The Left Field Returns to Glastonbury Festival! - 2010-07-09 12:52:00

Left Field could not have chosen a better weekend to return to Glastonbury Festival. The sun was shining on the day that our production crew taped off the new site in Holt’s Field and carried on shining until they took the big top down and gave the spot back to Farmer Eavis and his cows.

The weekend was a new experience for me. As ‘curator’ of the Left Field, I had to be on hand to greet the bands that I’d invited to perform, organise the daily songwriters event that we called Bill’s Big Round-Up and generally act as arbiter for any backstage disputes. As a result, I hardly had time to see any other acts all weekend. I managed to catch about 15 minutes of Jerry Dammers on Saturday and Toots & the Maytals on Sunday at the nearby West Holts Stage, but the only time I trekked off to see someone was on Sunday night. Once Paul Heaton had finished, I gathered up my son and his crew and took them over to see Stevie Wonder.

As a result, all of my Glastonbury highlights were at the Left Field: our three headliners, Get Cape, Reverend & the Makers and Carl Barat ripping it up on the first night; the audience clapping along to Grace Petrie’s first song on her Glastonbury debut - and the massive smile she fought hard to suppress while witnessing it; sitting with my missus by the Left Field campfire watching our son playing guitar and leading everyone in a rendition of ‘American Pie’; Itch from the King Blues using a break in their set to recite his pro-feminist poem ‘Five Shampoos’; being invited by Paul Heaton to join him at the end of his set to sing ‘White Man in Hammersmith Palais’, a great way to bring our weekend to a close.

None of this would have been possible without months of planning between my office and the festival. From Michael Eavis’ initial call to me around Christmastime asking that Left Field come back “because we might have a Tory in No.10 by the time of the next festival” to the moment our passes arrived in the post, a number of people have been working hard to make the Left Field happen.

My compañera, Juliet Wills was responsible for the day to day liaising with the festival and the production team and the overall look of the Left Field, developing the new logo with Bragg design stalwart Marc Woodhouse and commissioning ‘The Left Field Toblerone’, the big wedged shaped sign that alerted passers-by to our presence and provided shade to weary revellers.

Ben Price from Whole Nine Yards Productions was on site from the week before the festival until the big top tent was folded and packed away. As production manager, he did an amazing job of keeping everything running smoothly both onstage and off, particularly when dealing with those artists who I’d invited to play in the Big Round-Up but hadn’t got around to telling him they were coming.

Geoff Martin, founder of Left Field back in 2002, did a great job of finding people to speak in the debates. He was also responsible for getting Tony Benn down from London and ferrying him around the site – in an open top Ford Mustang.

The real big difference between the old and new Left Field is that we are now plugged in to the main frame of the festival. That fact is mostly down to the involvement of Sarah Sheppard, whose long-term support for Left Field has seen us now take our place as one of the recognised stages at Glastonbury. She has been our main contact at Worthy Farm and acted as area manager for Left Field, finding us our new site and making sure that our presence there didn’t interfere with the balance of the festival. The connections that she made for us ultimately ensured the smooth running of the weekend.

My thanks also go out to the Bragg Central team who ran the t-shirt stall, the onsite office and provided the glue which held all the parts together, the PA crew from Sonalyst who dealt with everything we threw at them, the lighting company GLS, Bren, Neal and Craig, our ever ready stage crew, the volunteer stewards from the FBU and last but not least, Mark Cann who mentored our return to Glastonbury Festival, helping to ensure that the activism at the festival retains its red edge.

My hope is that Left Field has not merely returned, but has renewed itself, both as a venue capable of hosting some great music and as a place where activism can be encouraged through debate, culture and organisation.

The fightback starts here!