I thought Glastonbury was incredible – until I looked up and was disgusted-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro

It was impossible not to notice the helicopter buzzing around Glastonbury Festival this weekend (Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage)

Glastonbury Festival is the best party on earth – but it’s also a hypocritical one.

This summer was my first time at Glastonbury after years of trying and failing to bag tickets. My expectations were high, but Glastonbury surpassed all of them.

It is undoubtedly a special event that lingers in the mind long after stumbling out of the dusty Worthy Farm gates. 

My partner turned to me as we lugged our dirt-stained, broken bodies away, and said: ‘That was the best weekend of my life’. And I’d have to agree with him.

Except, one thing irritated me more than I imagined: the helicopters.

Glastonbury seems to be all about sustainability – unless you’re rich enough for it not to matter. 

Maya Jama proudly declared she was ticking off a bucket list item by flying away from the festival (Picture: Maya Jama/tiktok)

The sheer size of Glastonbury was jaw-dropping – from the bizarre scenes of the theatre and circus area, to the 1960s time warp that is the healing fields.

I thought I’d seen it all, then I entered Shangri La, which is its very own sprawling pop-up town of madness. It’s like something plucked out of Fallout, with its 6am DJ sets and surreal shop fronts. 

This alone would be enough to call itself a festival, but some Glastonbury goers won’t even see it – the 1,500 acre grounds are stuffed with that much entertainment, it would take a month to get through it all, let alone a weekend. 

It seems the festival isn’t so eco-conscious for the rich and famous (Picture: Maya Jama/tiktok)

Glastonbury’s vibe is unmatched. Workers grin at you, everyone says ‘sorry’, ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, and if you got lost it probably wouldn’t matter: a stranger will go the extra mile to help you out. This is part of the social responsibility Glastonbury champions.

The festival’s ‘leave no trace’ ethos encapsulates this, too. Its Green Fields area has run on solar, wind and pedal power since 1984. And loyal to its hippy mentality, the festival’s ‘do not bring’ packing list advises against bringing glitter, disposable vapes and face wipes as they harm the environment. 

So, I felt cheated when I arrived at the festival and found my tent in a helicopter flight path. 

I stuck my middle finger up to the sky, imagining some rich person dodging the queues and killing the planet in such a brazen way. Looking down on all the riff-raff in their pathetic tents they pulled out of their Nissan Micras below. 

‘Glastonbury Festival does not endorse or facilitate travel by helicopter, except for operational purposes,’ the website says. Except, I’m not entirely sure Maya Jama ticking off her ‘bucket list’ moment of leaving Glastonbury by helicopter was operational. 

LED writsbands were handed back after Coldplay – and Glastonbury has some strict eco-friendly policies. So why is it different for helicopters? (Picture: Jim Dyson/Redferns)

I went to my first ever Glastonbury and it was mostly incredible

A source from one helicopter company told Metro.co.uk that there are three helipads at the festival, and too many companies to count offering an exclusive charter service for guests.

Prices vary for luxury private helicopter hire, but are in the thousands per hour, and many can fly from wherever is convenient within the UK. How handy! 

Helicopters can emit 500kg of CO2 emissions in just one hour, and a chopper’s tiny size means that it’s all for the pleasure of just a handful of festival-goers. 

It’s the car of the sky, while a commercial plane is more of a bus, emitting around 112kg per passenger per hour. In short: riding in a helicopter is embarrassingly bad for the environment. 

While these chartered drop offs are organised via third party companies and not by the festival itself, the presence of helicopters is impossible to ignore. All you have to do is look up.  

I reckon it’s time to make celebs like Maya Jama arrive by coach and wait in a two-hour queue to get through the gates to the best party on Earth like the rest of us. That would help save the environment and the vibe of the festival, which is all about peace, equality and love – none of which the constant buzz of helicopters overhead represents.

I’m more than happy to bother handing back in my reusable Coldplay LED wristband; delighted to drink from soggy paper straws, and will put up with swerving the unbeatable ease of a face wipe clean at 4am. But I felt less inclined to do these things every time I looked up last weekend. 

The festival’s attitude to the environment seems much like the wider global problem with today’s climate emergency. Those with little influence get guilt-tripped into taking on the burden and making changes that don’t scratch the surface of what needs to be done, while those with enough money and power to make big, lasting changes, won’t.

While Glastonbury Festival isn’t ‘endorsing’ or directly ‘facilitating’ the helicopter problem, it appears to be turning a blind eye so the rich and famous can gorge on their big, fat carbon-fuelled cake in peace.

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