Glastonbury Festival or, as it is now known, Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England, about 10km from the town of Glastonbury itself.
The festival was held intermittently from 1970 until 1981, after which it has been held every year, except for "fallow years" taken mostly at five year intervals, intended to give the land, local population, and organisers a break. (2018 was a fallow year).
Although it stretches over five days, the main focus is usually on the final three days, from Friday to Sunday.
Initially considered as an 'alternative music' festival, the event gained mainstream pop culture attention from around the early to mid-90s. It was first televised, by Channel 4, in 1994. The following year saw it gain momentum and public attention before a "fallow year" in 1996. The 1997 festival gained sponsorship from the BBC and The Guardian for the first time.
Glastonbury has now become a major event in the musical calendar and draws major acts as public demand and crowds grow year by year.
In 2019 the BBC introduced non-stop coverage from the event from 27 June via its Sounds app. [1]
The festival was not held in 2020 due the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, a film recorded on the Glastonbury site, Live From Worthy Farm, was produced. The festival resumed normally in 2022.
Articles[]
"20 sets that shook Glastonbury: the stories behind Worthy Farm’s most memorable ever performances", Al Horner, NME.com, 2019 [2]
Resources[]
- Official site history
- Every Glastonbury poster and line-up since 1970, nme.com
- UK Rock festivals (limited)
- Wiki main
- Wiki line-ups