Glastonbury Festival was set to close, according to Emily Eavis
Emily Eavis has revealed that her father, Glastonbury Festival founder Sir Michael Eavis, wanted to stop the event in the 1990s.
The first Glastonbury was held in 1970, originally called simply the Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, and it had an attendance of 1,500 people from the local community. T. Rex was the headliner, and tickets cost only £1. From the beginning, the event has been hosted by Michael Eavis on his farm in Pilton, Somerset, but the festival looks very different today.
By the upcoming event in 2024, Glastonbury has inflated to a five-day-long affair with more than 3,000 performers and a capacity of 210,000 attendees. Tickets cost £355 and sold out in a record time, even before the line-up had been released. In every way, the festival has become a vast operation, but the same family and farm remain at its core.
However, Emily Eavis revealed on the Sidetracked with Annie and Nick podcast, available to listen to on BBC Sounds, that her father wanted to stop running the festival in the 1990s. “My parents were always like, ‘This is the last one’,” she told the hosts, Annie Macmanus and Nick Grimshaw. “Everyone thought it was some sort of stunt to sell tickets, but it wasn’t. They were genuinely like, ‘Well, we probably won’t do another’,” she continued.
By the 1990s, the festival was still growing into the incredibly successful event it is today. However, it was becoming too much for Eavis to handle. While they were booking major acts like Oasis, Bob Dylan, and Radiohead to headline, perhaps the pressure was starting to become too overwhelming.
As the festival was becoming bigger and harder to manage, Eavis needed to learn a vital lesson. He wrote in his book, “I couldn’t always do everything myself. I had to learn to delegate, because the festival was getting massive and I realised I would have a nervous breakdown if I didn’t get people in to help.” Now, Glastonbury creates over 1,000 jobs with a full team of people helping to run the event.
In a tragic turn of events, it was the death of his wife that persuaded Eavis to keep hosting the festival. “My dad was like, ‘Oh, I think I might need the festival now’,” Eavis said on the podcast. “Because they were going to retire and go on long cruises and things like that.”
“My dad was like, ‘Listen, let’s keep it going’,” she continued, “I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll help you’. Never did I think I’d still be here a few decades on.” Now, as her father is 88 years old, Emily Eavis takes more control of the festival, being in charge of booking all the mainstage headliners.
Since 1999, when Eavis’ wife passed away, the festival has been held every four out of every five years. On the fifth, they have a ‘fallow year’, giving the farm a year off to recoup from the damage done by the event. The next one will be in 2026. “The fallow year is important because it gives the land a rest, and it gives the cows a chance to stay out for longer and reclaim their land,” Eavis said, “And I think it’s quite good not to be seen to be cashing in.”
Glastonbury Festival is set to run from June 28th until June 30th and Far Out will be on the ground at Worthy Farm to provide coverage directly from the event. This year’s event will be headlined by Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.