feature article: Glastonbudget Festival 2008

This page is our coverage of the Glastonbudget festival. To see the main, official web site click on the logo above.

The page for 2008 | The page for 2009 | Information and auditions page | Home page for this feature.

Bands that played in the 2008 "New Acts" stages included:

20 Below Zero
207 Miles
Aikon
All Systems Fail
Dead Slow
Deride
Dirty Laws
The Eaves
Egeszegedre
Exit 21
Family Machine
Forty More Autumns
Gambos
Gluttons
Haich
The Iconics
Idle Hollow
Idle Silver
James Warner Prophesies
Just For You
Kid Vicious
The Librarians
Local Heros
Lux Mundi
M48
Maffa Kings
Mannix
Mars Bonfire
Midbeats
Nate Pilgrim
Nemisto
Neon Sarcastic
NG26
Nate Pilgrim and the Magnificats
No Cassandra
Ockhams Razor
Patchwork Grace
Pink Strip
The Procession
Proud to Have Met You
Purple and the Rains
Rassadooks
Razmataz
Rider
Shortwave Fade
Team 12am
The Sixth Circle
Skam#
Skankadelia
Smokin The Profit
Smoking Kills
Starko
Stiff Nakid Fools
Stonedogs
Stonevibe
The Strands
Strange Gods
Subdude
Sworn Amongst
Themselves
Toxic Federation
Voodoo Vegas
With a Story
www Generation

Hope that's all the bands that played (not including those that played the Tribute stage). Let us know if we missed a band.

Stories from Glastonbudget 2008

Our own very personal anecdotes from this years festival

The day the stage blew down

Pretty much the same kind of stage this year as last year. A stage about five feet high, overlooking a large field. In the middle of the field, a sound control box, pretty much centre-stage. Last year, the rain was blowing on to the stage so heavily that it had to be swept off evening during the sets. This year the main problem was strong wind.

Saturday morning. A force 8 gale is blowing. 8 stewards gather in the field to erect the sound control gazebo. Its a large metal frame structure to which the roof and sides are fixed. The stewards manage to get the metal structure up, anchor it to the ground with 18 inch metal stakes and then try to get the sides on. The roof canvass is already in place and tied on to the framework. They get the sides attached and then put on the back - it acts like a set of sails. The whole structure is blown forward by the force of the wind. The four telescopic side legs buckle - which means that it is impossible to raise the roof high enough or indeed to lower it.

After a heroic struggle the stewards realise that it is impossible to get the gazebo erected - and even if it was, it would soon be blown away by the massive gusts of wind. Festival managers decide to abandon the new acts main stage and transfer all the acts booked for it into the New Acts Marquee.

This is a strong metal framed tent with a low stage at one end and a bar at the other. Most bands agreed that they were more likely to get an audience in there - out of the wind and rain - than they were in the middle of a totally exposed windswept field.

The lineup rolls on with some sets achieving audiences of up to 700 people - vastly more than gathered in the field during the previous two festivals.

A further advantage of a marquee is that it can be lit after sun down. Aikon's massive closing party set worked inside the marquee in a way that it might not have done in the middle of a darkened field.

Another thing we noticed in the marquee this year was that it was easier to hear the bands; last year the two main stages competed with each other. if a particularly loud band took to the tribute stage it could easily drown out a quiet song by a band on the new acts stage. This seemed not to happen in the marquee - there was little or not cross-over sound, or it was much less noticeable.

The page for 2008 | The page for 2009 | Information and auditions page | Home page for this feature

The Glastonbudget Music Festival is in no way connected with the Glastonbury Festival or Glastonbury Festivals Limited.