Wash-up  

Today is sunny again.

Too late now though because everybody is going home. James has Medicine Man Pharmacy open and is relaxed as he picks up just a little bit of passing trade.

Market Traders are asked to stay open to 6pm today as it can take all day before the thousands of festival goers have left the site. I spend the day packing and carrying things to my car.

Many of the volunteer pharmacists are still here and we stand in the sun to discuss how it was, and how we’d like it to be. They are relaxed and happy but some are uncomfortable with the way we had to provide service this year. We hug and say farewell until next year.

James Powell has a list of pharmacists who would be prepared to work for him and considers himself a front runner for providing a pharmacy service at Glastonbury next year. Phil Allan at Evercreech Pharmacy may be confident because he is the local pharmacist and knows the local GPs involved with the medical services at the Festival. Tony Guest currently has contracts and licenses, has an excellent 10 year track record running the pharmacies at the Glastonbury Festival and wants to be back next year.

What kind of pharmacy set up we have here next year depends on lots of other questions.

Who are the interested (and most influential) stakeholders? (The onsite medical services? The local PCT? The market management team and the official Glastonbury Festival organisers? Who else?)

At a time when even small festivals can have several pharmacy stalls, should anyone really consider no onsite pharmacy service at all? Should all pharmacies be free agents, or should they be part of an overall strategy for medical and pharmacy provision at an event attracting over 150,000 people?

Since James was allowed an open fronted cabin at this year's event, will the Police and Pharmaceutical Society relax their normally more stringent requirements here  in future years?

Should a market pharmacy be allowed to stock and dispense Prescription Only Medicines? How about Emergency Supplies? How about PGDs?

So, anyway, that’s it. Thanks team!

We have an amazing team and I am full of pride and gratitude. Once again they did what RocknRollPharmacists do, and had a great time.

Will I be back next year? I certainly will (did I tell you Glastonbury is addictive?). If nobody wants me to come back as a volunteer, I’ll buy a ticket and camp in the family field with my children and friends. And relax!

Thank you Tony for having the team back and finding work for idle hands! I’d like to thank James for Medicine Man's late involvement and for allowing myself and the team to work with him at Glastonbury Festival this year. (Personal thanks to his staff, Hayley and Andy).

I’m sure our good relationship will continue whatever happens, but James told me the ‘gloves would be off’ after this Festival is over.

I firmly believe that no-one else can provide the professional, and comprehensive pharmacy service that Tony's team has developed and delivered year after year in Festival Pharmacy and Arena Pharmacy at the Glastonbury Festival. I am aware though, that in our ‘fast food’ society, our 'full' professionalism may not be what’s wanted.

All done.

Jim.   :-)

The End is Near...  

We had good festival weather today. Dry with lots of sunshine. It’s my day off but of course, when you live ‘on the premises’ you still end up doing a bit.

Sales today still revolved around tummy upsets and urinary infections, but James arrived back on site this morning with lots more stock of everything. Some people still wanted eyedrops, for hayfever and infections but Friday's rain settled much of the dust and pollen down so we didn’t get anything like Thursday's sales of these products.

We served the proud owner of “Professor Jephcott’s Flea Circus”. The circus has been passed from father to son for three generations now and he was proud to become ringmaster. (Un)fortunately we didn’t have any flea spray in stock.

The place to find peace at Glastonbury Festival is in the Green Fields. I took the chance to meet up again with some old friends and we sat chatting quietly for an hour or two in their Tipi. Then, with my batteries recharged, I set off to find good food and lots of good music.

I enjoyed lunch in the Avalon Café to the country and western sound of The Johnsons, then joined team member Sally with her family, Trog and Billie, to listen to her nephew Charly’s band, The Fluffy Rawr, play their gig on the Mandela Stage. I thought of “Love Actually” as I watched young Charly play drums behind a confident teenage girl rock band. Of course they were brilliant!

I saw some Scouting For Girls but abandoned them to see Neil Diamond on the main stage, singing along with all the songs I knew from the 70’s. The power was lost from the stage at one point but the crowd around me carried on singing his songs without him until power was restored.

That was when we had one of those  ‘Glastonbury moments’ as the sun burst through the clouds, lighting up the Pyramid.

