When it comes to music festivals, there are festivals and then there’s Glastonbury. This five-day long music event has, since 1970, established itself as the best festival in the world. With huge names all wanting to perform, and upcoming acts looking to make it big, there really is something for everyone.
What you get when you attend Glastonbury, is an experience unlike any other. In essence, this is a farm that is transformed into its very own entertainment and music city. The festival has over 100 separate stages and attracts around 200,000 fans a year. If that isn’t amazing enough on its own, let’s take a look at some more amazing facts about Glastonbury.
The tickets sell fast!
Glastonbury is currently enjoying belated celebrations for its 50th anniversary. When tickets went on sale for the original anniversary festival (which was later cancelled as a result of Covid) these sold out within just 34 minutes. As well as tickets being for sale, there was also the opportunity to win these.
This year broke a new record with the free tickets too. An astonishing 2.4 million people registered with the hope of winning. While the speed that which tickets sold out in 2019 is impressive, it’s still not the quickest for Glastonbury. The record year came in 2014 when the festival was a sell-out just a few minutes quicker.
The festival owner has a £1.3 million debt
The event owner and organiser is Michael Eavis. Despite his rather significant overdraft, he still donates almost all of his revenue to charity. He took over the farm, where Glastonbury takes place when he was just 19. He secured the purchase with a £12,000 loan from NatWest. The land had previously been farmed by his father, but when he passed, Eavis decided to purchase the land. The festival was originally seen as a way for Eavis to pay off his debt, although it made a loss for the first 11 years!
Eavis never did pay off that debt and it has now grown to be worth £1.3 million. Is he concerned? Well, given that he now has an event that generates £25 million and attracts over 200,000 visitors, he can probably sleep easy. It’s amazing to see how far this festival has come. The first, back in 1970, saw around 1,500 attending all being charged just £1 each.
You’re going to get muddy
You can always rely on the great British weather to do just what you don’t want it to do. That means that, in between the rays of sunshine, you can expect the odd downpour or two over the five days. Speaking to Betway, Sally Howell, who organises the Croissant Neuf area, recalls how bad 2016 in particular was. “Our most challenging year was 2016 because it had rained a lot prior to the festival and during setup. Tyres on vehicles ended up just churning up all of the fields”.
There is a reason that Glastonbury is notoriously muddy. Underneath the ground, you’ll find that it’s practically all clay and that there is just nowhere for the water to go. It’s this that leads to those famous muddy images that we all associate with the great festival.
