Congratulations, Tony! Mud pies and poetic glory, great combo. I believe people were being encouraged to leave clean, grafitti-free tents behind for charity. What a great idea.

We had a fantastic weekend - and I have to thank Tony for de-squelching me from some very deep muddles in Lost Vagueness! (Yes I've noticed the photographic evidence is on display in the gallery!)
And I left my tent behind for those nice charitable types...

Fantastic performances all round - It was a very close slam - Tony was just pipped at the poetic post (I know - I had the score sheet).

Well done - great stuff - looking forward to more!

Sounds like fun, I'll have to save up for next year!

Chelley, yes, you look like the Lady of the Lake come up for a bit of breather between doling out swords to knights and the like. Or the Lady of Shallot who's put aside all that embroidery and gone to get some mud between her toes. It looks as though you're having a fine time, though.

Yup - certainly An Experience. If anone's interested, there's a lengthy ramble on my blog & an ever-expanding photo gallery on my MySpace page. It was, as Tony says, a real pleasure to read alongside such a varied group of poets. Tricky to pick out favourites, but Mim Darlington & Talking Tekla the Narrata maybe struck home to me that little bit more.

Certainly one to treasure.

Oz.

I hate to be the bearer of sad, if not disgraceful tidings, but I was working at Glasters before, during and after the event ( I got back this morn), and witnessed the after festival litterpickers throwing thousands of tents straight into bin wagons, regardless of their condition. Apparently they get a bonus for finishing early! I was disgusted.
The only people who got tents were a few local schools and scout troops, who had to come to collect them themselves.
Oh, I got one as well, thereby saving it from the skip.

That's really shocking, Baz, after the publicity that was put out about the tents being earmarked for charities -- both overseas and in the UK. I know they wanted clean ones with no grafitti, but this sounds as though there was just a somewhat sarcastic disregard for the promises made, and sadly , it reflects badly on Glasto's publicity machine. I am sure some people will have left their tents with the sole intention of donating them to charity, as advertised. Oh dear.
Glad you got a tent, though. Hope your exeprience of working at Glasto was otherwise good.

Course it was Mox. I got paid, and saw The Who. Free!

Word up Tony, I can't download the pictures.
Glastonbury was cool can anyone who's got photos e-mail me a copy via www.johnberkavitch.com
Cool

Sir Michael of Eavis speaks on the tent debate. http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/news.aspx?id=1415

People should take their tents home, clean them up and use them again and again not buy another one next year!

Glastonbury does seem to be a remarkably green event. The poetry tent was powered by a solar panel. Several tents were powered by punters pedalling bikes. Seperate bins for different types of waste. You could even pedal a bike to charge your mobile phone. All profits to Greenpeace, Oxfam and Wateraid.

Pity the state of many tents actually debarred their recycling -- pity nobody bothered to announce that this was a factor through one of their many solar-powered mics. Then I think those people who left their tents thinking they would be taken by charities would probably have taken them home with them. A lot of lazy B's wouldn't have, of course. Lack of communication? Lack of intent to communicate? It's great that a lot of Glasto is green. Has anyone calculated its carbon footprint? Are carbon footprints a credible record of ecological damage? Where do the cows go? What about the earthworms?

Yes the attempt at being green was a worthy effort, and even I (who usually leaves environmental issues to others) used the bins correctly. Until, that is, the person after me did not, presumably therefore negating the good work of others. So after that I didnt bother.
Yes, maybe I have got a cynical view of Glastos lovely image, but having worked there for several years, I see all the theft, violence and effects of drug overdoses that go on behind the scenes.
I'll forgive all if Neil Diamond headlines next year.

What with Charlie Windsor claiming to be carbon neutral as he jets around the world with a retinue of several thousand to put his high energy toothpaste on his non fossil fuel toothbrush and glastonbury cycle power fuelled with carbohydrates from million food mile bananas, this carbon hoofprint stuff isn't worth a cows fart.

And I bet a cow's fart is an actual unit of currency in some idyllic place. Hope they don't succumb to inflation and increased interest rates.

Well my rate of interest has always been increased.

I have looked it up. There are 100 farts to the pancake (since decimalisation). Of course the exchange rate varies

WHOOPS! BREAKING NEWS

Due to all bulldogs being banned from Japanese Airlines flights, because of their propensity to die after eating the in flight meal, there has been a crisis of dog dislocation throughout the world. Their distress flatulence has caused a huge increase in the carbon pawprint and resulted in vaproisation of Antarctica. The sudden loss of weight at the bottom of the world has caused the earth to turn upside down on its axis. (You may have noticed your porridge dropping onto your lap as this happened. This is not a cause for concern as dry cleaning no longer uses clorofluorocarbons). All flights to Sydney will now arrive at Tokyo shortly and displaced bulldogs will be able to resume their flights via Qantas. JAL has been put down by the RSPCA.

Meanwhile, back on topic...

Friend of WOL, Elvis McGonagall, was Glasto's first Poet In Residence this year. His amusingly cider-delic outpourings can be found at http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/glastonline.aspx?folder=99

Cheers

Fellow Glasto survivor and recent WOL convert Bob Harding-Jones lived to tell his tale here at

http://www.writeoutloud.net//public/poetview.php?poetID=287

How can we get to perform at next years Glasto?
I would like to read a few poems there.

Next Year?? I haven't cleaned my gear yet from this year!

No, seriously, we can think about that in the new year.

Meanwhile, London poet Dennis Just Dennis, my compadre from the Strummerville stage, has secured his own review on the offical Glasto website at

http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/glastonline.aspx?id=246