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sábado, 29 de junio de 2013

The Badpiper Thunderstruck ...fucking awsome!!

Arctic Monkeys - Live at Glastonbury 2013

Live at Glastonbury 2013 - Full Concert (28, June, 2013 - Worthy Farm, Pilton, England)

Setlist:
1 - Do I Wanna Know?
2 - Brianstorm
3 - Dancing Shoes
4 - Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair
5 - Teddy Picker
6 - Crying Lightning
7 - Brick by Brick
8 - Fake Tales of San Francisco
9 - She's Thunderstorms
10 - Old Yellow Bricks
11 - Pretty Visitors
12 - I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
13 - Do Me a Favour
14 - R U Mine?
15 - Fluorescent Adolescent (BBC cut out part of intro)
16 - A Certain Romance
Encore:
17 - Cornerstone (Semi acoustic version)
18 - Mardy Bum (Semi acoustic version)
19 - When the Sun Goes Down
20 - 505 (With Miles Kane. Happy Birthday was sung prior for Alex's mum.)

NOTES:
BBC cut out Mad Sounds and part of the intro of Fluorescent Adolescent, sorry for the bad quality, it was the best stream that I found.

Enjoy!




jueves, 27 de junio de 2013

RADIO ENLACE PREMIOS!

El sábado recibimos el mejor premio posible: el Borja Valcárcel a la Participación Ciudadana entregado por La Unión de Hortaleza. Tan importante por quién lo entrega como por el nombre que lleva. Todo un honor.

lunes, 24 de junio de 2013

Cat Stevens - My lady d'Arbanville (live in France, 1970)

GLASTONBURY 2013 - 10 things festivals have given us

Clockwise from left: Colourful tents, fancy dress for grown-ups, ear defenders for children and posh wellies 
 
 
The past two decades has seen a massive growth in the number and variety of music festivals in the UK. They have bequeathed us a plethora of things.
Here are 10 of them.


1. Fashionable wellington boots. When US rappers start wearing wellies as a fashion statement you know the rubber footwear has come a long way from the farmers' field. They are available in every colour and pattern imaginable, sold in every shop imaginable and worn by everyone imaginable - including said rapper Nicki Minaj. "When Kate Moss rocked up to Glastonbury in a pair of Hunter wellies and hot pants things were never going to be the same," says fashion stylist Alicia Poole. "The boots are now an essential part of the festival look and the festival look is the essential look of the summer. You now get the likes of Marc Jacobs designing them."
Kate Moss, welly boots and Nicki Minaj
Colourful wellies on sale at Chelsea Flower Show 
 
 
2. The rise of the onesie. It might only have arrived on the shelves of M&S in the past year, but the onesie has long been a staple of the festival-goers wardrobe. The one-piece for grown-ups is a perfect fit when it comes to the festival ethos of leaving behind the constraints of everyday life, which for a lot of people includes dressing like a sane adult. "People have walked around in their pyjamas at festivals for years so wearing a onesie was a natural progression," says Scott Williams, editor of eFestivals.co.uk. "Animal designs are particularly popular."
Festival goers in onesies 
 
 
3. The acceptance of fancy dress for adults. Wearing jeans and a T-shirt just doesn't cut it for many festival goers. Fancy dress is rife, ranging from those who seriously commit to a look - see picture below - to those who dabble with wigs, fairy wings, tutus, face paints. Some festivals actively promote fancy dress as part of the whole experience and you're the odd one out if you don't dress up. "Festivals have definitely spread the appetite for fancy dress beyond the festival gates," says Poole. "It's rare to go on a night out these days without seeing someone in a morph suit. You don't bat an eyelid anymore."
Festival goers in fancy dress 
 
 
4. Gin in a bag. There are no problems, only solutions, according to John Lennon. It's a mantra the alcohol industry has adopted when it comes to the ban on glass at festivals, the ban being for obvious safety reasons. The solution? Gin in a bag. "Big business was a bit slow to jump on the festival bandwagon, they thought it was a fad," says Leon Wingham, publisher of the website This Festival Feeling. "Not anymore, now they market anything they can as festival friendly."
Gin in a bag 
 
