Photo: Sam Butler

Around this time last year, I spent a very depressing weekend staring at a television getting progressively more annoyed at the presenters on the BBC’s coverage of the hallowed Glastonbury festival. As Lauren Laverne, or whichever doofus it was, complained about the rain, me and the handful of my friends who were also unable to get tickets sat in a living room, sat inside a children’s play tent, gawping at what looked like more fun than an Olympic sized ball pit.

This year was definitely less of a sob story - thank god for Jay-Z and trench foot I say. I was finally able to experience my first Glastonbury and with the added bonus of being with the overwhelming majority of my chums.

We arrived around midday on the Wednesday due to our eagerness to make the most of the very expensive weekend. Our camp, in a prime location near the park, was filling nicely by late afternoon and everybody was in a party mood. Muchos kudos to my friends who brought a tent the size of a small aircraft hanger, it’s fair to say it served us well.

What struck me first of all as something that sets Glastonbury apart from any other festival i've been to is the amount of effort they put into making it look nice. There is art literally everywhere, making it such a pleasant place to be. The whole time I was there I was literally not bored once.

The first night was filled with overly excited antics mainly consisting of running around near the stone circle meeting plenty of ‘interesting’ people and enjoying the frankly breathtaking view. The highlight for me however was the steward who entertained us for some time by speaking to his boss through what he believed to be his mobile phone (it was actually a copy of Observer Music Monthly).

Thursday saw the start of music, even though it came in dribs and drabs. The highlight for me was a fantastic cinematic show put on by DJ Yoda. The phenomenon that is a silent disco is one I have enjoyed before, and if you haven’t experienced it, it’s basically a normal disco but you hear the music through headphones. This is fun mainly because of the obscure sing-a-longs with impeccable timing that can be heard in the queue outside. You find yourself severely confused as to why on earth so many people are singing ‘Kids in America’.

Friday

A sore head was nourished back to health by a large breakfast and the sound of Santogold working its way over to our campsite. We hurriedly mooched over to the park stage to catch the majority of her set in what was probably the worst downpour of the festival (this was actually just a bit of drizzle, but I wanted to make it sound a little more dramatic). Her big beat drums and wonderful melodies instigated sporadic screeches of the intro to ‘Creator’ throughout the day.

Next up was the delightful, yet immensely over hyped, Foals. They did however entertain me enough to make me late for Hercules and Love Affair. After being so infatuated with their album, I simply couldn’t miss them. They transformed the tent into their own little New York nightclub, with sassed out horns and infectious riddims. I was a fan of Anthony and the Johnsons, but I think Antony Hegarty’s vocals work a lot better in what he is calling his side project.

MGMT was next and they were definitely the most festival band of the weekend. They just have an anthemic sound that suits big crowds full of flag waving and people willing to shout along to every song. After being on the go all day a good sit down with refreshment in the form of beverages was needed, and by the time we had found a good spot for headliners Kings of Leon I was really quite merry. Seeing one of your favourite bands of all time on the mythological pyramid stage is really something else. It really was a memorable show for me.

What made the night even better was hearing the last few songs of Pete Doherty’s set on our arrival back at camp. I wouldn’t have like to go and see him as I try to maintain my mental image of how good he used to be, but taking the weight off my feet to the sounds of Albion really was quite enjoyable.

Saturday

After a fairly decent sleep I was ready to check out the winners of this year’s New Talent Competition, Golden Silvers. Having seen them before only a couple of weeks ago I was in doubt they were worthy of this title, and they proved so even more. I simply love the simplicity and brilliance of all their songs. A long trawl followed this as we headed back to the park area to catch Lykki Li. It was definitely well worth it though, sitting on the grass letting the Swedish star’s set wash over us was a welcome relaxing break from all the walking we had done that morning.

I decided to catch Metronomy’s set after being relatively impressed by their second album. I’ve some how managed to see them quite a few times, and this was probably the best time I’ve seen them, and I’ve realized that there is definitely still a lot of good stuff to come from Metronomy.

Another band that I have seen countless times is Hot Chip. After being forcefully subjected to their first two albums, I had grown tired them. Then I gave their fantastic new album a listen. The arrival of which has rejuvenated my taste for them, and the new tracks were amazing live. Also, the appearance of Wiley for a cover of Wearing My Rolex was quite a spectacle. Even though it sounded rubbish and Wiley was less than on form, it was just one of those things that had to be seen.

The realization that it was unlikely I would be able to catch much of MGMT and Battles due to the amount of travel it would involve led me to go straight to Jay-Z. I was determined to see whether all the hoo ha was justified. I’m probably the last guy to be found enjoying hip-hop, but I was definitely impressed by the amount of effort that had gone into his live show. Kicking off with a montage of comments against his appearance and an Oasis cover gave the show the much-needed badass attitude. There was no way that his appearance wasn’t going to be entertaining after all the controversy, although I was disappointed that there were no special appearances. Not that I’d get all giddy over the appearance of Linkin Park or Beyonce, it’s just that there had been so many rumors flying around that I was just expecting it.

Sunday

Due to severe weariness after four days of festival I was pleased to see the line-up for the nearby park stage was very tempting indeed. The incredible White Denim were very impressive and certainly woke me up with their psychedelic blues-rock. In fact, they rocked the most, and were even nice enough to give a little shout out to some of my friends who had met them the previous night.

A trip to the Hare Krishna tent for a spot of lunch was my only option due to being a little too lavish with my funds. Much better than the food however was all the singing and dancing that goes on around you while you eat. It’s a bit like a spiritual version of one of those family diners they have in America where they sing to you if you order the biggest steak on the menu. I didn’t stay too long though, as i’m a very busy person and I didn’t want to get converted due to fear that all the meetings and stuff would eat up all my free time.

I then headed back to the park yet again to see Mystery Jets, Laura Marling and Caribou one after another. Mystery Jets seem to have almost abandoned the tracks on their first album, I can only really remember them playing ‘You Can’t Fool Me Dennis’, and this was still overshadowed by every track they played off of Twenty One. I’m sad to say I only really saw Laura Marling’s set from afar as some of my friends were far more interested in the nearby bar area, but I did manage to tear them away in time to see Caribou. I’d not even heard of them before, but they had been heartily recommended to me, and I am so glad I didn’t miss them. The most fantastic live drum spectacle I’ve ever seen; they wowed the few and far between that had stuck around for them. We all left gob smacked by how good they were and all with mental notes to follow them up when we got home.

For the rest of the day are plans were left very undecided. Not really what you want on the last night of a festival, so we settled for the idea of heading back to camp to ‘mentally prepare’ for the night ahead.

We made our way down to Groove Armada in the hope of at least a good light show, and something we could have had a bit of a dance to, and we got what we asked for. It was one of those gigs you don’t expect to be that great, but it was actually surprisingly fun. We did get a little bored about half way through though and checked out Benga & Skream in the form of their alias Magnetic Man on the rather garish G stage. It was interesting to say the least, though the state of some of the people there began to scare us, so we ended up heading back to the other stage in time to catch ‘Superstylin’.

The rest of the Sunday is a little bit of blur, though judging by the epic struggle which was the journey home, I’m guessing I had a pretty good time. I just hope I don’t set up a tent inside next year as well.