O50th Anniversary of Glastonbury Festival will not be celebrated!!!
Glastonbury Festival is a festival of 5 days which features contemporary performing arts. It takes place in Pilton, Somerset in England. Inaugurated on 19th September in 1970, this year’s festival was to be the 50th Anniversary of this festival series. But unfortunately due to the unprecedented, ongoing CoVID-19 pandemic, the officials had to cancel the festival. Let’s get to know about some interesting facts about this festival.
What’s Glastonbury Festival?
Apart from contemporary music, the festival hosts dance, comedy, circus, theatre, cabaret and other arts. Normally leading rock and pop artists headline the festival. At the same time hundreds of other artists too appear on different stages during the festival.
Around 200,000 people gather to Pilton to witness this gigantic festival, which is sometimes regarded as the greatest show on Earth. For the 1994 festival, nearly 300,000 people gathered. It was the biggest ever Glastonbury festival. English folk rock band, ‘Levellers’ headlined this show. 1994 festival was also historicized as the first festival to be televised. Not only that, it was the first festival to introduce the 150 kW wind turbine.
At the same time the Glastonbury festival is inspired by several ethos of hippie, counterculture and free festival movements.
First, the festival was held intermittently (From 1970 to 1981). Afterwards it has been held in most of the years. But the officials didn’t hold the festival in fallow years. ‘Fallowing’ is a farming method, which a ploughed field is being left unsown for one or more vegetable cycles. The goal of that is to recover and store organic matters retain moisture. Mostly these fallow years are taken at five-year intervals which provide the land, local population and organizers a break.
History
Back in 1914 in the village of Glastonbury, a series of concerts, lectures and recitals was held. The name of that series was ‘Glastonbury Festivals’ which lasted until 1926. Classical composer Rutland Boughton organized this festival. There’s little direct link from these festivals to the modern day Glastonbury festival.
In 1970, Michael Eavis started the Glastonbury Festival, named ‘The Pilton Festival’. Around 1,500 people attended this festival held on 19th September 1970. The English Rock band, ‘T-Rex’ (Tyrannosaurus Rex) headlined the festival. First, ‘the Kinks’ had been given the chance to headline the festival, even though T-Rex headlined. The price of a ticket was £1.
After 1970, Glastonbury Festivals Ltd organized the festival 37 times in 49 years. Most of the staff members of the festival are volunteers. They help the festival to raise millions of pounds for charity organisations.
Have a look at the statistics and details of all the 37 editions held in the past 49 years.