2 months on and I’m wondering how everyone’s coping with the Glastonbury blues…….still having them ? Wondering how you’ll cope having to wait 665 days until the next festival ! Its going to be a long hard wait but there are ways to get a bit of Glastonbury magic before the festival in 2019. Apart from Glastobating at every opportunity, I’m public enemy number one when it comes to turning every conversation onto Glastonbury, watching videos of previous years, and looking over old photos there is another way to get a bit of the magic back, and that’s visiting Somerset. A week ago I was travelling back from a 4 night camping holiday in Somerset which was filled with magic and adventure.

My family and myself live in Hull, so in essence we were taking on a 540 mile round trip for a camping holiday, to on paper go walk around a farm, climb up a hill to see a tower and go look  around a small town. To someone who doesn’t understand Glastonbury or festivals it may seem crazy, but to me it seemed magical. I’ve been to the festival 8 times but have never had chance to visit the surrounding area. The trip finally gave me a chance to link all the places together, we camped in Somerton, and over the course of the 4 days had adventures in Pilton, Cheddar Gorge, and Glastonbury Town as well as visiting Shepton Mallet and Burnham on Sea.

We arrived at our camp site on the Friday, the Saturday looked like it was going to be a day for good weather so we decided that would be the day to visit Worthy Farm. Id emailed the festival office a few weeks before to let them know I was planning to visit with my family. The official response from the festival is to stick to the public walkways and that the main parts of the festival are out of bounds as its a working farm, but as long as your polite if you see people working and treat the site with respect your absolutely fine to wander around.

We packed up a picnic in the morning and set of from Somerton to Pilton and after researching online we parked up on a road near the public walkway to the Pilton Skate Park. Once we’d walked past the skate park we headed downhill and sure enough we were in front of the Glastonbury Festival head offices, we were on the farm !

It took me a while to get my bearings, my wife was much better at working out what each field was while the farm was empty, but once we hit The Woods and could see the frame of the pyramid in the distance things really started to click. The hardest part for me was that some of the fields seemed smaller with nothing in, and some, like Williams Green seemed much larger. We walked from The Woods, through to the John Peel field, the Other Stage Field, up onto the railway track, to the Spike up to The Park heading to The Stone Circles for a picnic. Its weird how walking around an empty festival site could make you so happy but the place does seem to hold a special energy even with no one in it, maybe its the memories it holds in our hearts or maybe the site is magic ! We bumped into other groups of people that day and they all seemed to have the same glow and enthusiasm we did, .Even though the kids haven’t  been to the festival since 2011, they were only 2 and 4 at the time, that magical enthusiasm was started to show in the kids by the time we got to the Stone Circles, and we still had a few surprises in store for them.

 

We sat at the stones eating our picnic looking out at the amazing views around us, it was heavenly. After the picnic we took the kids to see the Stone Dragon, one of the surprises,  but along the way stumbled upon the remains of the illusive Underground Piano Bar. Yes, it does exist, all I’ll say is once your facing the tree near the top of the meadow head left and happy hunting.

The dragon was the first little surprise we had in store for the kids, the second being the pirate ship in the Kids Green Fields and the third being the pink castle in the Kidz Fields. Both of these are permanent structures and there were lots of families and kids playing on the pirate ship and as we were leaving the Kidz Fields other families were heading towards it. Fair play to my two little ones, they had embraced how important going to the farm was to us, but you could really see their intrigue grow as the day went on and as mum and dad told them stories as we walked. By the time they had climbed the dragon, slid down the pirate ship and played hide and seek in the castle the spirit of Glastonbury had swept over them, like I said before you can feel it in the air as your walking around.

Before we’d even left the site it was decided there was no way we could do Glasto 2019 without the kiddies, they had such an amazing day and I don’t think they would forgive us. I’ve said going forward I want to make each Glastonbury Festival unique, I’ve had my stag weekend there, my honeymoon there, it was my kids first festival in 2011, so after a few years just myself and Niki I think 2019 will be a great year to take the kids back, plus its the last chance Ellie, my eldest, will have to go for free !As we walked up past the pyramid field and back the way we came it felt very bittersweet, it had been an amazing day but we knew that was it until 2019. Although as we were driving back into Pilton there was one surprise still in store.

Driving around the towns and villages in Somerset is crazy, there’s lots of winding, narrow country roads and lanes, some don’t even seem like roads at all, and some have crazy bends and climbs to them.  One such road was just as we were driving back into Pilton, it had a steep winding climb to it and as we pulled round the top we gave way to a Landrover. As we politely waved we realised it was Michael Eavis driving with Emily in the passenger seat. Suddenly myself and Niki turned into a couple of shrieking teenagers, waving frantically at the pair of them. Emily waved back laughing enthusiastically while Michael waved at us like The Queen, he really is the man ! Its not uncommon for people to meet Michael while visiting the farm either, a few people on Glasto Chat have posted pictures with him while visiting the site, saying he’s usually the one to make a bee line for them. So if you do take my advice and plan a visit to the farm don’t worry if the legend himself comes walking towards you.

On the Monday we visited Glastonbury Town. The town has a very laid back vibe to it and an amazing feel, it was like being in another world compared to the hustle and bustle I’m used to on a usual Monday. There were buskers playing, lots of alternative shops, lovely little cafes and there’s just something about that local accent as well that makes you relax. There was a lot of nods to the festival as well, Glastonbury Abbey has some large pictures of the festival up as you walk in and the café we ate at had a handmade sign up stating “YES, WE ARE ALWAYS CLOSED THE WEEK OF THE FESTIVAL !”, guess they are regulars.

Our first stop was the Chalice Wells Gardens, such beautifully calming place. We paddled through the ice cold healing pool and admired the Chalice Well. From there we headed for the Glastonbury Tor and made the climb all the way up to St Michaels Tower. The views on the accent and once at the top were unbelievable and the tower itself was absolutely stunning, it really felt like you were on top of the world. Getting to go up the Tor has been on my to do list for a while now but the reality of it exceeded all expectations. In years to come at the festival I’ll now be able to look at St Michaels Tower and the Tor in the distance and think “I’ve been up thereTh

The magic continued as we took a trip round the Glastonbury Abbey ruins, the ruins themselves are stunningly beautiful and there is also King Arthurs final resting within the grounds. The place is steeped in history and mythology and really topped off an unbelievable day. Glastonbury town was certainly a very unique place and well worth a visit. The Abbey in particular has strong ties to the festival, for the past 22 years the festival has held the “Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza” which helps raise money for the conservation and upkeep of the Abbey.

So there you have it. 3 magical days in Somerset ! Its a holiday id recommend to anyone who loves Glastonbury festival, there’s so much to do and see,  it really is a beautiful and magical part of the country and we could have easily filled another week there with more adventures.