This is a page of some of the weird paper and stuff that comes from the Festival...
Click on a thumbnail if you want to see a bigger version of the pictures below...
You slog your way from whatever city you've started from, and eventually you get to the Festival gates. If you're coming in on foot, don't try coming through the vehicle entrances, because you'll be turned back. That's because you have to go through the high-tech security measures at the pedestrian gates. They marshal you, cattle-like, through a winding queue, and a very friendly member of the entrance team puts this on you...
It's your wristband, and you're branded for the rest of the Festival with it. It's secured with a metal sleeve, so you can't remove it. But, as many Festival goers realised, you can actually slip it loose if you're careful, and you don't mess up the cloth band. Moving you along a little further, they finally take your ticket.
The ticket has a hologram at the top (counterfeit versions that were confiscated had the triangle upside down - duuuh!), There's also an ultraviolet insignia.
Finally, when it's ripped in half, there is a red intermediate layer in the ticket - like this - you can see it at the bottom of the picture.
You get handed a goodie bag, which includes a full festival calendar (which is a bit of a "rah rah aren't the bands all terrific" wank, really), and a really handy guide that is sponsored by The Guardian newspaper (who also publishes Q Magazine, a rock mag, and another sponsor of the Festival.) The quick reference guide looks like this:
You can see they published a chick version and a guy version - the guts are the same, only the cover is different. Personally, I think the chick version rocks. It's in a plastic pouch, which Fest newbies wear around their neck all weekend long (I stuffed mine in my day-bag, actually, because I didn't want to look like a total geek, and it was easier and quicker to refer to it.)
If you want to let the ripoff artistes (the guys who go into your tent and take all of your belongings) know that you've ID'd all of your stuff, you can put a sticker like this one on your tent, or guy ropes, or whatever...
Because the security measures (e.g. The Fence, more on that elsewhere in this site) worked so well, the crime was down 70% from previous years, so it wasn't really a problem.
A couple more things in this page, and then you can head back to other stuff here...
You could even try and meet up with a fellow singleton, if you so desired...
Unfortunately by Saturday, they had 89 women...and only one guy. Oops...
And the Guardian on Friday, ran a full page spread on...wait for it...fashion statements at the Festival. (Oh, puleeze...!)
Finally, you will run out of money.
As a Canadian, after a 45 minute queue for the cash point machine (that's an ATM by the way), I got this message:
Not the nicest thing you want to read with only �15 in your pocket. Fortunately, things worked fine an hour later...
And those are the highlights. Click these buttons for more...
