24-06-2025
Remembering Glastonbury: a key event in contemporary culture
Glastonbury starts on Wednesday and we're looking back on one of the world's most famous music festivals.
Olivia looks confident among the Glastonbury festivalgoers (Image: Yui Mok) The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, most summers.
A performance by English National Ballet of 'Lest We Forget' - about the First World War - on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival (Image: Newsquest) In addition to contemporary music, it hosts dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret, and other arts. Leading pop and rock artists have headlined, alongside thousands of others appearing on smaller stages and performance areas.
The Arcadia Spectacular, known as 'The Spider', pictured at Glastonbury in 2014 (Image: Newsquest)
Films and albums have been recorded at the festival, and it receives extensive television and newspaper coverage.
Andy Parrini, 42, from Rockcliffe, was part of the Arcadia Spectacular team who built 'The Spider' (Image: Newsquest) Glastonbury takes place on 1,500 acres of farmland and is attended by around 200,000 people, requiring extensive security, transport, water, and electricity-supply infrastructure.
Chris Salmon, of Baggy Mondays, who was playing at Kendal Calling at Glastonbury Festival 2013 (Image: Newsquest)
While the number of attendees is sometimes swollen by gatecrashers, a record of 300,000 people was set at the 1994 festival, headlined by the Levellers, who performed on the Pyramid Stage. Most festival staff are unpaid volunteers, helping it to raise millions of pounds for charities.
David Gardiner from Lorton was heading to Glastonbury Festival as a volunteer for WaterAid (Image: Newsquest) Regarded as a major event in contemporary British culture, the festival is inspired by the ethos of the hippie, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the free festival movement. Vestiges of these traditions are retained in the Green Fields area, which includes sections known as the Green Futures, the Stone Circle and Healing Field.
Lauren Tobin, 21, from Dalston, said she wouldn't go to Glastonbury because she had a child (Image: Newsquest)
Michael Eavis hosted the first festival, then called the Pilton Festival, after seeing an open-air Led Zeppelin concert in 1970 at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music.
Cathryn Armstrong, 38, of Workington, said she'd like to see Guns N' Roses play (Image: Newsquest) The first festival at Worthy Farm was the Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, on Saturday, September 19, 1970, and attended by 1,500 people. There had been a commercial UK festival tradition which included the National Jazz and Blues Festival and the Isle of Wight Festival. The original headline acts were The Kinks and Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders but these acts were replaced at short notice by Tyrannosaurus Rex, later known as T Rex. Tickets were £1. Other billed acts of note were Steamhammer, Quintessence, Stackridge, Al Stewart, Pink Fairies and Keith Christmas.
