Kinky Does Glastonbury, 2024

We're back! We left home on Sunday 23rd, travelling down to Glastonbury and staying in a hotel so we could be at the festival gates for our allotted 8am slot, fully rested and raring to go. After 15 years I think we might finally getting the hang of this festival trading malarkey as, by the time Stuart, one third of our crew, arrived on site mid-morning on Monday, the stall was up & the stock was already on the rails and, by 6pm, with numerous breaks to catch up with more of our festival family, set-up was complete. Our friend Steve, who stewards at Glasto, popped over when he'd finished his shift and the four of us lounged around in the shop trying on clothes and chatting until the early hours.

Are we nearly there yet? A van selfie taken on the road to Glasto!

Tuesday was gloriously hot and sunny and after taking advantage of the trader showers behind Bread & Roses, we rolled up the shop front and had a surprisingly busy day selling to some of the thousands of festival workers already on site. Later on we headed over to Steve's posh camper for a delicious dinner and to watch the very lacklustre England match on his TV. 

We aren't allowed to share any photos of Glastonbury on social media until the gates open to the public and wary of getting in anyone's bad books & not being invited back I didn't take any photos until Wednesday morning, completely neglecting to photograph the stall set-up (I'll try harder at Womad!)

Wednesday was yet another gloriously hot & respectably busy trading day. I wore a vintage Marion Donaldson feather-trimmed poplin maxi and Jon nicked a loud 1980s rayon shirt from the rails.

At 7pm Heidi from Shilpa Silver collected me and we headed over to Astrolabe over in the circus field to catch Jonathan Pie's set where we laughed till we cried and nodded our heads in agreement to his hatred for right wing politics, fascists and arseholes in general. 

The bandstand (which is directly opposite our stall) is the place to be on a Wednesday and the only stage with live music and, as usual, Showhawk Duo, two blokes with acoustic guitars doing covers of everything from Faithless to the Vengaboys, had everyone up and dancing.

By 9pm Stuart's partner Kim and their daughter Lily had arrived and joined by Steve, we shut the shop and headed up to the Pyramid Stage to watch a spectacular drone show and firework display then returned to the shop and chatted late into the night. 

We opened the stall as usual at 10am on Thursday for another day of sunshine and sales.
 

A few gorgeous and happy customers in their Kinky Melon buys.

I borrowed this insane shaggy coat from the shop ...I did contemplate keeping it but a lovely young man looked far better in it that I did.

Jon knew as soon as he spotted it on Vinted that this amazing 1960s Finnish fake fur coat would be a festival staple.

After days of heat and sunshine, Friday was distinctly nippy, but mercifully dry, with Jon digging out his tartan skinnies and me wearing the Y2K Christian Audigier for Ed Hardy rhinestone encrusted maxi I scored for a couple of quid last year.

After closing the shop at 10pm we piled on the layers and had a wander around Carhenge whilst the rest of the gang headed off to see Dua Lipa. You can always tell when someone's never been to Glastonbury when they take to social media to moan about the line-up on the Pyramid Stage...there's over 120 stages at Glastonbury not to mention a circus, a cinema, art installations, a healing field, literature, permaculture, crafts, skateboarding, ballet, bars, a sauna, DJs, a farmers market and a billion other alternatives. Nobody has to watch "mainstream pop music" if they don't want to. Glastonbury is the UK's 27th largest urban area, if you can't find something that appeals to your tastes you're probably already dead.

Terminal 1 was new to Glastonbury this year. A satirical take on the current government's attitude towards immigration, visitors are asked a question about the UK and anyone getting it wrong are refused entrance & escorted off the premises hence the reason it was almost empty. We needed to be at the Avalon stage by 11.05pm so didn't have time to try our luck with the immigration officers.

With Fontaines DC playing the Park Stage, which with the crowds would have taken us the best part of an hour to get to and knowing we'd be seeing Idles at End of the Road in September, our plan for the night was catching the mighty Skindred who, you may recall played Beautiful Days last year and just about made our year when frontman Benji yelled I see you Kinky Melon during their set on the main stage.

We timed our arrival perfectly got ourselves a prime spot, right in the centre of the mosh pit where we pogo-ed and sang along until our feet were throbbing and our voices were hoarse. No Skindred gig is complete without the Newport Helicopter - HERE!

