04 July,2010 04:07 PM IST | | Neysa Mendes
Mumbai-based Indie music entrepreneur and Sunday MiD DAY reader Neysa Mendes tells us what it was like to get up close to the superstars and losing her lungs at the just-concluded Glastonbury 2010
"How's it going, Glastonbury?" That line was screamed many times by my favourite bands over the last weekend, and every single time, it gave me goose bumps. I couldn't believe I was at Glastonbury. Easily the biggest, unarguably one of the most important music festivals in the world, Glastonbury just celebrated its 40th birthday (June 23-June27) last weekend at Worthy Farm in Somerset, England.u00a0
The Gorillaz with Snoop Dogg at Glastonbury 2010. Pic/Neysa Mendes
Clocking a fest
Music festivals are a chaotic mix of music, colour, absurdity, camaraderie and unadulterated joy. Each morning, you chalk out the bands you want to catch, make sure you've carried enough toilet paper for the Portaloos, pull on your wellies, trek across venues through throngs of happy people, hope that you'll catch the secret gigs, wave hello to a fairy or a bear (there are lots of people in fancy dress), excuse-me-please your way forward to as close to the stage as possible, shout-along to your favourite bands, eat a whole lot of fried food and at the end of the day, stumble back to your tent, snuggle up in your sleeping bag and dream of all the bands you'll catch tomorrow.
22 bands, one weekend
As we walked from stage to stage, we often stumbled on bands that we would never hear otherwise; I'm definitely going to get home and listen to more The Temper Trap and Imelda May. In the end, I caught an incredible list of 22 bands over the weekend. I could safely say that the Gorillaz, who headlined the main stage on Friday night, changed my life. Plastic Beach, their most recent album was brought to life with the help of some stellar guest performances by Snoop Dogg and Lou Reed of The Velvet Underground and some brilliant animation on screen behind the band. Snoop, who'd performed earlier in the day, completely owned the crowd and took me right back to my childhood with his early hits 'Gin & Juice' and 'What's My Name'.
Imogen Heap, pottered about the stage like a little old lady during her performance, creating music from wine glasses, and chatting with the crowd in a way that made us all fall completely in love with her. Brooklyn's indie heroes The National played a high-energy sunset set, complete with rock star Matt Beringer jumping into the crowd and causing a veritable frenzy. Easy sing-along afternoon gigs like Jack Johnson and Corinne Bailey Rae gave us all some much needed rest for the headliners.
One of my Glastonbury highlights was when The Edge from U2 walked onto stage as Brit alt rock band Muse performed. Muse broke into the opening bars of 'The Streets Have No Name' and the crowd went crazy; it was all the more special as U2 who were supposed to play this year were forced to drop out because of Bono's back injury.
Winding up with soul
On our last day, Norah Jones, with her sunshine happy music was the perfect slow peaceful start to our Sunday after the crazy Muse set the night before. That sense of peace quickly ended when LCD Soundsystem, fronted by the genius that American producer James Murphy is, took stage and their high-energy set soon had us all bouncing along. They're an incredibly live act and it breaks my heart to know that they've announced this as their last touring season. The festival ended with Stevie Wonder; with his hits spanning a few decades, songs like 'I Just Called To Say' and 'Superstition' bound everyone with a feeling of oneness and as far I could see, there were people holding hands and singing along.
I'm packing my wellies away for now, but will be definitely bringing them out for the festival season next year.
