on Monday morning. 

I'd never normally entertain the idea of white sandals but that's the joy of charity shopping, at £2 I could redonate them without a worry (but they're comfy and I love 'em!)

On Tuesday, after nipping to Lidl for a Waste Not box and doing a festival booze run, I spent the afternoon in the garden. After a dismal ten days we'd finally got heat and sunshine. I wore the cotton gingham crop top I'd bought in the clearance chazza a fortnight ago, along with a pair of vintage '80s Levi 501s cut-offs, acquired for £4 last week.

Wednesday started off gloriously sunny and warm and I went charity shopping in my vintage Anokhi sundress & 1970s Sheffield Steel choker, yellow Lottas and this woven shoulder bag that I found in a charity shop last week. 

Back at home I changed into my Topshop Kirrie shorts (bought from the clearance chazza a fortnight ago) along with a leopard print bikini top by the now-defunct Dutch brand Nomad Summer and a brand new pair of Berksha sunglasses with the store tags still attached - both of which I'd found earlier in the day. Typically the sun vanished behind the clouds and we had a few drops of rain - heatwave my arse! 

On Thursday morning the sunshine was back. We went for an early morning swim and ended up having an impromptu breakfast in 'Spoons. I wore the vintage Adini Indian cotton sundress kind blog reader, Helena, sent me along with my new favourite secondhand basket. I bought the obnoxiously 1980s-style earrings (unworn and still attached to their original packaging) when we went charity shopping the previous day. The leather gladiators are new (from a normal shop!) and have comfort soles - they're like walking on air.

At home Jon & I repotted a few plants before I retired to the lawn with my book (the last in Len Deighton's Game, Set and Match cold war trilogy) leaving Jon to rig up the irrigation system so our patio pots stay watered during our absence.

This was Friday at 8am and I'm barefaced & dressed for the last Wii Fit Workout before Glasto. Jon found the crop top in Banardos on Wednesday, its from American size-inclusive label, Girlfriend Collective and made from recycled polyester. My Puma leggings were from the clearance chazza a couple of weeks ago - the whole outfit cost £3! 

Here's hoping 2022 will be as sunny and hot as it was in 2019 but if it isn't, who cares? We're going to f*cking Glastonbury!! We'll be in Williams Green (the field with the Tony Benn Tower) right opposite the bandstand - if you're there come and say hi and, if not, I'll see you on the other side!