Yes, that is Roger Moore as 007 on the drum kit, the set finished with Nobody Does It Better because nobody does do it better than Skindred! 

The set was incredible, up there with The Rolling Stones & Metallica as one of the best acts we've ever seen play Glastonbury. If you're not familiar with Dub Metal, a fusion of heavy metal and reggae, check out Skindred's performance on Later with Jools Holland HERE.

After a chilly Friday, Saturday was sizzling and it was factor 30 at dawn. We woke up partially deaf and still buzzing from the set we'd only left a few hours ago.

Rock horns at the ready!

Twins! 

Kim & Stuart minded the stall so we could catch The Fun Lovin' Crime Writers over on the Acoustic stage. As the name suggests, the band comprises best selling crime writers, Stuart Neville, Mark Billingham, Doug Johnstone, Val McDermid (sadly absent on this occasion), Luca Veste and Chris Brookmyre who "murder" classic rock songs. As Chris says, between us we've sold over 60,000 books and not a single record. There were signs up requesting no pictures/filming so I've got no photographic proof but can confirm they're all excellent musicians and marvellously witty and we loved their covers of everything from The Police, The Jam and The Clash to Blur, The Kaiser Chiefs and Britney Spears.

I inadvertently stumbled across a blog post entitled What over 50s should wear for a Festival a few weeks ago and funnily enough there was no mention of white cutaway maxi dresses, horned headdresses or obnoxiously trashy pink Versace sunglasses. What to wear to a festival when you're over 50? The same as you should if you're under 50 - whatever the f*ck you want to!!! 

The bandstand continued to draw a crowd, offering everything from Bhangra & Yorkshire brass bands to Balkan folk music and Latvian jazz. 

When Coldplay headlined the Pyramid Stage on Saturday night we again headed to Avalon, this time to see New Model Army, once introduced on Tv show The Word as being "the ugliest band in rock and roll" and famously refused entry to the USA as the band were deemed to have "no artistic merit". 

I loved how the favourite meeting point this year was beneath the Vote Out To Help Out sign...let's hope everyone takes heed.

And all too soon it was Sunday and our last day of trading...sob! 

 

The weather couldn't decide what it wanted to do. Jon opted for sleeves and trousers and me, ever the optimist, danced around in my sequin-trimmed bra until the chilly wind got the better of me and I changed into a maxi, stompy boots and a sequined coat. You can probably see the woodchip beneath our feet...a fortnight earlier the crew had arrived on site to discover a pond complete with ducks...the chippings ensured we were mud-free for the entire week but man, was it dusty! Several times a day I'd be dusting the shop and shaking the filth from the clothes to within an inch of their lives.

Kim & Stuart minded the stall when we headed over to West Holts to see Handsworth legends, Steel Pulse play a blinder. We last saw them about 20 years ago and they're still absolute magic.

A couple of lovely young women trading at Glasto for the first time popped into the shop earlier in the week and made a purchase and we returned the favour by visiting their vintage stall and buying from them. I bought this insanely bright 1970s psych maxi, made in Sweden by Jer-Sea and changed into it straightaway. That's lovely Lizzie, the daughter of Vicki, a friend from Walsall, who spent the best part of a week trying to find our shop. I can't emphasise how vast Glastonbury is!

That's Lizzie's mates, Dolly Mavies, fresh from their set.

We managed to watch the second half of the England match on Jon's phone, yelling and jumping for joy in the knowledge that we'd finally made it through to the quarter finals. After a flurry of last minute customers we rolled down the shop front for the final time and met up with the gang for the Gypsy Kings, over at the Acoustic stage. After the show we sat chatting until late into the night, despite all of us knowing that we had to be up at the crack of dawn. On Monday, after waving off Stuart, Kim & Lily at 8am, we started the pack down and, after some emotional goodbyes to our festival family, headed back to Walsall via Gloucester Services where I managed to snaffle the last vegetarian pie on the shelf.We were absolutely filthy and were given a very wide berth by the rest of the clientele. 

Of all the 220,000 folks at Glastonbury we must have asked the bloke with the worst eyesight on the planet to take our photo!

That's better!

What can I say about Glastonbury 2024? Utterly brilliant! Wonderful weather...excellent company...superb music...and we sold a record breaking amount of stock....we're knackered & broken, the stock's filthy and in less than three week's time we get to do it all over again!!

Thanks for reading! See you soon!