Friday 18th June 1982.

John Cooper Clarke

A Certain Ratio

Funkapolitan

Aswad

Randy California

Black Uhuru ?

GLASTONBURY CND FESTIVAL

Festival Welfare Report.

      Any report on the provision of health, welfare and sanitary services at an open air festival tends to make the event sound like a disaster, concentrating as it does an the failures of these services.

   Having studied the reports available to me from member agencies about last year's festival, it is clear that the organisers of this festival have made much progress in this area and are to be congratulated on that.Although not perfect, the facilities and services coped much better than last year in far more difficult circumstances.

Roy Harper

19th June 1982 Glastonbury Festival, UK
with The Roy Harper Band
50-minute TV broadcast

1 - Intro
2 - Drawn To The Flames
3 - Poor Man
4 - Elizabeth
5 - Woman
6 - Work Of Heart (Part 1)
7 - Work Of Heart (Parts 2-6)
8 - Casualty
9 - Outro

Two major factors combined to make the provision of facilities difficult. Firstly the weather was abysmal. A torrential downpour at the beginning of the festival was followed by intermittent heavy showers throughout. Many people had their tents completely flooded and vehicles got stuck all over the site. Much of the site was covered in thick wet mud.

   Also, the crowd was larger than expected by at least 25%. Although official figures show 25,000 paying customers, this is less than the total number on site.
These factors should be borne in mind when assessing the relative success of the provisions made.

Water
    Large plastic barrels were dotted around the site, to be filled by a water bowser at regular intervals. This arrangement faced two problems. The bowser could not keep up with the requirements of such a large crowd and the rain caused the tracks to the bottom of the site (which is on a slope) to become impassable because they were too slippery.

   Obviously, the first problem can easily be overcome by an increase in the number of bowsers. The slippery slope problem was probably unique to this year. However, if the barrel system is to be continued it would be wise for more barrels to be located at the top of the hill, just in case. I would prefer mains water to be available where possible., but understanding the problems involved in such a major provision, I see nothing wrong with the barrel system as one viable alternative.

Randy California

Toilets
   There were rectangular trench toilets each partitioned with seats, doors and roofs all around the site and a few flush toilets near the admin area. The trench toilets were emptied regularly. Had the numbers been as expected, there would have been easily enough toilets. As it was, there were just enough and they did cope, even though people stole the soft plastic roofs for shelter, thus allowing rain into the trenches which therefore filled more rapidly.
   The design of the trench toilets is basically sound but the designers should put on stronger doors as the most used ones fell off. The roof problem is an interesting one for toilet designers but one for which I can unfortunately offer no immediate suggestions.

   Given these problems, I still feel these toilets were as good as any I've seen, and while main drainage is not available they're the most suitable for the event.
The toilets were not cleaned.

First Aid/Medical
   There was a 24 hour medical service in the admin area, staffed by local doctors and nurses. It was decided that an "on site" ambulance was not necessary and no emergency occurred to test this decision. My feeling is that at least during the period when heavy inward traffic blocked the lanes, an ambulance on site would have been a good precaution, reducing considerably the time taken to get an emergency to hospital.

   The medical area had the advantage over most festivals of running hot water and electricity, and on the whole was very good. It would probably be a good idea at any future festival to supplement the doctors and nurses with some specifically trained first aiders to provide an experienced stretcher team and to deal with problems such as fresh burns with which they would be more acquainted.

People in distress
   Freaked out people, of which there are always a lot at a big festival, were dealt with by an ad hoc welfare team of experienced volunteers supplemented for part of the festival by a team of Samaritans. This service worked well, although it was at times overloaded as the team also dealt with lost kids after 8pm (see Kids), lost property, lost dogs, general into at night and legal problems.
   At future Glastonbury festivals an effort should be made to have the Samaritans team on site throughout if possible as the close liaison between welfare and the Samaritans solved many problems.

Crash Tents
   Three large marquees were used for info and entertainment by day and as crash tents at night and were adequate even in the dire conditions.
Blankets provided by the Salvation Army after the worst of the rain and some extra tent space provided by FWS sorted out washed out families with kids who obviously had special problems.

Kids
   The set up for kids was very good. They had their own area with lots of things to do and, during the day, the lost kids tent was sited in that area. After pm, lost kids were taken care of by the welfare team.Some of the kids workers found difficulty in getting announcements over the p.a. at times (see co ordination), but it was rare for a child with caring parents to be lost for very long.

