Glastonbury Festival

That a dairy farm in Somerset should have emerged in the late twentieth century as a pilgrimage site for celebrations of music, performing arts and alternative lifestyles, drawing thousands from around the country to rough it for a few days in the open air whatever the weather might throw at them, is reason enough for examples of its memorabilia to be included in this project.


Myths, mysticism and the Arthurian legend have swirled around Glastonbury for centuries giving it a magnetic sense of mystery and fascination particularly for those with a pantheistic world view seeking harmony with Nature and the passage of the seasons. There were earlier festivals of music and drama in the town during and immediately following the First World War that drew many of these elements together, so that what has subsequently become known as the Glastonbury Festival is not entirely without precedent.

Dairy farmer Michael Eavis organised his first festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton (near Glastonbury) in September 1970. He had been inspired by a visit to the second Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music in June that year - held on the Showground in Shepton Mallet of the Bath & West of England Agricultural Society - and wanted to mix a musical event with the concept of the traditional country fair. It was deliberately low key and laid back, with the audience of 2,000 or so getting free milk from the farm's herd included in the £1 ticket.

It was followed by the free Glastonbury Fayre during the summer solstice the following year, where a pyramid-shaped stage made its first appearance, and by occasional ad hoc happenings thereafter - often sparked by the arrival of New Age travellers from Stonehenge - until the first commercial festival event in 1979. CND were actively involved as co-organisers and beneficiaries from 1981, when a new pyramid stage that doubled as a winter cow shed was constructed.

By 1989, when our copy of Glastonbury Global - the Festival's own newsheet - was produced, attendance had risen to over 60,000 and £100,000 was raised for CND.


Our twentieth anniversary programme of 1990 shows that it was now called the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts to reflect the great range of non-musical activity. The Green Field, an area of the site first introduced in 1984 to highlight eco issues, was expanded to 60 acres.


The New Musical Express started sponsoring the Festival in 1989. Our badge is from 1992 and was given away at the NME stage. Showing how campaign concerns had moved on, this was the year that Greenpeace and Oxfam rather than CND became major recipients of Festival profits.


In 1994, the pyramid stage burned down shortly before the Festival start. A Greenpeace wind turbine was installed to generate power for part of the site.



As the poster shows, 1995 was the 25th anniversary of the first Festival. It was just like the old days of Woodstock and the Isle of Wight when part of the perimeter fencing was pulled down in an effort to make a free festival. Nevertheless, £400,000 was still raised for the charities.


Worthy Farm was rested in 1996. The Festival returned in 1997 but to a sea of mud due to bad weather. The whole site now stretched to 800 acres and attendance hit 95,000.


Mud Festival again in 1998. Bob Dylan is on the bill. Greenpeace, Oxfam and Water Aid share £500,000.


In 1999, sponsorship from The Guardian, Orange, and the BBC, shows how far up the establishment ladder the Festival has climbed.