The Fans Can’t go to the Football Match, so the Match Comes to Glastonbury!

24 Jun 2004

After giving in to overwhelming demand, festival officials made the decision to hand over the large screens in the Pyramid Stage and Cinema field sections of the Glastonbury site to the BBC to screen the England Euro 2004 quarter final.

Almost 100,000 people gathered to enjoy the spectacle, which at Glastonbury became a unique event in itself: Football fans were provided with an atmosphere like no other to enjoy the match across the large scale screens normally adorned with pictures of the on-stage act of the moment.

footballTension really mounted at the festival tonight as spirits were elated when in the opening minutes of the England Vs Portugal game, England scored to lead 1 - 0 into the second half, only to suffer a goal from Portugal, who in extra time then went one up on England, leaving the score England 1, Portugal 2!

footballAs devastated England fans started leaving the Pyramid Stage field in their droves, all fearing the worst, Frank Lampard came forward and scored an equalising goal, leaving the crowd at Glastonbury in a state of euphoria. Radio 1’s Colin and Edith rallied the crowds from the main stage, the Glastonbury Security team’s walkie-talkie network was high-jacked to convey the match step-by-step to employees around the site, and the whole of the Glastonbury Festival became involved in some way or other whether they wanted to or not!

With a highly charged round of penalties, both sides eventually equalised at 5 all. After a miss by Beckham, Vassell went on to miss England’s last penalty and fingernails at Glastonbury were well and truly bitten down to the stubs. Portugal then scored to make the final result, Portugal 6, England 5 - leaving English fans at the festival deflated and trailing off away from the festival screens, carrying their St George’s flags on lowered masts and forlorn at the end of what was an emotional rollercoaster.

footballDespite the downbeat mood, fans at the festival were still determined to enjoy the weekend. Al Hamer, 30, from London said: “It was a nightmare! I’m really p******d off, but I’m just glad that we’ve got another three days of great music to look forward to. I’m going to be up first thing tomorrow morning to watch English National Opera and I’m going to have a great weekend. If we can deal with the hurricane that was last night, we can deal with anything!”

Glynn Pegler and Will Saunders

supplied by Culture Magazine

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