Glastonbury 2023 review: hills, circus tents and Elton John
Glastonbury is the biggest music festival in the UK and is arguably the most popular.
I attended in 2023 for the second time, having attended as an Oxfam volunteer in 2022. It was my first time attending a festival as a punter and was a completely different experience to my first visit, attending with my dad, sister, cousin and friends. Therefore, I figured I’d share my thoughts on the festival with you.
Spoiler: I loved it!
Ratings
Music: 5/5 • Activities: 5/5 • Audience & atmosphere: 4/5 • Site: 3/5 • Accessibility: 5/5 • Facilities: 3/5 • Value: 4/5 • Overall: 4.25/5
About Glastonbury
Glastonbury is an overnight music festival held in Pilton, Somerset, every year. With a capacity of 210,000, it’s the UK’s largest music festival and has a big reputation to match.
Glastonbury is probably the UK’s best known festival and is always super popular. Tickets sold out in an hour in 2023, something that occurs year after year.
And that’s for good reason. Its reputation means that it attracts some of the biggest names in music, as well as BBC coverage across multiple stages and on radio. But its size also means there are over 100 stages, meaning the festival has areas covering a range of genres and can accommodate up-and-coming and established artists alike.
What is Glastonbury normally like?
Glastonbury, on paper, is all about the music. There’s the big stages which you see on the telly over the weekend, such as the Pyramid, Other Stage, Woodsies and the Park. There’s also all the little stages stationed throughout the festival, playing all sorts of things and even accommodating open mics and punters to play.
But Glastonbury is more than that. There’s also a circus field, cinema, craft workshops, a healing field, games, gardens and sculptures. There’s so much to see that you can keep yourself busy for days, without branching into the music. Not to mention, there’s tons of places to eat and drink, with many of the world’s cuisines on offer.
It’s no surprise that Glastonbury is a firm favourite for many and attracts the same punters year after year!
Glastonbury quirks
Glastonbury is an independent festival, which has had more room than others to develop its own identity. As such it’s got plenty of defining features that come together to form its distinct character.
One thing is that there are no separate campsites and arenas. Instead, you camp inside the arena: next to the Pyramid stage if you wish! For partiers, that means you can bring in as much alcohol as you want.
Glastonbury has its own newspaper which publishes on several days during the festival. It’s got its own radio station which is live throughout the weekend.
As for the music, it’s normal for bigger artists on the main stages to bring out special guests. For example, in 2022 Olivia Rodrigo brought out Lily Allen, Blossoms brought out Mel C and Paul McCartney brought out Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen.
There’s also a lot of secret sets, where they announce an artist only a few hours before. In 2022 when getting to our shift at the gate, John Peel stage was blocked off because everyone was flocking to George Ezra’s secret stage… an inconvenience for us but a major excitement to many others!
For me, the after-dark areas are some of the best ones for where Glastonbury comes to life. Shangri-La, Block 9, the Unfairground: all of them have their own vibe and contribute to the unique fabric of the festival.
New elements for 2023
Glastonbury’s been around since 1970, and has evolved a lot since then. Every year, there’s a new change.
This year, a new stage was created in the Silver Hayes area, the Levels, to accommodate an open-air nightclub in the area.
John Peel stage was renamed to Woodsies.
Also Carhenge was presented as a one-off sculptural area for 2023. Cars were piled to look like Stonehenge, and it looked very creative and original!
Weather at Glastonbury 2023
Glastonbury 2023 had about the most perfect weather as we could have hoped for. I say this very happily as it definitely does have a pick-me-up for the rest of the festival, keeping us ready for everything else!
It was hot and sunny every day. At times it was almost too sunny, most notably waiting for Lewis Capaldi’s set late afternoon on Saturday as the sun baked down on us. Many people in the audience had umbrellas, which I was so jealous of…
The only burst of bad weather, ironically, was Wednesday lunchtime, when we were carting all our stuff from the car to our chosen camp spot at Hitchin Hill. There was a major downpour which only lasted for half an hour – that exact half hour we were walking. All our stuff got soaked! Fortunately, it went hot again so quickly after that all my wet bedding and clothes dried off quickly in the sun.
