This year NUS made a decision to co-sponsor the Left Field tent at Glastonbury to raise the profile of NUS, to go to where our members are, to campaign and I was invited to speak in two slots on the Saturday and the Sunday in Left Field.

The Left Field at Glastonbury exists to reaffirm the spirit of political debate among festival goers, promoting the value of trade union membership and collective campaigning.

We had a tent outside the Left Field, where we had a diary room and a campaigns room and we were giving away some goodies! These next few blogs will take you through the NUS experience, and my experience with all of its trials and tribulations!

Thursday morning arrived and so did the rain, I have to admit at this point that despite being exceptionally lucky and pleased that NUS was making a proper debut at Glastonbury, I was slightly anxious. It’s probably fair to say that I haven’t been apart from my hair straighteners since the advent of GHD’s and I haven’t slept in a tent since I was about 10 years old and I hated it then. I don’t cope well with rain, nor mud and I was hoping to find a tent that came with plug sockets but apparently that is not possible unless you are extremely well off, which neither I nor NUS is! So you can imagine that packing my rucksack (again had to borrow it as I don’t think a wheelie pink suitcase would have been a good look) became a right drama. Stephen and I took far too much stuff, if I was to pack again I wouldn’t take half of it (and I would have ensured my coat was waterproof as well as stylish!).

So Stephen and I loaded our little car about half-seven in the morning (to miss the traffic) and set off to Glastonbury (or to be more accurate Pilton) from my parents in Bristol. We arrived and parked in the nearest field to where we were camping in the Workers Beer section and trekked all of our belongings to find a spot to pitch the tent. We found the BUGS labour club and set up camp near them. Luckily they had a mallet as we had forgotten ours! We then set off to Left Field to help set up the NUS stall and to get going on campaigning. I don’t think I realised how big the entire site is, nor how far the campsite was from where we were working every day, it was about a 40 minute walk (and much longer in the mud later on in the week!). When we got there the NUS staff had done a great job setting up the stall and it looked fabulous. We were campaigning on three of the five challenges that we had set the new Prime Minister, on health, travel and work and we had massive hangings all around the inside of the Left Field and around our tent.

Within two hours of me arriving at Glastonbury I lost my wallet with my drivers license in, my cash card and £140. Nightmare.

The Left Field was the first stage to open at the festival on Thursday (the others opened on Friday) and so the music was a real draw, it was a very, very, busy day with hundreds of people passing through our stall, making video diary entries and signing up to our campaigns. The footage will be put together soon and made available on officeronline.co.uk. We met students and supporters of our campaigns from all over the country, many were so surprised to see that NUS was more than just a discount card and that we were out and about involving people in our campaigns. So many students were so keen about the campaigns we were running, realising how much of an impact these changes could have to their everyday lives. We also spoke to everyone about the next battle ahead on the lifting of the cap on fees and how damaging the education funding system is.

We closed the stall about seven and headed off for a wander around and to try to get our bearings. Stephen and I went up to the Stone Circle, it was absolutely gorgeous looking over the camp with lights and candles everywhere (and it hadn’t started raining properly yet!

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