Glastonbury Festival
The first Glastonbury cost £1 and came with free milk from the farm. Now it fills a Somerset valley with more than 200,000 people.
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Quick Facts
- First held
- September 1970, as the Pilton Festival
- Location
- Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset
- Founder
- Michael Eavis, a dairy farmer, now with his daughter Emily Eavis
- First headliner
- T. Rex, with Marc Bolan
- Rest years
- A fallow year every so often so the land can recover; 2026 is one
- Crowd
- More than 200,000 including crew, traders and performers
- Famous symbol
- The Pyramid Stage, inspired by the original 1971 pyramid
- Nickname
- Glasto
The farmer who saw Led Zeppelin and had an idea
Michael Eavis was a Somerset dairy farmer when he went to the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music in June 1970 and watched Led Zeppelin. He came home convinced that his own fields could host something similar. The first event took place on Saturday 19 September 1970, a day after Jimi Hendrix died. T. Rex topped the bill, and around 1,500 people paid £1, which included free milk from the farm's own cows. It was a modest start, and it was the dairy that paid for it. The cows still live on Worthy Farm, and the festival still shares the land with them.
The pyramid that arrived in 1971
The next year the festival moved to the summer solstice and became the Glastonbury Fayre. It was free, and it was far more mystical. A pyramid-shaped stage was built, designed with sacred geometry in mind, and David Bowie played at dawn. The festival's link to the legends around Glastonbury Tor and Avalon had been established. Pilton is a few miles from the town, but the name Glastonbury was the one that stuck. Some believers say the site sits on a ley line, and the idea has become part of the festival's lore. The pyramid shape became the festival's trademark. The Pyramid Stage, with its pointed roof, is still the spot where the biggest names finish the night.
From hippy gathering to national institution
For years the festival was scruffy, unpredictable and sometimes close to disaster. From 1981 Eavis gave profits to CND, and the event became linked with causes as well as music. Since then, large donations have gone to charities including Oxfam, WaterAid and Greenpeace. In 2000 the crowd was far bigger than the tickets sold, after gatecrashers broke through the fence. Organisers responded in 2002 with a tall, strong perimeter fence, nicknamed the superfence, and the festival became a ticketed, controlled event. The lineup also grew more varied. Jay-Z's headline slot in 2008 caused a row, and Noel Gallagher complained about it. Stormzy became the first Black British solo headliner in 2019, and Billie Eilish was the youngest solo headliner when she topped the bill in 2022. Dolly Parton's Sunday afternoon slot in 2014 drew one of the biggest crowds the festival had seen. The Sunday "legends" slot already existed by then: Shirley Bassey had played it in 2007 and Kenny Rogers in 2013.
How people actually do it now
Tickets sell out in minutes, and buyers must register in advance with a photo. Fans spend months planning, and some plan for years. Once inside, the fun is in wandering. Beyond the Pyramid and Other Stages there are the Stone Circle, Shangri-La, Block9, The Park, the Green Fields, the Glade and the late-night worlds of Arcadia. Many people spend more time exploring than watching bands. Mud is part of the story. The floods of 2005 and 2007 and the quagmire of 2016 became part of the festival's lore, and so did the sight of wellies on a scorched day. The festival has been keen on being green, with compost toilets, a ban on the sale of single-use plastic bottles from 2019, and a focus on recycling.
Odd details, rest years and Eavis's reward
The festival rests periodically, so the fields can recover. This is a farm, not a purpose-built venue, and the grass needs time. The Olympic year of 2012 was a fallow one, and COVID cancelled the 2020 and 2021 events as well. Emily Eavis now runs much of the festival, working alongside her father. Michael Eavis was knighted in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to music and charity, and is Sir Michael to many. The event still feels like a village, with a great many people living in tents. Its heart remains the cows, the farm and the valley, and that is what sets it apart from every other festival in the country.
Notable people
- Michael Eavis
- Emily Eavis
- Marc Bolan
- David Bowie
- Dolly Parton
- Stormzy
- Billie Eilish
- Jay-Z
- Noel Gallagher
- Shirley Bassey
- Kenny Rogers
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