At this year's Festival, Maite Cicognini will be serving up food at a stall in the Park. And then blogging all about it.
Monday 21 June
I can’t quite believe it.
The girl who came to Glastonbury festival for the first time over a decade ago and begged to go home after a day has returned as a food trader for the second year in a row.
I don’t know why it is better for me on this side of the fence. The toilets are a marginal improvement but it is more than that.
Witnessing the gradual build up is gentler on the senses than being flung into the sprawling heaving madness that is Glastonbury Festival in full flow. Today, right now, all I can hear is the birds flirting with another storybook summer morning and the rumble of a generator in the distance.
We arrived yesterday. The stages are up and the Pyramid Stage, in particular, looks intimidating. The beeping of heavy machinery is everywhere. The tracks are hot and dusty and we are relieved to turn into the Park, where we can see more green than brown.
As with everywhere in the Festival the Park is building itself.
The three of us set up the marquee and empty the trailer of fridges, freezers, stainless steel tables and cookers. We have so much stuff. Last year my partner and I set up on our own which was a mistake; being exhausted before the gates open is not a good way to start.
The work around us eases as it gets late. The hammering and sawing stops, the forklift trucks are parked and the painters pack up. It’s nine o’clock when we remember we need dinner and realise we have to go off site to get some.
I love these pre-Festival jaunts, probably because despite a change of heart and circumstance I am still the girl who wants to escape the Festival, but also because driving around the site in these set-up days feels a bit naughty.
Security stops us. We have our tickets but no wristbands, which means if we go off site we won’t be allowed back in. Rest assured, head of Festival security, no amount of pleading of hunger on our part would make them relent! However, in true Glastonbury style, they did radio around the site to find somewhere we could eat.
Just before bed someone has the idea to take some beers up to the hill behind the Park. We watch the sunset compete with the lights of the festival. Next to us, electricians are testing the lights on the coloured letters that spell out GLASTONBURY 40. And they all work.
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