June is the perfect month for a British festival, with the long nights and warm weather, and I’m so glad this is when Glastonbury happens.
My experience in 2023
Glastonbury 2023 was a new experience for me, in that it was my first weekend festival as a punter. Before, I’d attended all my festivals with Oxfam, as a volunteer steward.
However, in 2022, we got an awful shift pattern, which meant we missed most of the music. It’s normal to work over a lot of the music, with at least one evening shift over the weekend, but that year we did particularly badly and missed a lot more. For most festivals, this isn’t too big a concern, but there is so much to see that we couldn’t do everything.
Therefore, in 2023 we decided to go as a punter. I went with my sister, Lou (who I attend all my festivals with!), our dad and our friend, Georgina. We camped with our cousin and her friend, over at Hitchin Hill.
It was a great arrangement and we really enjoyed it! After the relative benefits of coming with Oxfam, I thought it wouldn’t be half as good as a punter; however, that wasn’t the case at all.
Camping in Hitchin Hill
The Glastonbury arena is so large, and campsites are included inside, meaning that you’ll often pass tents as you move between stages. The size of it all means there are dozens of campsites to pick from.
We chose to camp at Hitchin Hill, one of the campsites in the north-west corner of the arena. It’s closest to the Woods so it is a bit out of the way, and as it’s surrounded by other campsite areas it was pretty quiet (as far as festivals go) at night.
I really liked Hitchin Hill and for sure I would camp there if I got tickets to Glastonbury again!
Glastonbury 2023: the various aspects
To summarise my experience, I’ve rated Glastonbury 2023 in a bunch of categories, which I have summarised below:
- Music: 5/5
- Activities: 5/5
- Audience and atmosphere: 4/5
- Site: 3/5
- Accessibility: 5/5
- Facilities: 3/5
- Value for money: 3/5
Overall score: 4.25/5
If you attended Glastonbury in 2023, let me know if you agree with these ratings! I go into each part of the festival below.
Music: 5/5
Glastonbury is THE place to be if you’re into any and all kinds of music. They’ve got it all, from the biggest bands to new artists you won’t have heard of (but will be big in a few years’ time).
In 2023 the headliners were Arctic Monkeys, Guns ‘n’ Roses and Elton John. I have to say that I preferred the 2022 lineup, which featured many of my favourite singers, but 2023 wasn’t too shabby either.
There were some notable highs, like when the crowd joined along with I’m Still Standing to Elton John, and when the crowd sang Someone You Loved for Lewis Capaldi. But there were also some big lows, like when Lana Del Ray began her set 30 minutes late and got cut off before she could play Video Games.
I think previous years have been better to be honest. In 2023 there weren’t too many secret sets, and most of the ones which were secret, like the Churnups, really weren’t a secret after all. Fat Boy Slim’s secret set got cancelled because so many people were trying to attend. And Elton John was the only artist I saw bringing out any special guests. It felt like maybe a little bit of the normal sparkle was dulled down.
Still, the music was great, so who am I to complain?!
Activities: 5/5
Glastonbury has a lot of activities. There’s so much to do, so it’s difficult to ever get bored.
Some of my top activities from 2023 were:
- The circus tent. They have a full schedule of professional performers putting on full shows, and it’s so impressive. It’s also a warm, dry tent perfect for cold nights!
- Glastonbury on Sea, a pier set on one end of the site. You can play traditional games and get great views over the rest of the arena. You can even get your ‘Glastonbury on Sea’-printed rock.
- The wooden walkways through the Woods, which are so pretty at night and have a massive camp fire. Camping at Hitchin Hill, we were only a couple of minutes’ walk away, and it was always a nice sight at the end of the night.
There were a few things I noticed and didn’t like about the activities this year, however. We kept trying to take advantage of the craft field, but found that many of the crafters weren’t interested unless we wanted to pay for an expensive workshop. And some areas got pretty busy before the music began.
