This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset. It all started in 1970 - that festival was attended by 1500 people. The 2009 festival had 177,000 people including staff, performers, etc. pass through the gates. Once the party starts the tented city at the Pilton farm is the largest ‘town’ in Somerset.
Glastonbury is unlike any other festival in the world due to the scale and types of entertainment available. Not only does Glastonbury provide music from nearly every genre on over 50 stages, but there are lots of other performing arts – dance, circus acts, poetry reading, theatre, cabaret, entertainment for children, green crafts, healing and lectures, spiritual information amongst much, much more. While the Pyramid Stage provides the really high profile attractions, the Festival offers some of the best experiences where you least expect them.
Did you know?
• Almost everyone who is anyone over the last 40 years has appeared on one of the stages at Glastonbury – T. Rex, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Traffic, Robbie Williams, Blur, R.E.M., Massive Attack, Oasis, The Levellers, Coldplay, Rod Stewart, Shirley Bassey, the Who and many more.
• During the 2010 Festival, England will be playing in the World Cup so the games on Wed. night will be shown on the Pyramid Stage and other games on Saturday and Sunday will be shown elsewhere on the site.
• Aside from the technical and security staff, the Festival is run mainly by volunteers from charitable organisations like Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid, plus lots of smaller organisations.
• Around £1 million is donated each year the festival is on, to charities and local causes.
• The 357 eating places at the Festival offer a vast variety of cuisine from vegetarian to Caribbean, German, Dutch, Greek, Philippine & Malay, Indian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Creole, Italian, Mexican, African and of course, British.
• There are 3225 public toilets and toilet paper is free for the asking.
• Because of the variety of stuff for sale, lots of people do their Christmas shopping at the Glastonbury Festival.
• Glastonbury receives 4 applications for every trading stall available.
• Nearly every religion from Pagans to Taoists to Buddhists to Catholics are represented at Glastonbury and many have stalls where people can worship or get help. However Glastonbury is not a licensed venue for weddings so you can’t get married there regardless of your religion.
• Over the period of the Festival, more than 1 million gallons of water is required. There are over 700 hand basins and 100 standpipes for drinking and washing, located across the site.
• During the Festival, milk tankers do water runs 24 hours a day between the Water Authority Reservoir (7 miles away) and the 25,000 gal. storage facility at Worthy Farm.
• Because they are committed to a green agenda, the Festival organisers want people to think about what they bring and to take back home with them everything they brought. So in 2008 they started the “Love the Farm, Leave No Trace” campaign; that year they even gave out free biodegradable tent pegs to all campers. For these effort, Glastonbury Festival got the Greener Festival Award for 2008.
• The 2008 Festival cost £22 million to produce.
• Tickets for 2010 sold out in less than 24 hours.
There is something for everyone at Glastonbury with each area of the festival having its own special attractions, its own character and its own fans. Glastonbury festival is a huge kaleidoscope of experiences – the performances, the atmosphere, the food, the market, the people, the weather, etc.
Come see what’s in store for you this year at Glastonbury June 23-27 2010.
Author Resource:
Monika Nolte has created this article about Glastonbury Festival 2010 for Litterpickers.com Want a free ticket for a festival? Check us out.
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