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!