Timeline: How Glastonbury became the biggest festival in the world
“When I set out on this crazy, hippy trip, little did I know that this roller coaster would run,” Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis told the V&A Museum. “But now I have to pinch myself every morning when I wake up to the excitement of another day heading up a team of the most creative artists anywhere in the world.”
For well over half a century now, Glastonbury Festival has been a carnival of creativity. Starting out as a mere pipedream in the mind of a hopeful farmer, the cultural celebration is now a moving edifice of the arts. Noel Gallagher symbolised how it remains a bohemian utopia like no other: “It is the only festival in the world, in the truest sense of the word, I’ve done them all, they’re all big gigs in fields, sponsored by tech companies. This is the only one where it’s a festival of the arts.”
And yet, when it first started in 1970, the site of Worthy Farm seemed a sure-fire failure. The first question that Eavis faced by the national press about his optimistic venture was: “It seems, I think to many people, slightly incongruous to cite a festival here in the heart of very quiet, peaceful countryside.” But Eavis was defiant, and answered: “It is a suitable place for it, it’s absolutely ideal.”
Many were unconvinced. The fact that 2.2million people applied for tickets in 2022 proves that things have changed a little since then.
So, how did this unlikely roller coaster get moving? In this day and age of big corporate interference, how is it that Glastonbury Festival arose from unlikely beginnings to sustain its lofty place as the most beloved arts bonanza in the world?
Well, there are those who will tell you it is all to do with Ley lines and the literal Holy Grail, but for everyone else, the timeline below helps to map out the culminating pivotal moments.
A timeline of Glastonbury Festival:
Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music
Among many other things, 1969 was the year of the music festival. The wild ways of Woodstock seemed to culminate an era, and then when Michael and Jean Eavis attended the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music, it convinced them that you could host a revolution at the humble setting of a country farm.
The Pilton Pop, Folk and Blues Festival
With the music world mourning the death of Jimi Hendrix the day beforehand, 1,500 people handed over their £1 admission for free camping and milk to watch the big draw act of Marc Bolan’s T Rex.
The Glastonbury Fayre
After a well-received but modest first year, Eavis decided to rebrand and redouble. Tapping into local mysticism, the second festival coincided with the nearby Stonehenge summer solstice celebrations.
David Bowie tapped into that aura and announced: “I just want to say that you’ve given me more pleasure than I’ve had in a good few months of working, and I don’t do gigs anymore because I got so pissed off with working and dying a death every time I worked, and it’s really nice to have somebody appreciate me for a change.”
The Pyramid Stage
The fact that Bowie’s career was saved by the 1971 festival might now draw the headlines, but equally seismic was acquiring the organisers Andrew Kerr and Arabella Churchill.
Alongside Michael and Jane they helped to work on the identity of the festival, establishing an environmental ethos and signifying the spiritualism of the event with a new stage that resembled the Great Pyramids of Egypt.
Memories of a Free Festival
Over the next six years, the festival was a fleeting event. A few passing visits by musicians kept the 1971 event in memory, but it was looking like a relic from a bygone era until fate intervened.
In 1978, a collection of hippies were escorted away from Stonehenge by the authorities and dropped off at Worthy Farm. There was a quick free festival as the celebrations continued, and soon the revival was underway.
The Three-Day Glastonbury Fayre
Following 1978’s impromptu revival, Bill Harkin and Arabella Churchill wanted to commemorate ‘The Year of the Child’ by bringing Glastonbury back in its glory.
They convinced Michael Eavis to secure a risky loan against the deeds of the farm. And soon they set up Children’s World charity. This benevolence helped to attract enough names for a three-day festival but a huge financial loss meant another outing in 1980 following the birth of Emily Eavis was a no-go.
Glastonbury Festival
1979 might not have been financially successful, but it was well-received and the charity campaign went well. So, Michael Eavis went back to the helm and put the Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament at the forefront of 1981’s effort. £20,000 was eventually handed over to the cause thanks to 18,000 people attending to see New Order, Hawkwind, Taj Mahal, Aswad, Gordon Giltrap.
Steadily growing…
Over the next 15 years, the festival steadily grew. It took a few breaks here and there, but with charity at its heart, it continued to raise more money for important causes and attract bigger acts to be part of it all.
Vitally, it also maintained its grassroots ethos. This meant that it simply put the profits back into growing, so the stages swelled along with the British music scene and two steadily powered on hand-in-hand.
Glastonbury goes past 100,000
For the first time in its history, Glastonbury Festival broke the 100,000 attendees mark. Over 1000 different performances took place on 17 stages including the blossoming new Dance Stage. This all made the festival a more inclusive place and, importantly, pictures of pouring rain failing to dampen spirits imbued it with a counterculture air in the press.
Glastonbury moves into the modern age
Now, with its own website and TV coverage on BBC2, the festival became a truly modernised event for the masses. This was also signified when Skin became the first black woman to headline as her band Skunk Anansie took to the Pyramid Stage. Meanwhile, it also honoured the passing of Michael Eavis’s wife Jean, the outpouring of public love further highlighted the community ethos of the celebration.
David Bowie returns
In what is widely considered one of the finest performances at the festival of all time, David Bowie returned to give the newly instated TV coverage one hell of a show. Coinciding with a renaissance in his career, having this mega-star scintillate on the stage pushed the festival to new heights.
Record BBC viewing figures
After a year off while the London Olympics bogsied all the portaloos in the country, the festival returned with a bang as absence had clearly made the heart grow stronger. With a line-up that included Arctic Monkeys, The Rolling Stones, Nick Cave & Bad Seeds, Haim, Chic and other class acts, the BBC posted record viewing figures both in the UK and overseas, broadening the appeal of the festival.
200,000 Glastonbury Festival fans can’t be wrong
In 2019, the festival swelled to 203,500. Reaping the rewards of constant re-investment rather than profiteering, it had not only built-up a cache of goodwill, but also an infrastructure that allowed it to be one of the biggest gatherings in the world without a hitch. Along the way, it continues to uphold its principles and aims to be even more progressive moving forward with Emily Eavis taking control.
