Having previously commuted from Edinburgh for the 1999 festival, we made a conscious decision to identify some accommodation nearer to the site for the 2000 version. As a result, we found a B&B in the little village of Glenfarg just off the A75, Gill attended this festival for the first time.
One element we had no control over was the weather and what we were confronted with was the most persistent monsoon rain I have ever encountered; it just never stopped the whole weekend. We were fortunate to be able to leave the site and I had unbounded sympathy with punters who were camping.
I recall seeing the reports of the weather at one particular Glastonbury being so inclement they encountered the first cases of Trenchfoot for around a century, they must have run close to that in 2000. When we see torrid weather nowadays, we acknowledge it is raining but can verify it is indisputably not T in The Park rain!
On both days of the festival, we headed into Ayr for a couple of drinks before grabbing a taxi down to the site. In one of the boozers on the Saturday, I think it was called This Old Hoose, we encountered a couple of older ladies, christened the ‘Golden Girls’ who were happily imbibing Gin and were good company. I kept looking out the window consistently echoing the refrain ‘it’s getting brighter’ even though it patently was not!
There was a fine bill on Stage 2 on Saturday, and it had the humungous additional benefit of being in a marquee and therefore under cover. The Wannadies produced a great guitar heavy set before some softer soothing tones with the excellent Morcheeba. Following them was the erstwhile singer songwriter Beth Orton. In the Dance tent we caught a portion of David Holmes.
In King Tuts Wah Wah tent we watched Lapsus Linguae and Looper. On the main stage we saw segments of both Ocean Colour Scene and a reprise from the previous year from Fun Lovin Criminals. We watched the whole of Moby’s headline set where you could witness a sea of yellow temporary T in the Park macs providing sparse cover in the conditions. Moby was good but provided a carbon copy of the Glastonbury set from a couple of weeks earlier, knew I should have swerved that to keep a fresher outlook.
Me and Gill lost Uncle George and John at one stage due to a miscommunication and this was in the days before we all had mobile phones, we luckily found them a couple of hours later prior to the taxi back to the digs.
On the Sunday morning, there was a brief one-hour respite in the weather, so we went for a local walk but were instantly surrounded by smidges on the motorway bridge, so that exercise was soon curtailed.
In the Dance tent, we caught Darren Emerson and a part of a banging set from Leftfield. We also watched a terrific more dance-oriented set from Death in Vegas. Elsewhere we saw a very early performance in a side tent from Coldplay and also witnessed A, Dum Dums, Dark Star and Embrace.
There was a hit laden set from Supergrass who followed Idlewild on the main stage. There was a fun performance from the indefatigable and timeless Iggy Pop and we stayed for some of Travis’s headline act.
We then squelched off to the taxi pick up point and got summarily ripped off by the taxi firm, but to be honest I didn’t care as I would have paid 10 gold bars to depart the site by that stage!
When we landed back, the lad on duty at the hotel ordered boots off and he graciously opened the back bar for us. He served us soothing brandies and whiskies and we could watch the festival highlights on a little portable in the corner of the bar. What lucky people we were, and it provided a warming end to the weekend’s activities!