The festival is famously attended by all ages, from newborns to nonagenarians. Eleanor Peake speaks to the retirees who are still raving till 6am
Chris Church is 71 and he can still party hard. He has been coming to Glastonbury since the first festival in 1970. He was 18 and snuck out of his nearby boarding school to attend, still in his school uniform. These days, he has ditched the uniform, but not the party spirit. “I don’t go as long as I used to but I can still get as inebriated as the best of them,” he says. “I can hold my own.”
I catch Church as he is rolling a cigarette, perched on a wooden bench in Green Fields, a section of the festival run by Greenpeace. Last night, he stayed up until 2 am and danced in Shangri La, the infamous rave section of the festival. “I come most years, and I ask myself why,” he laughs. “I may be too old for a lot of the bands. I have no idea who half of them are now. I know who Dua Lipa is and Coldplay but that’s about it.”Church has been to almost every Glastonbury for the past 50 years.
Walk down the road and into the Healing Fields, and you’ll see Dave, 70, and Sally, 69, having a quiet cup of coffee as they watch the world go by. They have been retired for four years, although Dave still does some part-time electrician work to pay for their festival habit. They have been to Glastonbury for the past six years in a row.Sally has been trying to for much longer, but because of her former job at a primary school, she was unable to take leave in term time.
But not Dave and Sally. Last year, Sally was in Shangri La with her son until 6.30am. “What I enjoyed was the 45-minute walk back to our camp, just chatting in the sun. It’s peaceful,” says Sally. The couple have spirits back at their tent, choosing to avoid the cans of warm beer.The hardest part of the festival is transporting all their luggage to the campsite. “It used to be fine for us but now it’s much harder carrying everything. It’s a very far walk. Especially when it’s hot,” says Sally.
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