'I have been going to Glastonbury for nine years and each time it has been magical. But this year was truly special'

Well, put simply; its multi-dimensional creative celebration of the arts and culture combined with its humongous size provides something for everybody. Whether you love Carley Rae Jepsen, Arctic Monkeys, fighting climate change or a combination of all three, you can find it all on Worthy Farm.

Glastonbury 2023 was my ninth trip to the famous Somerset festival. Whilst I have forever loved my previous expeditions, I always had a nagging feeling I had not experienced enough of what the site had to offer.

Although people such as Jo Whiley and Lauren Laverne may spend much of the weekend telling people how mystical the 900-acre plot is, the experience of being there and trying to feel this can also become overwhelming. A constant pressure to make sure you have the time of your life in the ‘best place in the world’. But of course, this can not always be the case.

A spell of bad weather can quickly bring knee-deep mud, which brings obvious challenges to your enjoyment. The non-stop partying can leave you hungover, exhausted and yearning for a return to reality and a normal toilet by Saturday morning; whilst the constant crowd crushes and surges are not great for those of a claustrophic disposition.

I have been incredibly negative at the start of this piece, but I felt these things must be pointed out. I had experienced the highs and the lows in vast quantities, giving me the understanding and appreciation of what this festival was and could be. As I left my front-door on the Wednesday morning of June 21, I felt prepared for everything the farm had to offer me.

And to my surprise, this was the year where everything clicked. There were no troughs, there were no low moments, it was just 120 hours of peace, love and happiness. A five-day run I will never ever forget.

Why was this the case? Well for starters, I managed to get a flavour of every corner of the festival. Spending my Wednesday and Thursday afternoons immersing myself in the Healing Fields, listening to inspirational talkers speak on the climate issues of today, drinking herbal tea and even taking part in some meditative yoga.

In years gone by, this time would have been spent sat in a camping chair, drinking can after can of tepid beer as me and my friends prepared for the night ahead. There was nothing wrong in doing that, but this change and immersion into something different was the uplifting boost I needed to kick off the weekend.

Later on in those evenings came the easy part. Having watched the sun set on Glastonbury Hill, me and my camp mates strolled into the South East Corner, a place which had throughout history seen me in a number of states.

Whilst this was the venue for many of our late night parties, it was also home to the stunning political artwork of Shangri-La and the inspiring dance space of Block 9 – an area designed for music, pride, freedom and underground queer culture .

I have managed to attend the festival since 2013 due to being able to work on the official t-shirt stall. The idea of spending ten hours on Friday working on the Pyramid Stage branch of this shop may sound exhausting (considering I had four hours sleep), but it was the perfect opportunity to speak to other festival goers and ask them what they were looking forward to and what they had seen already. A wholesome experience which energised my soul.

Once I was done, I went out and enjoyed the thing that had never let me down at the festival; the music. Young Fathers and Arctic Monkeys – two of my favourite bands – tore the house down with their contrasting brands of rock and roll, before I met up with my camp mates again and we went raving into the night via the picturesque stages in Silver Hayes and Shangri-La.

Saturday soon rolled around and I returned to work with even less sleep then Friday, which would normally be the beginning of my demise, but again the customer’s enthusiasm at the stall was the coffee I needed to continue in this festival haze.

An early finish allowed me to spend an afternoon with one of my closest friends, taking in some of the best acts the festival had to offer. The soulful Olivia Dean’s fun-loving show was followed by a sing-a-along hour with the Manic Street Preachers, before we two-stepped as the sun went down to the tunes of dance pioneers Leftfield.

All of a sudden we were back at it again, taking in the incredible protest art in Shangri-La and standing in awe of the flames shooting out of the Arcadia spider.

"Surely Sunday will be the day of my downfall?,” I told myself as I got into my sleeping bag at 7am.

But yet again, this festival surprised me. No work meant a lie-in, followed by an exceptional Thai chicken strips and loaded fries dish washed down with a cold can of coke and carton of orange juice. I met another of my friends at the Park Stage and said ‘I’m back, let’s go again!’.

Another day of laughing, dancing and singing followed. I watched the sun set at the Stone Circle, packed my tent up and headed home in the early hours of Monday morning. A smile was beaming across my face, one that had been their ever since I walked through the festival gates the previous Wednesday.

Now before I go into the emotional and spiritual reasons as to why this Glasto was so great, I do need to take this moment to shout out some of the important players that kept this festival chugging along at an almighty speed.

Glastonbury's internet provider being Vodaphone allowed me to keep in contact with my friends throughout the whole festival with ease, whilst my two battery charging packs kept my phone alive.

This may seem an incredibly dull point (and it is) but a lack of connectivity in previous years had meant I had been too fearful to go off and do my own thing, choosing instead to stay with the group. In 2023, I could roam freely by myself and do whatever I wanted, knowing that I could return to the mothership at any time with a quick WhatsApp message.

HAVE YOU READ THIS?

Sussex rail passengers advised to check their journeys ahead of upcoming industrial action

Sussex dog finds 'perfect home' after six years in kennels

And that ship contained the amazing people I spent the majority of my time with. Some of them family members, others my closest and oldest friends, but the majority were people I met for the first time whilst walking up and down the train tracks to get to our next dancing destination.

Anyway, enough of the boring stuff. As I sat on the bus home from the festival on Monday morning, I spent the first 30 minutes trying to find a niece explanation as to why Glastonbury is so special, what makes it stand out from its competitors and keeps me going back year after year, with each one being more triumphant than the last.

But there isn't one. It is the two most obvious things. The love and the freedom.

The love of the people who go there, the love of watching your favourite bands, the love of the planet, the love of culture, the love of meeting new people, the love of reminiscing with old friends, the love of people power, the love of creativity, the love of being yourself, the love of celebrating everyone’s brilliance.

And this goes hand in hand with the freedom. The freedom to spend all day taking part in some kind of scream therapy, or to go and watch a Mongolian heavy metal band at two o’clock in the afternoon. To dance, to sing, to be whoever you want to be. To do the festival however you want to do it, not in fear of whether it is the right thing to do, something I learned for the first time in 2023.

It may seen simple, but these two feelings are ones that many search for their entire lives and is something that I have only ever truly felt when walking around Pilton on the last full weekend of June each year.

Glastonbury 2023 was everything I hoped for and more. No pressure 2024.