 
5. Baby and child ear protectors. They were once the preserve of workmen digging roads, now parents can be seen wrestling ear protectors onto the head of their young offspring at most music festivals. Apple Martin, daughter of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and musician Chris Martin, is the Kate Moss of toddler ear protectors. When she was pictured wearing them at a concert they started flying off the shelves. They now come in an array of neon colours, are available for newborns and are increasingly being spotted at events such as bonfire night.
Baby in ear protectors
Girl in ear defenders at a festival 
 
 
 
6. Lesser-known county flags. A flag is multi-purpose when it comes to festivals. Hoisted above a tent it can guide people home after a long night. Hoisted up a portable pole it can help friends find each other in a crowd. For this to be most effective you need something unusual, the official flag of Wiltshire maybe? "Demand for regional flags has really shot up in the last few year and festivals are definitely helping to drive that," says Graham Wilkinson, managing director of the Hampshire Flag Company. "The most requested flags are from the West Country and Yorkshire."

Festival crowd 

7. Flowery and patterned tents. Long gone are the days when tents came in black, blue and green. Now you can get anything from flowery Cath Kidston designs to Friesian cows and retro rockets. "I don't mind them," says Matthew De Abaitua, author of The Art of Camping: The History and Practice of Sleeping Under the Stars. "If a flowery tent appeals to someone who would never have camped before then that's good. The problem is when people just dump tents after the fun is over. Festivals are like a big party no one wants to clean up."
Person in a flowery tent 
 
 
8. Dry shampoo. It's been around since the 70s but has made a comeback thanks to festivals. Last August supermarket Asda reported sales of dry shampoo had increased by 37% on the previous year.
"People accept they're going to be among the great unwashed for a few days and have found ways to deal with it," says Poole. "I think expectations of what you look like at a festival have also risen, the pressure is on to still look good after days of sleeping in a tent and trampling through mud." 
 
 
 
 
9. The wristband collection. Festival wristbands have been called the new concert T-shirt. They are worn like a badge of honour by many, often for a long time and regardless of the germs they will have collected. "I know people who wear festival wristbands for well over a year after the event," says Wingham. "In some cases it's a status thing. When you add up how much someone has paid for those wristbands it can easily be over £1,000."
Wristbands 
 
 
10. The Olympic and Paralympics opening and closing ceremonies. These might have featured steampunks, beds that doubled as trampolines, big-name singers, mind-boggling acrobatics, huge puppets and flying cyclists, but festivals had them first. Going off, seeing weird stuff and then going back and telling your friends is all part of the festival experience. "The Olympic ceremonies included the type of stuff that has been going on at festivals for years," says Williams. "The artistry and performance side of things is very British but it is now being exported to other countries." Anyone going to a festival this year can expect anything from a 30ft mechanical spider to fire manipulation - whatever that is.

Prince Edward at the Paralympics closing ceremony  
Guess who I had in the back of my steampunk cab?

GLASTONBURY 2013 - Glastonbury to provide festivalgoers with Wi-Fi via eco-tractor

The mobile phone company EE has set up a 4G tractor which will give high-speed access to anyone within 10 metres

Glastonbury festival 2013 preperations 
 
Glastonbury will have Wi-Fi when it opens on Wednesday, provided by the mobile phone company EE, installed on an eco-tractor. Photograph: Glastonbury/PA
Festival goers at Glastonbury will be given help keeping in touch – thanks to an unlikely piece of farm equipment. One of festival organiser Michael Eavis's tractors has been converted into a 4G Wi-Fi hotspot and will be driven around the site at Worthy Farm in Somerset next weekend. The eco-friendly New Holland vehicle has been fitted with network equipment by mobile operator EE, providing high-speed Wi-Fi access to anyone up to 10 metres away.
EE brand director Spencer McHugh said: "We couldn't be more excited about this year's Glastonbury where we will be installing the first ever superfast 4G network at a UK festival to help those on-site stay connected.
"Our 4G tractor demonstrates the innovative approach we're taking to bring the fastest mobile internet speeds to the UK in a uniquely Glastonbury way and uses similar technology to our fleet of 4G cabs trialled earlier this year.
EE will be tweeting the tractor's whereabouts so people know where to find it. Glastonbury opens on Wednesday.The main acts will be performing from Friday until Sunday.

domingo, 23 de junio de 2013

GLASTONBURY 2013 - HISTORY PART 2





1991 - no festival


There was no Festival due to the disturbances in the previous year.

