Hell, mud and rock and roll

"What I love about Glastonbury is wandering around and seeing all the strange people. It's a wonderful place, a great feeling."

Tom Rowlands, the Chemical Brothers

"The festival's links with CND and with groups such as Greenpeace are evidence of an effort to present or explore different ideas...by re-examining alternative traditions from real and mythic pasts alike. This merging of past and politics is one of the festival's lasting achievements."

George McKay, author of Glastonbury: A Very English Fair

"The only trouble with it is, it's hard to be rock'n'roll when you're wearing wellies."

Sarah Blackwood, Dubstar

"It's unique and it has a loyalty from bands and fans which has been built over 30 years. You can't compete with that."

Vince Power, Reading festival promoter

"Glastonbury represents exactly the right amount of anarchy: the brief delusion that things can be as you know they will never be."

Bel Mooney

"When it rains and there's all the mud and you wake up soaked - it's hell really."

Ian Broudie, the Lightning Seeds

"It could send you into a megalomaniac tailspin if you actually started thinking about it too much because so many people will see you."

James Dean Bradfield, the Manic Street Preachers, on headlining the festival

"The great beauty of Glastonbury for me lies in the understanding that you can have a ripping weekend without deliberately setting out to hear any music at all. The musical highlights have been there, of course, but it's the aimless, some would say mindless, pottering I like."

John Peel, Radio One DJ

"Playing here is like a dream come true."

Bob Dylan

"It's exciting. It's the thrill of giving a great party for about 100,000 people - the hugest party in the world. You can pick up on the excitement as you walk around, even now that it has got very big."

Michael Eavis

Related story
Success puts Glastonbury party on hold


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Hell, mud and rock and roll

This article appeared in the Guardian on Saturday January 06 2001 . It was last updated at 01.45 on January 06 2001.

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