After eating to the sound of local bluegrass band “Three Kinds of Grass”, I met family for a good position to hear Katie Melua’s first performance at Glastonbury. Her vocals didn’t falter and it was great to hear the distinctive sound of her guitar played live on stage.

I was joined at Avalon by another friend to listen to Blazing Fiddles. A Scottish band comprising one keyboard player, one guitarist and five brilliant fiddle players. The pace and energy had the crowd dancing, clapping and cheering.

After a gentle walk past Manu Chau on the Jazz World Stage, with fireworks high above the festival, I made my way back to my tent. It may have been many hours before the music quietened down. I don’t know. I was asleep shortly after my head hit the pillow.

This Glastonbury Festival has passed very quickly.

The Sun Comes Out  

I listened carefully as I woke up in the tent behind the pharmacy. It wasn’t raining! Hurrah!

I did put my wellies on to go for a cold wash and shave, but the sun was shining and the mud was already starting to dry up. If you do wash at Glastonbury, it is a social affair and we stood in the sun discussing weather, bands and toilets!

Today’s shift was as enjoyable as Friday’s but what people wanted to buy was changing as quickly as the weather. Today was the morning after the night before and demand for loperamide and indigestion remedies outstripped supplies sometime during the afternoon.

Cystitis medications increased and so did requests for haemorrhoid creams. This year we even had a couple of requests for suppositories. Despite stocking and recommending them for years, I’ve never managed to sell any in the past. Usually at Glastonbury, nobody wants to go anywhere near that part of their anatomy!

Our team of pharmacists, and the customers, became really frustrated at the things we didn’t stock or had run out of. Our normal system of predicting and stocking up in advance has prevented this happening before. Since the Medicine Man cabin simply isn’t big enough for our regular stock, I’ve suggested to James that he’d need secure storage facilities attached if he operates this site again.

When we were down to our last box of ranitidine today, two customers decided to share the cost. We supplied the Patient Information Leaflet, going through it with both patients, but have no information on who actually took the leaflet back to their tent!

The medical services asked some of our pharmacists to leave the site and go to do shifts in the pharmacy they’d given their work to, including nightshifts. Surprisingly (to me) some of the team agreed to some work but were not willing to provide full cover. They had volunteered to work as pharmacists at the Glastonbury Festival, not in a nearby village.

On the main stage, Crowded House had the Glastonbury audience singing all their favourites and doing waves from the back of the crowd, all the way down the hill to the stage. It looked great played back on the large screens. I was there somewhere!

I had some time to wander, shopping in the markets and taking in the sights of Glastonbury Festival. Everybody dresses up. I met a police lady, wearing a pink wig and tutu, on her police horse (who also sported a large pink flower).

After Amy Winehouse, I introduced Thelma and Louise to the very Scottish sound of The Proclaimers on the Avalon Stage. They are a great festival band and full of energy, but Louise still couldn’t understand them. More work to do, I think!

My eldest son sent me a text saying he hoped we’d been in the audience for the stunning, televised set by Jay-Z who was performing at the same time. I guess I’m just not cool enough!

A late night, but no work in the morning.

Reasons to be Cheerful  

Typical Glastonbury weather is with us. It rained all night and most of today I was kept awake by live bands playing jazz in the lounge opposite the pharmacy until well after 3am.

Still, I was up in time to have a nice (cold) wash and shave, and get a full cooked breakfast from a nearby food stand, before presenting myself for work at Medicine Man Pharmacy.

Although it rained intermittently, we had a busy morning. I was frustrated by having to turn down customers for some items Arena would have had in stock, but no one suffered any hardship and people were quite happy to return in the afternoon after James’s delivery arrived.

I still got that familiar buzz, doing what I come to Glastonbury to do: selling to, and giving, pharmacy advice to the festival goers. We spend a lot of time giving advice so at least two pharmacists have always manned Arena Pharmacy. We had enough pharmacist volunteers today to double up, and operate Medicine Man Pharmacy with two pharmacists as well.

We finally got to wear (with James’s agreement) the pharmacy team t-shirts we’d designed and had made for this year. We even had a customer who didn’t want to buy any medicines, but did want to purchase a t-shirt. He was, of course, another pharmacist!