Info and lost people
   There was an information tent on site, staffed by CND which also had a place for people to meet and leave messages. It was a pity this closed at night and hopefully it could stay open, at least in a limited way, 24 hours a day at future festivals. While it was open, it provided a good service with site info and info on trains, busses ,local services etc. So many people couldn't find their friends that the info/welfare services couldn't do anything about it. This caused some problems for the workers. It would be a good idea if a page of the program could be devoted to a more detailed site map and info on what to do in certain problematic situations.

Traffic
   The major problem with the traffic was the size of the local lanes and obviously nothing can be done about that. The traffic controllers coped as well as possible. Broken down cars caused a problem on site and around and I would imagine a local garage or the AA/RAC would be into setting up a service on site to start cars, mend breakdowns etc: this arrangement would probably be profitable all round while overcoming problems.

Coordination of services
   The communication system at the festival was very efficient and staffed by helpful people and is to be commended. It would help, however, if someone with authority to make decisions in all areas stayed in the control centre. There should have been one set method of getting messages to the stage, probably via the communication centre, so that important messages go out quickly while less important ones wait.

A note on the police
    The police set up a marquee on the road to the site at which they conducted a stop and search operation on a large scale. Not only did this distress a large number of people who were strip searched but, from all the information we received, it was totally random and therefore illegal. Moreover, suspects were asked to answer a questionnaire including name, address, age, date of birth and nature of employment even when nothing was found on them. I would reiterate our deep concern over this operation and others of its kind . The officers who attended the site to assist the welfare were in a very difficult situation, however, they received praise for their tact and kindness.

    All in all I think that the festival has made great progress towards the provision of adequate facilities and in some areas has provided more than just what is required. I hope the suggestions I make in this report are useful and they are summarised below. I do feel that we are now in the area of 'minor improvements' to reach a high standard.

I spoke to many festivaleers around the site and they were unanimous in saying that it was one of the most enjoyable festivals they'd been to despite the weather. I feel it was also reasonably safe and healthy.

Suggestions for future large Glastonbury festivals

1) A central controller authorised to take any necessary decisions to stay in communication centre.
2) Single channel of communication from services to stage for announcements.
3) More water bowsers.
1 1) More water tanks at top of site.
5) Info point and meeting place 24 hours a day.
6) Stronger toilet doors and more permanent roofs. Some extra units ; units should be cleaned.
7) Ambulance on site at peak traffic periods and some first aiders with medical team.
8) Breakdown facility on site.

9) More detailed site map in program,with notes of what to if problem arises and lost kids ticket.

To be attached to child's jumper/T shirt :

MY NAME IS Johnny Wright
MUM IS Jenny Wright
DAD IS Jimmy Wright
I AM IN, Red.VW. Near info tent.

10) A review of police stop and search procedures.

Bob Nightingale

This was my first ever event of this kind - I'd seen nothing like it & attended mainly because of my interest in CND at the time. it proved a life changing experience & generated an interest in the festival that has stayed with me all my life, even during the wilderness years when I didn't attend.

I remember catching a shuttle bus from Bath after seeing the sun fail miserably to rise at Stonehenge on the solstice. Met up with a girl, with whom I spent a very enjoyable weekend and generally had the time of my life.

Black Uhuru I remember specifically because people just streamed towards the stage as soon as the bass started pumping out. The Blues Band were great, particularly when drinking lethal local scrumpy and the company of said young lady.

The real buzz was for Van Morrison, and having not heard any of him I stayed for his set. I am ashamed to say I got bored & left early. I bitterly regretted that in later years and was really glad I could make up for it in 2005 when I finally got the chance to see him play a full set.

Oddly enough I don't remember the bad weather, but I do remember the mud, with people slipping all over the place & a giant mud slide that others were enjoying in the Pyramid field.

Traffic control was fairly rudimentary in 1982

   Van Morrisons set was bootlegged, presumably an audience recording .Roy Harper, Black Uhuru and Randy California were filmed for a TV show-Randy Californias set exists on video 50 mins.

There are two films in the BFI library " Glastonbury Pilgrimage " and "Glastonbury Festival" both made in 1982 . No details are given about their specific content.

Right: In 1981 the Pyramid stage was not sporting its nifty CND symbol, time had not allowed for it to be lifted into position, so it hung around on the side of the stage late into the festival.

1982 was different, this time the symbol took pride of place dead centre on top of the stage, which is where it remained until the charitable focus moved towards environmental groups in 1991 , post coldwar .