Audience and atmosphere: 4/5
The audience at Glastonbury is normally pretty good. There’s a mix of ages, with people in their twenties and thirties, older groups and families. This makes it civilised and with good crowd etiquette.
The only thing I don’t like about the audience is that, in my experience, some people can be a little judgy. In 2022, at my first Glasto, several times people said to me, “This is your first Glastonbury?” There is a lot of insider knowledge which you just wouldn’t know on your first time, so I do get it in part, but it’s still annoying.
In Glastonbury 2023, however, I didn’t get this half as much. But maybe that’s because I’d been before and knew how the system worked.
Site: 3/5
There’s a lot to like about Glastobury’s arena. It’s generally flat (with the exception of the outer areas) and the campsites are in the arena itself, so you don’t continually have to walk in and out of the gates.
However, the site is very cramped. When moving away from stages, particularly the big ones like the Pyramid and Other Stage, we inevitably got stuck in a crowd crush. Even between acts and in other areas of the site, the walkways get very busy. It made getting around pretty difficult.
Glastonbury, as you’d expect, is also massive: over 1.5 miles long. Walking around takes forever, especially moving between stages on opposite ends of the arena, and your feet will get battered from the exhaustion. Lou in particular really felt it and had to schedule in shoe-changing breaks. But that’s a price to pay for the breadth of music and attractions on offer!
Accessibility: 5/5
Glastonbury 2023 was very accessible compared to other festivals. Many areas are flat and there are typical features to suit people with disabilities, like accessible camping and accessible platforms – although I didn’t use them myself, so I can’t be sure how easy it was to access these facilities.
Some may struggle with the size of the site, which makes it difficult to get around. In particular, the medical tents felt quite far apart, with Lou unable to get to one to get an ice pack for her ankle. However, there were vehicles to help people move from the car park to accessible campsite if necessary.
The location in Somerset is fairly average in terms of accessibility. It’s far away from major roads but isn’t too far out of the way for people arriving by bus, train or car.
Facilities: 3/5
Another defining feature of Glastonbury is the long-drop toilet. At Glasto, these take the form of open-top blocks which are permanent features of the site. Having giant cesspits across the site doesn’t do much for your nostrils, and we didn’t like them so much.
Also, for girls the height of the green doors is super annoying. They only just cover my head (and I’m 5’ 7). It’s not uncommon for guys to have a chat across your cubicle with enough height to look in… awkward if anything.
On a plus note, the long drop toilets meant that queues were shorter. For all their smelliness, the toilets being open air does feel a lot fresher than a portaloo.
Girls will love to hear that there are female urinals in a few places on-site, which make the toilet situation more pleasant.
It’s also worth mentioning there are minimal showers at Glastonbury. We brought a portable “shower” (a.k.a. a bag with shower nozzle) which worked really well! These kinds of solutions were so popular that the queue for taps in the morning was pretty long. I dread to think what they’d be like in a colder, rainier year…
Value for money: 4/5
Is Glastonbury good value? It’s a good question and a completely subjective one at that.
In 2023, the ticket price was £330 per person. That’s quite pricey and puts it as one of the most expensive festivals in the UK. However, there is more music (with bigger names) and activities than other festivals, and benefits such as being able to bring in unlimited alcohol and camp stoves help to pull the prices down in other areas.
For me, the price is slightly off-putting and makes volunteering with Oxfam (as I did in 2022) an attractive prospect for future years.
Overall: 4.25/5
Glastonbury 2023: summarising the experience
I really enjoyed Glastonbury 2023. There was a lot of good music and good company!
I don’t think it was quite as good a festival as in 2022 and wish some of the more unique aspects of Glastonbury shone more. Still, it was a great way to spend a weekend.
Are you planning to go to Glastonbury in a future year, or are you a regular? Let me know in the comments!
If you’re looking for more recent reviews, also check out my review for Glastonbury Festival in 2024
