Glastonbury 2008 - at arm's length.

They said that it would be a disaster, whether that was due to the choice of Jay-Z as the Saturday headline act, the assertion that Amy Winehouse would most likely be a no-show, or simply that the foul weather that has afflicted the last two events would return yet again, to the point that some said it would be the end of the road. It was, after all, the first Glastonbury since 1992 to not sell-out and that perhaps this is more important than it might appear to be.

I think that they were wrong on all counts. I, for one, would not have bought a ticket because I wanted to see Jay-Z perform live, or indeed any another headline act. I wouldn't go to a festival merely on the promise of the headline acts, however appealing they might be. Maybe that is just me, being the awkward one, but you would have been far more likely to find me at either the 'John Peel Stage' or the 'Park Stage'.
I could go and probably never much bother myself with the 'Pyramid Stage' which, by virtue of its variety and diversity, is how Glastonbury wins hands-down. Sometimes however it takes a modal shift to alter the dynamics of a festival and Glastonbury 2008 might just have done that.