Glastonbury is back. This week sees the UK’s biggest music festival return for another anticipated event at Worthy Farm.
For a five-day period from Wednesday 21 June to Sunday 25 June, the Glastonbury site in Somerset is playing host to a number of the world’s biggest music acts, including headliners Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses, and Elton John.
Ahead of the festival, The Independent spoke with Niki Green, one of the stewards stationed at the gates of Glastonbury, for an insider’s perspective on what goes on behind the scenes.
“You do three shifts during the festival, arriving Tuesday and leaving Monday,” explained Niki, 57, who is volunteering at the festival for the third time this year. “A 6am to 2pm, 2pm to 10pm – and the dreaded night shift.
“Early morning can get very cold, no matter the temperature during the day,” she said, “so layers are a must for that shift.
“Our tents are pitched around a caravan, which is our base, and we become a small community for the duration. Staff bars are also a real bonus when you work here and we have our favourites (usually lined to how good the toilets are, especially by Saturday/Sunday).”
According to Niki, the stewards’ main duties involve meeting and greeting festival-goers, and “sorting issues” for campers over the course of the event. As ticket-holders begin to file in, a map is updated with camping availability, and this information is then transmitted over walkie talkie in order to best advise people where to pitch tents.
Niki believes that organisers do a “great job of scheduling” and are usually able to arrange shift patterns around the performers that volunteers are most keen on seeing.
Asked about particularly memorable experiences from past festivals, she recalled: “On our night shift in 2019 we had a girl join us after finding someone rummaging in her tent while she was sleeping. She stayed with us until it was light, [during which time she was] plied with tea and biscuits and then able to return to her friends.
“I’d want someone to do that for my son in those circumstances.”
Weather for this year’s festival is expected to be warm and generally dry: you can find the latest weather forecasts for Worthy Farm here.
“In 2019, it was so hot, water ran low and everyone went home with ‘Glasto Lip’ (cracked and sore),” Niki recalled. “I had swollen feet and could only wear flip-flops for a week after. 2022 was warm, but not to that extent.
“What is a revelation is the amount of walking you do,” she continued. “Often 20k or 30k steps a day, so I always step up my walking prior to coming in preparation. Stress levels are low otherwise – the stress is more hoping you have packed everything prior to going in.”
When the gates are actually opened, the mood at the site is “buoyant”, she explained.
“Even when I wasn’t on shift in 2022 I still got up to watch [Glastonbury founder] Michael Eavis arrive for opening,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to miss it. People arrive at our map for advice as to where to camp (somewhere quieter/in the thick of it/better toilets), and everyone is on a high.”
She added: “We do end up with a collection of broken trollies etc, which only just make it past the gate before giving up. We are having a sweepstake on how many this year. The early shift flies by because it is so busy.”
Niki also described the “sad” amount of littering that takes place at the festival, despite pleas from festival speakers – such as David Attenborough in 2019 – to reduce on-site waste.
“However, we always walk the site after on Monday before leaving and it is astonishing how quickly the clean up operation happens,” she said.
Here’s a list of the 20 greatest Glastonbury performances, ranked.
You can keep up to date with the latest updates from Glastonbury 2023 here.
