Camp Triangle

Post by: Emily Jane
First year at Camp Triangle:

• Tuesday 18 Oct 2016 (8 years ago )

Registering for Glastonbury tickets should not be done two days before ticket day as my friend and I found out in 2009. In 2010 we were ready and had added to our numbers. It was an exciting, scary few months in the build up to the festival and luckily it was the year of no rain. At the end of it we were total converts so in the October 2010 we were ready……and unsuccessful.  2011 was spend in front of the tv, in wellies with alcohol in a plastic bottle, part sobbing and part thinking phew look at that rain!

October 2012 we were ready, F5, F5, F5……’ok regroup, picture yourself dancing around the room screaming I’m going’, F5 and straight in, confirmation, dancing round the room screaming I’m going. (at this point I should tell you that we got our own tickets and you’ve guessed what is coming next), not one of my friends were successful.

Now 2011 and 2012 were pretty stressful years for me and my confidence was shot, I was worried about everything, added to that by the time Glastonbury came round in 2013 I had very little money. (My beautiful mom gave me the balance for my ticket and the money to go).

I had frantically googled ‘going on your own to Glastonbury festival’ about a month before and it directed me to an efests forum, which was literally the day when Camp Triangle parted company with them. I was duly added to a Facebook group by Lucy and began chatting to people on there.

I was still undecided whether to go or not and another newbie and I had started to message each other as neither of us was sure.

On the forum someone mentioned going on Monday instead of Wednesday. Wow, I was scared of going on Wednesday.  Then I received a message saying, if you don’t want to put your tent up on Monday and Tuesday you and Hannah can share my tent. This was from Dave and was enough to make me realise that this was a chance to make new friends and that there were people who would help you and make you welcome. This realisation over the coming days was reinforced again and again.

I decided that first CT year to travel down on the Tuesday morning and overnight queue. On Tuesday morning I drove to the railway station to pick up another stranger to car share, was a bit meh about this but Nick and I didn’t stop talking the whole journey. He spent the day with us before going to meet his friends.
The first people I met were Paul Mongrel and Dave in the field at Ashcombe Farm.  We went into Glastonbury Town, had lemon drizzle cake, visited the Goddess Temple, played bowling at the King William and then returned to Ashcombe Farm to meet Naomi. Lisa and Mat had just arrived too.  Then to The Riflemans Arms, our numbers slowly increasing and finally The Apple Tree.  I met so many people who I felt I’d known forever.

The overnight queue was an experience.

My trolley which I had carefully packed burst a tyre (Paul dragged it across fields saying ‘it’s a good gym workout for me’). During the night Lucy went back to the cars to get a spare tyre for me and Ferret changed it the next morning. I had an asthma attack (I didn’t know this at the time and thought it was just a cough).  I slept most of the night wrapped in my sleeping bag, Coffee Gordon made sure I was still alive and he and Lucy made sure I was warm enough. In fact Lucy made sure everyone was warm enough. Coffee Gordon lived up to his name and made us all coffee the next morning.

We were pretty close to the beginning of the queue and were on alert as soon as it opened. Walking through those gates was coming home and I cried. I still think it is a healing portal as although exhausted, my breathing was normal and I felt amazing.  We all got separated in the excited frenzy of getting through the gate. I was lucky enough to spot Ferret and Rod and the three of us went full speed ahead to successfully secure our spot in Pennards.   

The rest of the festival passed in a heartbeat. Making jewellery with Dave in the craft field, dancing in the rain at Arcadia with Simon and Paul, exploring with Jackie, cocktail party, breakfast cocktails courtesy of Lucy, an abundance of glitter, neon paint, heaven with Mike and Karen and numerous other shenanigans.  Sunday evening was System 7 followed by the midnight bimble and then it was over.

Those six days changed my life and it proved without a doubt that if you step out of your comfort zone magical things happen. I remember someone saying ‘we are a festival family and everyone watches out for everyone else’, I thought this was when we were just in the Glastonbury bubble……..how wrong was I.