1992 (26th - 28th June)

This was the first year that the donations from the profits of the Festival were made to Greenpeace and Oxfam.  Michael Eavis felt that with the ending of the Cold War that people’s concerns had shifted away from the possibility of nuclear war to the concerns of the environment.  The Festival was also linked with National Music Day and the surprise guest was Tom Jones. £250,000 was donated to Greenpeace, Oxfam and other local charities.
Acts included: Carter USM, Shakespear’s Sister, Primal Scream, P J Harvey, Sawdoctors and The Levellers.
Attendance:70,000. Tickets:£49. Programme: £4



1993 (25th - 27th June)

The Festival continued to go from strength to strength as it began to get into its stride as a  successful and increasingly popular event.  The advance only tickets were sold out by mid June.  This years big performer and golden oldie was Rolf Harris. More than £250,000 was raised for Greenpeace, Oxfam and many local charities.
Acts included: The Orb, Lenny Kravitz, Velvet Underground, Galliano and Stereo Mcs.
Attendance:  80,000. Tickets:  £58. Programme:  £4.

 

 

1994 (24th - 26th June)

On 13 June 1994 the famous Pyramid stage burnt down in the early hours of the morning but luckily a replacement was provided by the local company who also provided the stages for the NME and Jazz stages.  It was also the first appearance of the wind turbine beside the main stage providing 150 kw of power for the main stage area.  Channel 4 televised the event live over the weekend and it increased the appeal of the Festival to a wider audience.
On the Saturday night there was a shooting incident involving five people but no one was badly hurt.  But there was the first death in the Festivals history when a young man was found dead from a drugs overdose. £150,000 was donated to Greenpeace, £50,000 to Oxfam and some £100,000 to local charities and good causes.
Acts included:  Bjork, Manic St Preachers, Orbital, Van Morrison, Lemonheads, Elvis Costello, Galliano and The Levellers
Attendance:  80,000. Tickets:  £59. Programme price:  £5.



 

 

1995 (23rd - 25th June)

The 25th anniversary of the first Festival was celebrated and saw the return of the two performers from the first event - Keith Christmas and Al Stewart.   Demand for the tickets had never been so intense and the event was completely sold out within four weeks of the ticket release date.
1995 also saw the introduction of a Dance Tent which was a major success and featured Massive Attack, System 7 and Eat Static.  The Stone Roses were forced to pull out the week before the event to be replaced by Pulp but did appear at the Pilton Show in September instead.  Channel 4 televised the event again.  The Greenpeace donation was raised to £200,000, Oxfam to £100,000 with local charities benefiting by another £100,000.
Acts included:  The Cure, Oasis, Orbital, P J Harvey, Simple Minds and Portishead.
The event was marred by the perimeter fence being taken down at the top of the site aggravating the problems of trespass for other land owners adjoining the site.

Attendance: 80,000. Tickets:  £65. Programme price: £5.

1996 - no festival

There was no festival. After the phenomenal success of the previous event to give the farm a rest, the cows the chance to stay out all summer long, and allow all the people involved the chance to take a break from the demands of  organising such a large event.  However, 1996 also saw the introduction  of the Classical Extravaganza  which took place at  Glastonbury  Abbey in the August.


1997 (27th - 29th June)

Torrential rain just before the weekend resulted in this being the “Year of the Mud”. Undeterred, festival-goers boogied in their boots to more live performances than ever before. This year’s highlights included a “dubhenge” made from upended VW beetles and campervans and the first ever Greenpeace field with a reconstructed Rainbow Warrior and solar heated showers. The site expanded to 800 acres, a daily newspaper was published by Select and BBC2 broadcast live. Greenpeace, Oxfam, Water Aid and Mid-Somerset CND were the main beneficiaries.
Acts included: The Prodigy, Radiohead, Massive Attack, Ray Davies and Sting.
Attendance: 90,000. Tickets: £75 including official programme.

 

1998 (26th - 28th June)


Rain again turned parts of the site into a brown quagmire, but resilient campers still enjoyed the evergreen mix of entertainment and all night fun. Over 1,000 different performances on 17 stages included a new marquee for up and coming bands. The enlarged Dance Tent was as packed as ever. Theatre highlights included thepunk opera “Kiss my Axe”. Mud surfing proved popular. There were better loos and a proper on-site bank. American singer Tony Bennett rose above the mud in immaculate white suit and tie. Over £500,000 from the Festival’s income went to Greenpeace, Oxfam, water Aid and many local organisations.
Acts included Blur, Primal Scream, Robbie Williams, Tori Amos, Pulp, Bob dylan, Roni Size and the Chemical Brothers.
Attendance 100,500. Tickets: £80 including programme.




