Glastonbury Festival Headline

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Lore & Background

The Glastonbury Festival is regarded as a major event in contemporary British culture, inspired by the ethos of the hippie, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the free festival movement. The Pyramid Stage has been a central feature since its first incarnation in 1971, when it was a one-tenth replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza built from scaffolding and metal sheeting. A new Pyramid Stage was constructed in 1981 from telegraph poles and metal sheeting, repurposed from materials of the Ministry of Defence, and doubled as a hay barn and cowshed during the winter. In 1994, the Pyramid Stage burned down just over a week before the festival, and a temporary main stage was erected in time. The festival takes place on 1,500 acres (610 ha) of farmland and is attended by around 200,000 people, requiring extensive security, transport, water, and electricity-supply infrastructure. Most festival staff are unpaid volunteers, helping the festival to raise millions of pounds for charity organisations.

In Their Own Story

The Pyramid Stage has hosted many historic moments. In 1994, headliners the Levellers set a record when they played to a crowd of as many as 300,000 people on their Friday performance, Glastonbury's biggest ever crowd as of 2010. That same year, Channel 4's televised coverage was a crucial factor in ensuring that Orbital's performance achieved legendary status, marking dance music's appearance on the mainstream agenda. Michael Eavis noted, 'What was previously underground made it on to one of the big stages, and there was no going back from there.' The gig opened the way for others such as the Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack and Underworld, who all played high-profile stages in the following years. In 1995, the festival had a dance tent for the first time, led by Massive Attack on the Friday and Carl Cox on the Saturday. The festival took a year off in 1996 to allow the land to recover and give the organisers a break.

Reader's Guide

The Glastonbury Festival is a five-day event held in most summers. It hosts leading pop and rock artists as headliners, alongside thousands of others appearing on smaller stages and performance areas. The festival has been televised since the 1980s, with ITV broadcasting recorded highlights in the weeks after the festival. Channel 4's 4 Goes to Glastonbury brought widely expanded televised coverage in 1994 and 1995. Since 1997, the BBC has taken over televising the event. The festival site includes the Green Fields area, which contains sections known as the Green Futures, the Stone Circle and Healing Field. Attendees should be prepared for variable weather; in 1985, considerable rain turned the site into a mixture of mud and liquefied cow dung, and in 1997 severe rainfalls turned the entire site into mud.

Did You Know?

• The first festival at Worthy Farm in 1970 was attended by 1,500 people and tickets cost £1 (equivalent to £19.77 in 2025).
• The original headline acts for the 1970 festival were The Kinks and Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, but they were replaced at short notice by Tyrannosaurus Rex (later T. Rex).
• The 1971 festival featured the first Pyramid Stage, a one-tenth replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza built from scaffolding and metal sheeting.
• In 1981, Michael Eavis donated £20,000 of the festival's profits to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (equivalent to £77,102 in 2025).
• A 150 kW wind turbine was introduced at the 1994 festival to provide some of the festival power.