Should I go to Glasto this year? A question discussed every year by most UK citizens between the ages of eight and 68. Even the crowds, rain and toilets can’t stop people from making the yearly pilgrimage to Worthy Farm in Somerset, UK. This year 177,500 people inhabited the 900-acre farm from June 24th-28th for the 39th Glastonbury Festival. 

The pages of this issue are not big enough to properly report on every piece of gear used at the mammoth festival, as even hot dog carts incited impromptu raves with two speakers and a Vengaboys album, but we will cover some highlights from the weekend. Those who parked near the Pyramid stage were tortured by, or treated to modern trendsetters like Lily Allen, Kasabian, and VV Brown in addition to rock legends like Neil Young, Status Quo, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Bruce Springsteen.

London’s RG Jones Sound Engineering provided a full Synco package for the Pyramid stage. The main stage PA included a Synco by Martin Audio W8L Longbow main PA and Martin Audio delays, a Synco cardioid sub-bass array and a complete Synco stage monitoring and drum fill system. The PA is described as an advanced version of 08’s Pyramid PA, which was a collaboration between RG Jones and Martin Audio’s Jason Baird and Jim Cousins, both of whom joined the system design team again this year with Chris Ekers.

Five of Yamaha’s PM5D-RH consoles and an M7CL-48 were used on the Pyramid stage at one point in the weekend. Kasabian used two Midas Pro 6 consoles on the Pyramid.

The Other Stage hosted headline sets by Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and Prodigy. Skan PA hung its d&b audiotechnik J-Series line array elements with J-Infra subs for coverage at the stage. Neil Young, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Status Quo also used d&b monitors for their Pyramid stage performances.

APR Audio supplied an EV Xline system with X Subs running in cardiod mode for the Jazz World stage. The entire system was run on the EV N8000 Netmax system. At FOH almost half of the bands were mixed on two of Midas’ Pro6 systems. Old school engineers were given the option to use a Midas H3000 analog system, with another H3000 on stage with a Helix eq system through the DN9331 Rapide flying fader remote, connected to the console by the Midas Solo Tracking System (STS).

VV Brown performed an impressive eight times during the weekend, including sets on the John Peel Stage, the Dance Tent and the Pyramid. Brown and her band used TL Audio’s Ivory series 5001 preamps and DIs for all her Glasto performances. Bass player Michael ‘Smoove Groove’ Hamilton also used TL’s 5051 to enhance his bass sounds. Her FOH engineer, Jimmy Sarikas, used his own Yamaha LS9-32 for two gigs on the Pyramid and Dance East stage.

The John Peel stage ran Yamaha’s PM5D-RHs at both FOH and monitors, which were combined with three of Yamaha’s new SB-168ES stage boxes to provide the Ethersound network. A full RSS by Roland M-400 with the new M-48 personal monitoring system was setup backstage at the John Peel stage in its Green Room/warm-up stage. Both The BBC Introducing and Park Stage used RSS digital snakes. 

Allen & Heath’s iLive digital mixing system was used for Dan Black’s performance on the Orange mobile stage. Dan’s FOH engineer, Steve Pattison, tours with a very compact setup comprised of an iLive-T iDR-32 MixRack for all sources, and a laptop loaded with iLive-Editor software for virtual control.

The Green Fields’ Croissant Neuf stage has been a platform for underground acts since the early days of the festival. Run entirely by solar power, the area’s bandstand hosted over 25 artists who were broadcast through Ohm’s LX system. Ohm sales manager Clive Kinton got his hands dirty as an honorary member of the sound crew throughout the weekend. He commented: “The sound system performed magnificently for a whole variety of acts from a melodious harp and vocal duo to a full-on dub band. The system was loud enough to cover the field and ran very efficiently to conserve the solar power.”

Glastonbury’s nightlife is a 900-acre dance party with endless open spaces and tents blasting the latest beats from DJs of all genres. Funktion-One’s purple stacks dominated many of these areas as its speakers were used in Glade and Arcadia by Audio Funktion, as well as in the Dance East Tent where Audile used pieces from its Funktion-One stock.

Audio Funktion used two stacks of three Funktion-One, F-221, double 21-inch bass enclosures per side with five Resolution 5 loudspeakers on top at the Glade stage. Four Res 4 speakers hung from the tent with six double-18-inch F-218s on the floor for rear field coverage.

The Arcadia dance area featured a giant flame-spewing spacecraft DJ booth. Audio Funktion kitted out the fiery area with six Funktion-One stacks in a hexagonal configuration. Its front stacks were left and right configurations of six F-218s topped by five Res 5s per side, in addition to side and rear stacks and two Res 4s flown with two F-218s on the ground.

Audile of Manchester, UK used 16 Res 5s and eight F-221s for its main stacks in the Dance East Tent. It used Res 4s as sidefills and Res 1s for infills, in addition to Mc2 amps, XTA processing, Turbosound TFM 450 monitors and an analog H3000 console at FOH. Yamaha’s M7CL-48 console could also be found glowing through the night in the Dance East, Dance West, Dance Lounge and Pussy Parlure areas while Allen & Heath Xone:92 DJ mixers were used on many of the dance stages. The dance tents were under constant watch all weekend and forced to maintain very low sound levels.

Tannoy’s recently launched VQ Live loudspeaker system was used in ‘The Igloo’ tent this year. Debuted at Glastonbury 08 as part of the Dance Village, the Igloo is the brainchild of Igloo Vision, and has a unique immersive 360-degree projection environment designed to provide a 1,400-capacity audience with live video mixing and audio. A single stack per side was used, comprised of a VQ Net 60 Live cabinet above an accompanying VNet 218DR Live subwoofer.

Igloo Vision’s Colin Yellowley explains: “Tannoy’s VQ system allowed us to provide amazing clarity of sound at a high impact level that left DJs clamouring to use the system. This, combined with the 360-degree projections of the Igloo created something that was considered by some to be the best offering in the Badlands area.”
In addition to being the biggest green space festival in the world, Glastonbury is also the most publicised and highly sought after by punters and bands. The enormity of Glastonbury is only matched by the energy of the audiences and performers.
www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk