10 things you might not know about Glastonbury festival
Glastonbury festival probably is the biggest music festival in the world. Iconic, huge and wild, the British festival will be 50 years old when it celebrates its 36th edition in 2020.
But that will be next year, now with a new edition starting today, here are 10 things that you might not know about this massive music event:
01. Initially called Glastonbury Fayre, it started in 1970 only one day after Jimi Hendrix passed away. Headlined by T. Rex who stepped in for the Kinks. 1500 people witnessed the first edition of the festival where the entrance fee was just one Pound (and it included free milk!).
First edition poster of 1970
02. Born to a Methodist preacher and a school teacher, when his dad died in1954 Michael Eavis inherited the family farm of 150 acres (61 ha) and 60 cows, in Pilton, Somerset (England). 15 years after that, Eavis visited the Bath Festival of Blues. Inspired by seeing the performance of Led Zeppelin, Eavis hosted the Pilton Pop Folk & Blues Festival in 1970. The following year, the festival turned into Glastonbury Fayre (from 1981 developed into the Glastonbury Festival). Nowadays, at the age of 83, dairy farmer and festival co founder Michael Eavis is still up and running.
Founder Michael Eavis in front of the main stage, used during the year as a cow shed
03. Since 1981, the main stage is located inside a permanent Pyramid, which during the festival held acts of the biggest bands in the world and the rest of the year is used as a cow shed. In 1994, this iconic stage burned down, however the organization managed to make a makeshift and the show could go on.
Iconic Pyramid stage at 2017 edition. Photo by Andrew Allcock
04. Helding intermittently from 1970 until 1981, since then the festival has happened every year with the sole exception of the “fallow years” when the festival stop (usually every 5 years) in order to give the land, local population and the organization a deserved break. After a sabbatical 2018, a new edition of the festival begins on June 26th, 2019.
David Bowie in 2000, considered the best performance ever seen at Glastonbury
05. When attending a festival we demand a large number of restrooms and we complain if we have to cue that is why in Glastonbury we can find over 5.000 loos and 700m or urinals but it wasn't until 1983 when there were proper toilets in the festival. Epic its also Glastonbury´s 2016 edition when thousands of festival goers were hit hard by a stomach virus making all on site pharmacies ran out of proper medicine.
Portable loos at Glastonbury festival
06. Since 2008, Glastonbury includes an area called Shangri-La. First described in 1933 by British author James Hilton, Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, a permanently happy land, isolated from the world. At Glastonbury, Shangri-La is the most special of the festival’s after-hours areas. A wild and inspiring one to celebrate art, music and culture. In its 10th incarnation, Shangri-La returns with the next chapter: “Junkstaposition”. Shangri-La encourages all of us to pay attention to the insane amount of shit we all leave when leaving a festival, a real challenge for everyone.
Shangri-La after hour area in 2017
07. In 2015 tickets were sold in only 26 minutes. After rumors of Prince, AC/DC, Muse, Fleetwood Mac or Queen, finally The Who, Foo Fighters and Kanye West were announced as festival headliners. Controversy came when Dave Grohl broke his leg forcing Foo Fighters to cancel (replaced by Florence and the Machine) but especially when a campaign was started to collect signatures (more than 100.000 people signed) to ban Kanye West from the festival. In the end, everyone could only agree, that his festival performance was simply memorable.
Kanye West performing at Glastonbury in 2015
08. In recent editions usually there are over 1 million people applying for 175.000 tickets.
Glastonbury festival sign within the festival area
09. Every now and then Glastonbury rains (a lot). But hey, its England! What else could we expect? If Coachella is a catwalk for celebrities and wannabes, when it rains in the fields of Somerset there is no place for glitter of fancy dresses and everyone and everything turns into a hell of mud and rain. Editions of 1982, 1990, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016 had the rain as the main protagonist, and I mean...just Google it, pictures are priceless!
Rain and mud at Glastonbury, almost a tradition
10. Glastonbury festival website includes a yearly history page and a photo gallery where everyone can upload their own pictures.
Glastonbury partial 2019 lineup
Glastonbury festival includes an overwhelming and countless lineup with acts spread through an insane number of stages. Check this years lineup here, and judge by yourself. If you don't have tickets for this year, stay alert to register once this edition is over and try to get a ticket for 2020 in the official festival raffle of Autumn.
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