1999 (25th - 27th June)

The sun finally shone on Glastonbury again, bringing a broad smile to the faces and performers alike. £150,000 was still spent on downpour precautions. The widest range of entertainment ever was on offer, with over 300 bands, a kaleidoscope of theatre, comedy and cultural adventures, and more than 250 food stalls – all publicised on a buzzing Glasto web site and broadcast on BBC2. Greenpeace, Water Aid and Oxfam again benefitted. This year’s event was sadly overshadowed by the death of organiser Michael Eavis’s wife Jean. A winged wicker sculpture was ceremonially burned in her honour, whilst fireworks erupted into a moonlit sky.
Acts included REM, Manic Street Preachers, Fatboy Slim, Hole, Blondie, Al Green, Skunk Anansie, Lonnie Donegan, Marianne Faithful and Courtney Pine.
Attendance: 100,500. Tickets £83 including programme. 



2000 (23rd - 25th June)

This year saw the return of the pyramid stage (the third pyramid stage) – 100 feet high and clad in dazzling silver. There was more camping space with the introduction of a special family campsite. A new outdoor dance venue among trees, christened the glade, was introduced and proved a great success. Once again Greenpeace, Oxfam and Water Aid were the major beneficiaries. This year saw a huge influx of gatecrashers – but even so the infrastructure stood up and people were treated to a weekend of diverse entertainment and fun.
Acts included Chemical Brothers, Moby, Travis, Morcheeba, Basement Jaxx and David Bowie. Licensed attendance 100,000.
Tickets £87 including programme.

2001 - no festival

It was decided to take a year off to address the concerns over safety due to the large number of gatecrashers at the 2000 event. In March of this year the Festival was prosecuted for breach of the licenced attendance in 2000 and fined £5,000 as well as a further £1000 fine for a noise offence in one of the Festival car parks after the event – from ‘travellers’ who stayed on. The year was spent carrying out a large amount of work to put measures in place to try and overcome the growing culture of illegal entry to the Festival as well as ensuring a secure and safe environment for the legitimate festival goers.  A virtual festival was held in June on the Festival website, comprising archive footage and some live acts.



2002 (28th - 30th June)

The most long-awaited and carefully prepared Glastonbury Festival took place in wonderful weather.  The ring of steel fence repelled all non ticket holders and 140,000 legitimate festival goers revelled in the space and security created by  the widely praised new operational management structure.  Tickets were put on sale in February and sold out in weeks.
Acts included, Stereophonics, Coldplay, Manu Chao, Rolf Harris,  Kosheen, Mis-teeq, Fat Boy Slim, Roger Walters and Rod Stewart, White Stripes, Orbital and Isaac Hayes.  For many the place to be was Lost Vagueness in the Green Fields which bizarrely provided a silver service restaurant and ballroom dancing.
Tickets £97, including  programme.

2003 (27th - 29th June)

Tickets sold out in under 24 hours making this year the fastest selling Glastonbury Festival. It was widely acclaimed as ‘the best yet’ - the weather was perfect, atmosphere chilled, Pilton was crime free and the line up brilliant. Over a million pounds was paid to local groups and charities. Greenpeace, Oxfam and WaterAid were the main beneficiaries and on site FairTrade led a high profile campaign
Acts included: Love with Arthur Lee, Damien Rice, De la Soul, Flaming Lips, Jimmy Cliff, Moby, Radiohead, REM, The Damned, The Darkness, The Thrills; Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and Nightmares on Wax in Lost Vagueness; Bill Bailey, Ross Noble, Black Sky White in the Cabaret areas plus a huge variety of kid’s entertainment and the creative madness that is Lost Vagueness.
  • Attendance 150.000. Tickets £105, including programme

