Continuing my mission to upload those sites that never made it onto the forum at the time:
Not too much history, as I think we all know it. The Glastonbury Festival (formally the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, some six miles east of Glastonbury. In addition to contemporary music, the festival 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. Films and albums recorded at Glastonbury have been released, and the festival receives extensive television and newspaper coverage. Glastonbury is attended by around 200,000 people, requiring extensive infrastructure in terms of security, transport, water, and electricity supply. The majority of staff are volunteers, helping the festival to raise millions of pounds for charity organisations.
The first festival at Worthy Farm was the Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, hosted by dairy farmer Michael Eavis on Saturday 19 September 1970, and attended by 1500 people. 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.
The festival returned in 1971, renamed as the Galstonbury Fair, where David Bowie headlined with other notable acts including Hawkwind and Gong. The 1971 festival featured the first incarnation of the "Pyramid Stage". The stage was a one-tenth replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza built from scaffolding and metal sheeting and positioned over a blind spring which was found by dowsing.
There was an unplanned impromtu event in 1978 and the event was formally revived in 1979, becoming an annual feature except for periodic "fallow years". Notable incidents include 1990, when there was considerable violence between security and new-age travellers and 1994 where the headliners The Levellers performed to 300000 people - Glastonbury's biggest ever crowd. In 1995 the perimeter fence was breached to such an extent that it is estimated that the festival size was doubled (Bertie has to confess to being one of those free-loading scroungers). Not going to cover the history for the 2000s as by this era Bertie was too old to really understand or care and had become a Radio 4/Classic FM listener.
The festival is currently suspended due to Covid-restrictions and Bertie is still waiting to see Fleetwood Mac at Glastonbury - if that will ever happen now.
1. The Pyramid stage is 25 metres tall and has 292 audio speakers. There are 8.5 km of cables for video and audio. On stage there are 354 microphones and 3743 lightbulbs.
2.
3.
4. View from the stage
5. Nobody has yet told the wife that the festival is off again this year
6. Festival relics dotted around the site
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. The Little One was very little in those days and had to have a play
Not too much history, as I think we all know it. The Glastonbury Festival (formally the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, some six miles east of Glastonbury. In addition to contemporary music, the festival 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. Films and albums recorded at Glastonbury have been released, and the festival receives extensive television and newspaper coverage. Glastonbury is attended by around 200,000 people, requiring extensive infrastructure in terms of security, transport, water, and electricity supply. The majority of staff are volunteers, helping the festival to raise millions of pounds for charity organisations.
The first festival at Worthy Farm was the Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, hosted by dairy farmer Michael Eavis on Saturday 19 September 1970, and attended by 1500 people. 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.
The festival returned in 1971, renamed as the Galstonbury Fair, where David Bowie headlined with other notable acts including Hawkwind and Gong. The 1971 festival featured the first incarnation of the "Pyramid Stage". The stage was a one-tenth replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza built from scaffolding and metal sheeting and positioned over a blind spring which was found by dowsing.
There was an unplanned impromtu event in 1978 and the event was formally revived in 1979, becoming an annual feature except for periodic "fallow years". Notable incidents include 1990, when there was considerable violence between security and new-age travellers and 1994 where the headliners The Levellers performed to 300000 people - Glastonbury's biggest ever crowd. In 1995 the perimeter fence was breached to such an extent that it is estimated that the festival size was doubled (Bertie has to confess to being one of those free-loading scroungers). Not going to cover the history for the 2000s as by this era Bertie was too old to really understand or care and had become a Radio 4/Classic FM listener.
The festival is currently suspended due to Covid-restrictions and Bertie is still waiting to see Fleetwood Mac at Glastonbury - if that will ever happen now.
1. The Pyramid stage is 25 metres tall and has 292 audio speakers. There are 8.5 km of cables for video and audio. On stage there are 354 microphones and 3743 lightbulbs.
2.
3.
4. View from the stage
5. Nobody has yet told the wife that the festival is off again this year
6. Festival relics dotted around the site
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. The Little One was very little in those days and had to have a play
