A Journey Through Glasto's Green Fields

United Kingdom | by Jon Wright | 06 July 2005

The Green Fields are home to the spirit and soul of Glastonbury. High on the hill, they largely escaped the rivers of mud that we all enjoyed trudging through on the main site. The grass was green, the atmosphere relaxed and the view extraordinary.

Crossing the tracks into the Green Fields is like breathing a sigh of relief. You leave behind the vans of hog roast and hot dogs, the brands and the logos, and perhaps most importantly this year, the mud and chaos. Glastonbury is way too big to be considered as one event and the Green Fields are but a part of what makes this festival of festivals so extraordinary.

The Greenfields are, in essence and ethos, the foundation stone of all that the festival has prided itself on over the years. The tenets of compassion, tolerance and mutual respect that are written through Glastonbury like words in a stick of rock have their basis in the Green Fields. Atop the hill, they watch over the festival, guarding it's spirit, tempering it's worst excesses and giving everyone a place to go after the main attractions have got back on the tour bus.

What is so impressive about The Greenfields is the sheer amount of effort, often from volunteers, that goes into the planning and execution of it. Glastonbury Festival is a full-bloodied effort to provide the most comprehensive performing arts festival in the world, The Green Fields offer any number of energy initiatives, alternative lifestyle choices, therapies, ways of living and outright crackpot schemes.

Organisations devoted to saving, preserving or sustaining the planet are ready with their info packs, stickers and leaflets, and people who have devoted their lives to resisting the rampant march of corporate capitalism are ready to chat, discuss or argue. There's a huge mish-mash of ideals, ideologies, therapies, performances and designed spaces, all with one aim, to be the biggest chill-out area of any festival. This year, it's much needed.

Split into no less than 7 clearly defined spaces, culminating at the top with the Sacred Space and stone circle of the King's Meadow, the Green Fields are made up of the Healing Field, The Craft Field, the Avalon Field, the Tipi Field, Green Futures, The Green Roadshow and The Green Kids/Greenpeace Field. The newly acquired Lost Vagueness and the Circus and Cabaret fields are close by, but are separate spaces in all but geography.