25th - 27th June 2004

A massive over demand for tickets frustrated all concerned. The weather in the run up to the Festival was not on our side. However, the improved drainage and organisation triumphed to contribute to the safest ever Festival.  ‘Working together for a greener Glastonbury" paid off – with 32% of all waste recycle including 110 tons of organic waste composted.  Streams and hedges remained unpolluted, she-pees were installed. Coffee and chocolate were FairTrade. On top of the £1 million paid to Greenpeace, Water Aid, Oxfam and local good causes, an additional £100, 000 was donated to the Sudan appeal. This was the year of The Tower – a massive 70 ft tall moving structure erected adjacent to Leftfield to celebrate working together. The Unsigned Performer’s Competition was launched. The Pyramid Stage had its normal eclectic range of performances, including The English National Opera playing to an audience of 15, 000 and a larger crowd watching England play (estimate 65, 000) than actually attended the World Cup Stadium in person.
Acts included: Paul McCartney, Muse, Oasis, James Brown, Joss Stone, Toots and the Maytals, Franz Ferdinand, Scissor Sisters, Black Eyed Peas, Sister Sledge, Television, Michael Franti and Spearhead. The Greenfields and particularly Lost Vagueness, were a mass of innovative, creative and amazing sights and sounds. Over 1200 acts in The Cabaret, Theatre and Circus Fields included The Generating Company, Helios – The Saga of a 1000 Suns and Albatross while the Kidz Field was a profusion of fun and colour, workshops and parades.
Attendance 150,000.   Tickets £112.00 including programme.




2005 (24th - 26th June)


Lightning strikes!!! Two months worth of rain in several hours! A once in a hundred year occurrence! For those unfortunate enough to get swamped, Welfare were there to give a helping hand. All in all, everyone pulled through – dinghy’s n’all – and thoroughly enjoyed themselves whatever the weather. Sure enough the sun came out to greet us by Sunday turning it into the happiest festival yet.
 
The huge success of the Make Poverty History campaign was echoed at the Festival, with Michael Eavis making a very rare appearance on the Pyramid Stage with Bob Geldof. Greenpeace, Oxfam and WaterAid worked together declaring “...this year, let’s make poverty history and clean energy our future…” A remarkable £1,350,000 was paid to charities and good causes.
Tickets sold out in under 3 hours and 50% of all waste was recycled!
 
We said farewell to the Dance Tent and welcomed the new, vibrant, colourful Dance Village with eight different venues, all playing different types of dance music – including the Silent Disco. The Midnight Cabaret and The Ghost Train in the Circus Field were fun new additions that had everyone talking, along with all the fantastic sculptures around the site.
The New Tent was re-launched as The John Peel Stage, in memory of all this late, great supporter of the Festival did to promote emerging talent.  The Unsigned Performers Competition generated thousands of entrants, with over 35 acts performing in various venues, including the new, rockin’ Late ‘n Live marquee in the markets.
Acts included: Basement Jaxx, White Stripes, Magic Numbers, Coldplay, The Belly Dance Superstars, Razorlight, New Order, Brian Wilson, The Wailers, James Blunt, Beautiful South, Baaba Maal, Babyshambles, The Killers, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, Ska Cubano,  K.T Tunstall,  Kaiser Chiefs, The Subways, Chas n Dave, The La’s,  Elvis Costello, Taj Mahal & Royksopp.
Attendance 153,000. Tickets £125 including programme.

2006

There was no Festival this year, as the farm took a year off.

 

2007 (22nd - 24th June)

2007 may have been another year of mud and rain, but it was nothing that Glastonbury Festival-goers couldn’t handle, thanks to a strong line up, continually improving drainage and an indomitable collective will to enjoy, that held off the worst effects of the wet and mud like a matching rainbow umbrella and welly set.
The worthwhile causes supported by the Festival joined forces for the I Count campaign, which highlighted the need to address climate change, and signed up 70,000 people to the campaign over the weekend, an impressive 46% of all 153,000 ticket holders on site. Glastonbury 2007 also strove to be the greenest one so far, with Bags for Life given out and Festival-goers encouraged not to bring loo roll as recycled rolls were provided at the Festival
This year saw the introduction of Emily Eavis’s Park Stage, bringing a whole new section of the Festival site to life, whilst the Dance Village cemented its reputation in its second year. The Unsigned Bands competition became the Emerging Talent Competition, which again generated thousands of entries and a host of worthy winners playing on many of the Festival stages. Also introduced this year was the award winning anti-touting registration system for ticket buyers.
The Arctic Monkeys played their first Glastonbury set headlining the Pyramid Stage on the Friday night and The Who pulled out all the stops as the closing band on Sunday. Other acts to play included Bjork, Shirley Bassey, Iggy Pop, CSS, The Go Team, Amy Winehouse, MIA, Kate Nash, Billy Bragg (it wouldn’t feel like Glastonbury without him), Corinne Bailey Rae, Damian Marley, Lily Allen and The Chemical Brothers.
Attendance 135,000 Weekend Tickets, 37,500 passes(for crew, performers, stewards,traders etc,) and 5,000 Sunday Tickets. Tickets were £145 including programme.