For Arena, we usually stock up in advance because of the unpredictability of getting stock onsite and into the pharmacy. My worries proved unfounded today when James’s courier was allowed to deliver the stock as far as the medical centre at Ivy Meads at the top of the Festival site.

We still had the problem of how to get all the boxes through the festival to the pharmacy when our cars were banned from the pedestrian areas. I appealed to the market team for help, and Helena agreed that (another) Jim should drive me in one of their authorised 4x4s.

It was quite an exciting journey for me. We had to be guided through the crowds by special stewards who walked in front of the vehicle clearing the way. The route back took us down the track in the ‘no-man’s-land’ between the outer fence and the high security fence. It was great to get stocked up again, and the lady waiting for her haemorrhoid cream was very happy indeed.

I spent the rest of the day catching up with family, friends and the Glastonbury Festival. Although it rained heavily during KT Tunstall’s great performance on the Pyramid stage, it got lighter as the day went on. By the time I came out from The Blockheads, the weather finally seemed to be settling.

The thrill of being face to face again with my Festival customers, seeing my T-shirts being worn proudly and the enjoyment of the Glastonbury Festival. Reasons to be Cheerful. 1, 2, 3.

And so it begins  

What a day.

Getting to the Festival proved eventful but I clearly had it easier than many people who were travelling here today. A large fire closed the A37 and the ‘blue route’. (One of the main routes into the festival).

Despite a major diversion, I was finally directed along a country road which brought me safely back onto the blue route and into the festival.

Medicine Man Pharmacy is set up where Arena Pharmacy should be. Obviously, it wouldn’t be my first choice, but at least the team is still involved in providing a good pharmacy service at the Glastonbury Festival.

My little tent is pitched behind the Pharmacy with James’s staff, and I am getting used to the idea that I am not in charge this year. Our relationship is off to a good start and some of my advice and predictions are already helping him succeed at Glasto. The sun was shining and we took the photo opportunity.

The Show Must Go On  

1 Day til Glastonbury Festival.

Things have not gone to plan.

This is only my own impression of events.

About a week ago, we realised there could be a problem with our wholesale partner which could threaten medicine supply to Festival and Arena pharmacies and, therefore, jeopardise our whole operation. Regretfully, that is exactly what has happened.

I can’t really go into the details but the last week has been very difficult as we tried – and continue to try – to negotiate some kind of resolution ahead of the gates opening today.

Tony entered into partnership talks with James Powell of Medicine Man Pharmacy in an attempt to resolve the supply issue. James has huge experience working in other festivals and we have the best Glastonbury experience. This would have meant the pharmacies would be operated by the most appropriately experienced pharmacy team in the country, in my view. This option was initially accepted, but later rejected by the medical services team, where Festival Pharmacy is located.

Despite Festival Pharmacy being registered and the team ready to go, the medical services management wish to use a different set up for their pharmacy services, which will now involve scripts being fulfilled outside the Glastonbury site.

James has arranged his own license for Medicine Man Pharmacy to operate at the Arena Pharmacy site in the market area and at the minute, it seems that this will be the only operational onsite pharmacy at the Glastonbury Festival this year.

 James will mostly run Medicine Man with his own pharmacy assistants but we are making all of our information and experience available to James to maximise its potential. Members of our team are already volunteering to help once they have completed their commitments to medical services. He has worked with some team members in the past at other festivals, but is thrilled with the number of pharmacists who are calling in to introduce themselves.

Tony continues to negotiate an appropriate role for the team, with the medical services.

Our management team are aware that festival goers have stopped bringing important things, knowing there would be a pharmacy in the market place. We are keen that the public do not have their pharmacy service compromised and our priority is still to work towards providing the best provision of pharmacy services at the Glastonbury festival. With this in mind, I will also be on hand to assist James in the Medicine Man Pharmacy in the market place, in any way required.

As I said earlier, medical services declared early that they would no longer support Arena Pharmacy as part of their contract. Its success making profit was inappropriate for them as a charity, even though that profit financed the whole pharmacy operation. Since my official role has been with Arena Pharmacy, I requested a Market Traders pass and camping permission in the market area, and I am now unconnected to the medical services.

