The gates are open and Glasto 22 commences. Although there’s not much in the programme on the Wednesday, there’s still plenty to see and do.
Tent Pitching
8:00 – 14:00
I rank Glasto 22 as my hardest year getting into the festival to date. Due to rail strikes there were many, many more ticket holders arriving by car. Although we didn’t hit much traffic, the car parks were full to the brim by 8am.
Queues to get our through the gates took around 3 hours, but this year was a scorcher. Heavy bags and heat aren’t a fun combo. Thankfully, once we were wristband-adorned, we were easily able to get our preferred camping spot in Oxlyers.
The Park
14:00 – 17:00
It’s a no brainer to visit the Park hill on Wednesday. Not only does it provide the view over the festival, the altitude offered a well-received cool breeze. A couple of ciders from the Park bar and it was time to unwind.
Nap Time
17:00 – 19:00
Running on 1 hour of sleep from the night before, this is when fatigue begins to kick in. The initial excitement of being at the festival has stagnated and the sensible option is to get some rest in at the campsite in advance of the week ahead.
The Wood
19:00 – 20:30
It’s still hot, and we’ve recovered from our brief power nap. Wednesday sees the perfect opportunity to visit the parts of the festival you likely won’t have time or reason to return to once the music starts.
I use the time to visit the recently-added Wood area with my partner, who’s experiencing Glastonbury for the first time. It’s a nice place to get away from the hustle and bustle, but I was disappointed with how small it was overall compared to what I expected. Part nature reserve, part tree house, it also seemed like a place that would really ‘come alive’ at dusk. There’s a fire pit and lots of cosy fairy lighting to emphasise this, but as expected we never found a chance to return and find out.
Above the Tipi Field
20:30 – 00:00
Of course, everyone knows that there’s only one place to end the first day of the festival. Take your pick of the southern hills; above the Sacred space, Tipi village or the Park. This gives not only the perfect view of the festival site as sunset hits, but also gets you up close for the burning of the phoenix pyre and opening ceremony fireworks display.
We usually head for the hill above the Tipi field, which gets a debatably slightly worse panoramic view than the Park, but fills up with people considerably slower. My only observation of note this year is that it felt like the fireworks took much longer to begin, long after the sun had dropped behind the horizon. As always, however, this is the point where it felt like Glasto had truly began.
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