2008 (27th - 29th June)

After two years of mud and rain, Glastonbury 2008 bounced back with a weekend of fine weather and fabulous music, performance art and ever so much more. A little rain prior to the event saw the attending masses draw in a sharp, nervous breath, but all the smattering of rain did was keep down the dust as the Festival got underway.



For the first time in many years, the tickets didn’t sell out immediately, but all was not lost – the fine weather brought about a flurry of purchases at the last minute and all places were taken by the time the Festival got going, meaning that the good causes Glastonbury supports were all guaranteed another large donation.
This was a year of pre-Festival hoo-ha about the inclusion of rap megastar Jay-Z as Saturday night’s headline act, the suggestion being that rap had no place at Glastonbury. Jay-Z disproved this with enormous style and some wit, delivering a storming show that drew a vast and enthusiastic crowd. The Kings of Leon headlined on the Friday night and Sunday night’s electrifying Verve reunion sent shivers down the spine.

Two Glastonbury stalwarts passed away prior to the Festival; Arabella Churchill, Theatre and Circus organiser, in late 2007 and Pat VT West, who organised the Poetry&Words tent, two weeks before the Festival. They will be much missed, but received the best tribute possible – their work was continued in fine style by the people they chose to replace them.
2008 was a year for electrifying sets by golden oldies interspersed amongst the wealth of new music; Solomon Burke, Joan Baez, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Jimmy Cliff, Joan Armatrading, and Neil Diamond  all went down a storm, but Leonard Cohen stole the entire weekend in dapper style, leading the crowd in an astonishing chorus of ‘Hallelujah’, and performing a taut set of his greatest hits as the sun went down on the Festival’s final day.
Others who provided great moments included Manu Chao, Massive Attack, Groove Armada, Seasick Steve , Lupe Fiasco , Mark Ronson , Dizzy Rascal , Ozomatli , Eddy Grant , Stanton Warriors , Natty , Dr Meaker , Fun Loving Criminals, The National, Tunng and Laura Marling. Katie Melua and Will Young gave intimate sets at the Avalon Stage.  Late night entertainment was varied and stunning with the Park going from strength to strength, and Trash City, in its new home, and Shangrli-la keeping festival goers dancing til dawn...
Attendance 134,000 Weekend Tickets, 37,500 passes(for crew, performers, stewards,traders etc,) and 6,000 Sunday Tickets. Tickets were £155 including programme.

2009 (24th-28th June)

After the triumph over adversity that was Glastonbury 2008, expectations were running high for the 2009 Festival. The ticket deposit scheme proved to be a successful and popular initiative, helping the Festival to sell out eight weeks before gates opened. When they did, the crowds flooded through them in droves: by the Thursday morning, a record number of Festival-goers (90,396) had already set up camp on Worthy Farm's rolling hills. Excitement and anticipation fizzed throughout the site, and this year's event certainly lived up to it.

With no main stage acts until Friday, markets heaved and lush green fields teemed with cider-sipping sunbathers. But gloomy forecasts predicted a monsoon to engulf the Mendip Hills and, sure enough, Thursday evening saw the day's clear sky darken with some ominous-looking storm clouds. Lightning strobe-lit the valley and a torrential downpour did its best to drench fairy wings and dampen spirits. But umbrellas were opened and spirits remained impenetrable. The clouds moved on for good, leaving only some muddy puddles and smug welly wearers in their wake.

Music-wise, Maximo Park kicked things off with sweaty panache in the Queen's Head in the new William's Green area on Thursday afternoon, while East 17 got the party started in the Dance Lounge in a rabble-rousing, mass tear-inducing rendition of Stay Another Day. That evening, though, news of Michael Jackson's untimely death swept through the crowd and tributes celebrated his music throughout the weekend; Friday saw Lily Allen perform her brilliant Pyramid Stage set wearing one white glove while The Streets' Mike Skinner covered Billie Jean in homage on the Jazz/World Stage.


