“Is that Glastonbury? That empty shit?”, Are the first two questions that are heard in the documentary that BBC took out in 2019 to celebrate the fifty anniversary of the most emblematic festival that exists, Glastonbury. They were pronounced by iconic Billie Eilish while watching the most famous musical meadow on the planet, located in Pilton, England, completely empty. “Most festivals seem the same, but as soon as I arrived, I knew that it was not a normal festival. When I took the stage and saw the crowd, that looked like the sea,” said Eilish, who has the honor of being the youngest artist to head this popular British appointment created in 1970 by the farmer Michael Eavis and that was held intermittently until 1981. Time with an annual celebration, with stops to regenerate the land
This magical event, which reminds Woodstock and has more than 3,000 performances, is celebrated in the heart of a quiet English countryside, a place to which artists such as Paul McCartney relate to the ‘law lines’, some alleged straight lines that connect different places of cultural interest in the world and that have a special energy. But if there is something that characterizes Glastonbury is the earth, the mud that has dominated the floor of this famous farm on multiple occasions, as in 1997 when Radiohead led the poster. As well as the classic colored flags that usually wave high among the public located in front of the iconic pyramid stage, a stamp that will return to the historic Worthy Farm enclosure from this Wednesday and until Monday, June 30.
The main days are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In addition, this is a very special occasion, since it precedes a year of fallow for the farm to rest. That is, there will be no festival until 2027. This time they head the 1975 poster, Neil Young, Olivia Rodrigo and Rod Stewart, which will be accompanied by Biffy Clyro, Charli XCX, Doechii, The Prodigy or Alanis Morissette, among others.
Remember that Glastonbury arises as part of the antibelicist movement. “The nuclear threat meant a lot for us,” Eavis explained in his day. This farmer is now 89 years old and founded this festival in alliance with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND): “The CND sent letters to some 400,000 people and my brochure was in the envelope. That was free advertising for my event. I had a delivered audience, people of similar ideas with which I felt affinity. I had something to fight, so much that we called it the CND festival,” he added. In 1981 he won 20,000 pounds and gave the money to Bruce Kent, leader of the movement, who explained it: “He had a farm and wanted to make a festival. He wanted to raise funds for us and we were glad to have a place where we can make us known.” Later they opened to new flagged causes by Greenpeace, Oxfam or Wateraid.
The festival had a great impact between movement hippy. Eaves welcomed in his farm 30,000 nomads of the caravan of La Paz that promoted the event, at the same time that filled it with chaos. But the definitive push was given by The Smiths concert in 1984. The public came in mass and from that moment a lot of groups wanted to play. Mike Joyce, from the band, told the BBC that it was a key moment: “The festival became something else, it was a jump in another direction.”
But the truth is that it all started with a song by The Kinks, Lola, That Eaves put his cows: “He gave me the courage to think about a festival, that’s why I wanted The Kinks to play in the first.” His other inspiration was the Blues and Progressive Music Festival of Bath.
He started charging a pound per head, collecting an amount that did not even cover the expenses, and now the entrance costs 378 pounds. His daughter and also organizer, Emily Eaves, acknowledged that at that time it was a very basic festival, such as a town party with a stage, some canvases on top and people scattered around the field seeing bands. The one that gave them the first yes in history was T-Rex, and although that premiere was not as well as expected, they went ahead.
Andrew Kerr, organizer in 1971, and Thomas Crimble, organizer from 1971 to 1999, coordinated a festival attended by people from London, many of them drug lovers. “It was the moment of the LSD, they disguised and went for the town,” Eaves said. Since then the best musical artists have gone through the farm: David Bowie, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Arcade Fire, Beyoncé, Blur, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Elton John, Iggy Pop, Massive Attack, Metallica, Muse, New Order, Oasis, Paul McCartney, PJ Harve, Radiohead, R, R, E, E, M Sinéad or Connor, The Cure, The Prodigy or The Rolling Stones.
There have been key musical moments in the recent history of Glastonbury. One of them occurred in 1994, when electronic music was introduced at the Festival by Orbital. And this festival is a reflection of musical evolution, and in 1995, for example, it was the mirror of the success of the britpop with the performance of Oasis. Another peak was 2008 when he had the first black poster head in his history, Jay-Z. The latter dared to play WonderWall After Noel Gallagher said he didn’t hit anything on the poster. His concert gave rise to a musical metamorphosis that attracted the mixture and that managed to get the attention of the youngest. It was a change of energy that also popularized it and made it become a true mass phenomenon in 2000, such as the 300,000 people who attended the show by The Chemical Brothers. Many, after having cast, something very common in this event since its inception and has changed in this century.
In 2019, the Spanish Rosalía was one of the farm stars. After a break by the Covid that lasted two years, Glastonbury returned in 2022 with the same idea of being a reference for the new generations programming to voices such as Arlo Parks, Dua Lipa or Lizzo and giving voice to the activist Greta Thunberg, who gave a speech on the main scenario. Glastonbury, as it has been said, is not only music, since its premiere it is a place full of message that has always defended great social and environmental causes. In fact, this appointment donates a significant part of its profits to beneficial causes for a wide variety of initiatives. It seems that the years do not weigh Glastonbury, with capacity for 210,000 people. Tickets for this edition were exhausted in less than 40 minutes, and that this year they have taken fewer tickets for sale to avoid collapse.