Glastonbury 50: The Official Story of Glastonbury Festival

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Each of these venues pushes the boundaries of what art and club culture can be, but NYC Downlow will always be my personal favourite. Michael Eavis comes across as a great guy even if deluded at times – that surely was what enabled him to go against the odds and create such an incredible festival! Glastonbury is the most well-known and iconic festival in the world. After fifty years, it has become an institution. There have been films made about it. T‑shirts. Books. It’s on the news. On our TV screens. It’s embedded into the fabric of British culture, like football or sunburn or going, ​ “Wheeyyy!” when someone drops something. It is unusual, then, that Glastonbury has retained such afierce political streak. We are used to mainstream events distancing themselves from the issues that affect us – maybe so as not to alienate attendees or piss off brands – but Glastonbury has only got louder and more outspoken as each year passes. This makes sense when we consider the counter cultural roots of the Festival alongside the trajectory of politics in the UK. If Glastonbury wasn’t political, it wouldn’t really be Glastonbury.

Glastonbury 50: The Official Story of Glastonbury - WHSmith

will be the 50th anniversary of the first festival and this is a gorgeous coffee table book to mark the occasion. It’s filled with loads of photographs and reproductions of the posters from every year and is peppered with reminiscences from Michael & Emily Eavis, as well as celebrity fans and people with a long association with the festival like Chris Martin, Billy Bragg and Lauren Laverne amongst a host of others. Before I met Jean, I’d rigged up a very primitive sound system to play music to myself and the cows in the parlour. It was a nine-foot-long pipe connected to a speaker and it made a hell of a sound. I used to play Lola by the Kinks a lot – that was our big milking song. One day in 1970, our baker lady who used to deliver bread to the farm arrived late. She told me it was because she’d been held up in all the traffic going to the Blues festival. I had no idea what she was talking about. She told me it was this big event happening at the Bath & West Showground, a few miles from the farmhouse, and there were millions of people coming for it. “That sounds amazing!” I said, to which she replied, “No, it’s horrible!”The organisers of the Shangri-La stage, which was due to host Killdren, said they “in no way condone violence and will not allow this matter to overshadow the incredibly inclusive spirit of Glastonbury”. Read an exclusive extract from Glastonbury 50, by Michael Eavis There were also various interesting snippets from well-known musicians about their experiences of performing at the festival plus other journalists and music industry people. A fitting and wonderful history of not just Glastonbury Festival and the journey from its inception through to its present popularity as the biggest music festival in the world, but also a good amount of personal biography of the Eavis family which is integral to what the festival has come to be. I read this a few weeks before attending the 50th festival so it was very apt and made me really proud to be a part of it all and even more excited to return (after 3 years away due to the Pandemic). The Premises Licence Holder (hereafter “PLH”) and Glastonbury Festival Events Limited (hereafter “GFEL”) reserve the right to: Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis and co-organiser Emily Eavis will tell the official story of the world-famous music and arts festival in a new book published to mark next year’s 50th edition.

Official Glastonbury 50 book released on 31 October 2019

The artist and performer line-up and all billed attractions are subject to change at any time without notice, and access to any performance may be restricted, specifically or generally, to ensure public safety.

It’s wonderful to hear that so many of you are planning to celebrate Glastonbury at home this year, and we wanted to offer you a taste of the full Festival experience to go alongside the BBC’s comprehensive coverage. The festival’s identity soon started taking shape: the first year featured the hippy-oriented Green Fields, which remain a key part of modern Glastonbury. In 1971, the main stage was renamed – and rebuilt – as an early incarnation of the Pyramid stage known today. Glastonbury was held sporadically in the 70s before becoming an annual fixture (with occasional fallow years) during the 80s, when its political affiliations with Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and later Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid began.

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The writing was very basic and quite low level but I suppose the aim of the book wasn’t award-winning writing. The setting was the main theme of the book – which was what I was here for! There was also an overall theme of the deeper meaning and importance of music festivals in society which I can 100% relate to. To protect your own safety and that of other guests, please act responsibly. Please do not take chairs, buggies and trolleys into busy areas, or to the front of stages. If your chair, buggy or trolley is causing an obstruction you will be asked to move. If you’ve been it will have you reminiscing about some of the best times of your life, and if you haven’t it’ll make you want to go. Please be careful to enter all of your details accurately, as any details which don’t match will cause your transaction attempt to fail. The duo defended the song as a “crude” satire, and said it “would not exist at all if the destructive and violent policies of the Tory party hadn’t taken such a long and devastating toll on the UK. The band does not condone the killing of Tories or children, or anyone for that matter – regardless of political beliefs.”Glastonbury 50 also features contributions from stars including Adele, Jay-Z, Dolly Parton and Noel Gallagher A thoroughly entertaining read, this book not only tells you loads about the history of the festival that you might not already know, but manages to really evoke the spirit of being there, especially through the pictures. Are you able to sit on a coach for the required length of time without having the option of taking regular breaks when you want to. Inspired by the Bath festival of blues and progressive music earlier that year, Eavis told his wife Jean he was going to stage a similar event. “If I remember rightly, her reply was, ‘Don’t be silly, you’ve no idea how,’” he recalls in an exclusive extract from the book, available below.