Glastonbury 2004: Your highlights

United Kingdom | | 02 July 2004

One of the great things about Glastonbury, and indeed all festivals, is that no two people's experiences are the same. Everyone has their own amazing moments to treasure. Click here to share yours or read others' on the official Glastonbury message boards.

But for now here's a round-up of some of the best ...

According to a VF poll, Sir Paul McCartney was your favourite headliner. Those spine-tingling, sing-along Beatles classics seem to have swung it for him, with more than a quarter of you voting for the living legend. 

We're sure he would have secured even more if it hadn't been for some of those cheese-laden lines. "This field is your home"? Come on Paul!
 
Apart from that and a few other ill-judged, "I'm down with you kids really" moments, you've got to hand it to Macca. His music spoke a lot more sense.
 
Other headliners Orbital and Muse were both tied in second place, with a fifth of your votes each. The Chemical Brothers came in fourth with 12 per cent. And you agreed with our scathing review of Oasis by putting the Gallaghers way back with just a measly 3 per cent.

The English National Opera were outstanding and lusciously different. Suzi from Cumbria told us "MY favourite thing - by miles - was the Wagner. I thought it was absolutely stupendous - and wonderfully politically incorrect!". Elsewhere, Ozamatli, Bonobo, The Concretes, and Blurt provided a few alternative highlights.

In terms of characters, a huge, mashed bloke dressed in a fairy costume caused hilarity as he danced manically about in the midday sunshine, almost half the Stone Circle got together to shout a unified chorus of 'Ian!!' in a bid to attract said Ian's attention (whether he ever existed is unknown!), and a pair dressed as an exclamation mark and a question mark were spotted walking around trying to eat peoples' hats!

During the band's set on Sunday, Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch was tickled by a flag that simply read 'flag'. T-shirt of the festival had to be one that said 'Wish I Was Here'. And maybe the wearer knew the person carrying a similar sign reading 'You Are Here'?

The wind-up of the weekend had to be by one cruel fellow, who conned his festival virgin mate into believing that you had to pay a fiver to get into the Stone Circle. Apparently the prank-victim spent the whole time watching over his shoulder looking out for bouncers who might come and kick him out!

The most amazing sight had to be the huge, specially constructed multi-part vehicle,  resembling something from a Mad Max film, which was paraded around the site, complete with deranged dancers on top. It was aptly described by one of our message boarders, Boogie Blue, as, "some kind of wierd truck done out to look like an elephant towing a Citroen CV".

On that surreal note, many of you got well stuck into stashes of mushrooms smuggled on site, a welcome shift perhaps away from the usual pill fest? Or were there a few of those too? 

The organisation of the festival was faultless, especially considering the amount of rain that fell, turning the site into a muddy bog. The fact that England's football match was shown (it almost wasn't, you know) proved a major highlight - until we lost anyway - with one of the most amazing atmospheres ever likely to be seen surrounding a football match.

But for VF, the highlight had to be watching everyone stumbling about! There were some brilliant pigeon-like struts, welly wobbles, nose-dives, and mud slides that kept us in stiches for hours.

Well done everyone!

Back to our Full Glastonbury 2004 Coverage