To quote Tony: “I do feel sure that none of us would do what we do with pharmacy at Glastonbury festival if we were not able to deal with the most outrageous shifts in fortune and pick out the humour, irony and optimism from them. Let’s all have a great time!!”

The Pharmacy is in place. Staff have started turning up.

The punters will start turning up soon too.

This isn’t just Pharmacy.

This is RocknRoll.

Stock orders? Check. Passes? Check.  

Orders for stock are prepared. These include dispensing stock, medicine sales stock and also the stock for the Emergency Medical Teams who operate in the ‘pits’ under the main stages.

Passes have been issued and are now with our management team. The challenge now is to get each pass into the correct hands as the pharmacy team prepare to head to Pilton from all over the UK - after all, everybody still has a ‘normal’ job.

Sally’s mum joins the team to issue passes to the travellers who will arrive on her doorstep over the next nine days. Time to pack my camping gear and my party clothes!

Expect the unexpected  

9 Days until Glastonbury Festival.

6 Days until pharmacies open.

Our experience of running pharmacies at the Glastonbury Festival is one of learning to operate in a transient environment. While the unique framework of Glastonbury is there, we have to be at ease with the unexpected. How big are the units? Where are they? What condition are they in? What now?

While we do prepare what we can, we expect have many more challenges when we arrive.

Arena Pharmacy ‘almost’ in place  

The festival site is now fully fenced and security is already on the gates. Tents and stages are beginning to be erected and the famous Glastonbury toilets are the cleanest they will ever be.

Most importantly, the 7.3 by 3.2 metre, steel containers have arrived. Two of these will be made into pharmacies and Arena Pharmacy has now been put in the correct position where the market will be built around us. Unfortunately, the cabin has been lowered into position with the door facing away from the passing trade!

We are assured that exact positioning has still to be made, but time has started to take on a strange telescoping quality, which we experience every year in the final stages of preparation.

Hopefully, changes can be made before Tony Guest arrives on site in preparation for the shopfitters to start turning empty metal cabins into pharmacies.

Now there is a real buzz around the site and among the RocknRollPharmacy crew. This is anticipation, excitement and, perhaps, a little bit of panic!

Running out of time  

We have effectively run out of time (and no one has come forward) to help finance setting up the pharmacies at Glastonbury.

Many organisations are interested in the unique opportunity and in the chance to be visible to 200,000 people on site, but they lose interest when we explain that we cannot give them large orders.

Like other pharmacies, we sell low quantities of some items. Unlike other pharmacies, we only have three or four days to sell them. We might sell huge volumes of antihistamines and other products, or virtually none at all. We can’t reduce them next month because the pharmacy will be gone by next Tuesday!

Some companies are excited by what we are doing and are still talking to us, but this may turn out to be another chance to demonstrate that we can still achieve our objectives without the comfort of a large financial cushion.

It is still going to happen.                              

The uniform for Rock n Roll  

Wearing staff t-shirts has become part of our tradition. It provides workwear, extra identity to customers and a souvenir to take home from each festival.

I felt previous t-shirts were dull, however, and as my souvenirs became rags and dusters, I took on the task of designing the kind of t-shirt I would want to wear and maybe keep.

The management team liked the design but initial worries about the cost (as part of the setting up cost) have come to the fore, without sponsorship.

With my usual lack of humility, I decided I wanted one of my RocknRollPharmacy t-shirts and offered to order enough for any staff willing to pay for one. The orders have started coming in!

The Green Rugged Cross  

RocknRoll handyman John hoped to get some proper repairs done to our Big Green Cross.

As usual, we ran out of time and so running repairs and waterproofing (it is Glastonbury!) will need to be done onsite before the festival opens.

Now that we know the cabin size for Arena Pharmacy, he will be able to plan a ‘harness’ for the roof to hang external lights and banners on. The current ‘evolved’ system (based on wood, weights and lots and lots of rope) works fine when it’s sunny. When it’s raining (and there is every chace it might rain), we get very wet, lowering and raising the banner at opening and closing times.

From Tiny Acorns...  

Here's the story so far in pics taken by Peter Ashworth.

Arena Pharmacy

Festival Pharmacy

Pyramid stage