Despite Jackson's death, the mood on site remained upbeat. On Friday morning, Abba parody Björn Again opened the Pyramid Stage, and from that point, the performance highlights came thick and fast. Fleet Foxes' sweet harmonies serenaded a sun-dappled afternoon throng; Little Boots and Lady Gaga dazzled; Ray Davies and Neil Young delivered classic sets.

Rolf Harris' Saturday performance jammed the Jazz/World stage; Dizzee Rascal marked his arrival as a bona fide star at the Pyramid; Florence And The Machine rocked a rammed John Peel Tent and the frenzied excitement that consumed the crowd watching Pendulum on the Other Stage was only surpassed by those cheering on The Boss as he broke into Born To Run in his headline set on The Pyramid.

Sunday's sing-a-longs came courtesy of golden oldies Tom Jones and Tony Christie. Nick Cave's tremulous sun-down set was upstaged by a plucky - though unsuccessful - would-be gatecrasher attempting to defy the fence by flying in via microlite, while later, The Prodigy tore up the Other Stage. But it was hard to top a reunited Blur's return to Glastonbury. Hailed as the best Pyramid set in an age, the unfaltering show and its ecstatic reception even moved Damon Albarn to tears. Emotional and elated, he wasn't alone.



Outside the main stages, the Festival was more vibrant than ever. For the first time, Arcadia was given its own field and fascinated with its fire shows and industrio-decadence. Shangri-la, now in its second year, impressed with an enthralling retro-futurist virtual world of snaking corridors and neon-gilded surprises. Late Friday night, in Club Dada, Lady Gaga's riotous secret gig was suitably thrilling. It was an unexpected treat that was hard to beat, even by Bruce Springsteen's unscheduled stop on stage with New Jersey rockers', Gaslight Anthem at their John Peel Tent show.
But there's always more to Glastonbury than music and this year the Theatre and Circus areas were home to some spellbinding performances of a gloriously alternative ilk. Cirque du Soleil's Fulcrum impressed with their power and lithe acrobatic skills, while The Fire Tusk Pain Proof Circus brought the classic thrill-seekers' circus show into the 21st century with awe-inspiring extreme stunts. In the Cabaret Tent, a blistering bill of diverse acts - from the political capers of Mark Thomas to the sparkling silliness of Adam And Joe and the sheer genius of Spymonkey's Monty Python-esque physical comedy - ensured funny bones were well tickled.


With the sun high in the sky, The Park came into its own this year. Perched on the hill it was the place to escape the busy hubbub of the Festival and indulge your senses in the unusual. The BBC Introducing stage hosted a blistering array of up-and-coming talents, while the natural amphitheater of The Park's main stage proved the perfect place to relax and take in eclectic acts such as Bon Iver and Animal Collective. Making its debut, the Free University Of Glastonbury entertained with its mind titillating lectures, while The Rabbit Hole further established itself as the home of unpredictable zaniness and anything-can-happen surprises.

On the worthy causes front, this year saw the Festival add its support the White Ribbon Alliance's Million Mums campaign. Charity patron, Sarah Brown, and Ambassador, supermodel Naomi Campbell, both dropped in on the Festival to give their support to the charity's aim to end the needless deaths of women in childbirth. At the charity's Festival HQ in the Park, over 10,000 signatures were collected in aid of the campaign.

Michael Eavis later hailed 2009 as "the best Glastonbury ever". He has, of course, said that before. But this time, few saw any cause to argue.

Attendance 135,000 Weekend Tickets, 37,500 passes (for crew, performers, stewards,traders etc,) and 5,000 Sunday Tickets. Ticket price was £175.

2010 (25th - 27th June)


Glastonbury celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2010, a milestone that brought a fresh buzz of excitement to the Worthy Farm valley. The weather was also suitably celebratory, with warm days and balmy starlit nights.
Car parks opened up on the Tuesday night for the first time prior to the pedestrian gates opening on the Wednesday morning. From 2100 on Tuesday night to around midnight vehicles flowed into carparks with no problems. From 0600 traffic levels increased dramatically with major queues developing on all routes by 0730 as many people tried to arrive for the 0800 pedestrian gate opening. Between 0800 and 1400 there were delays on all routes to the site with the longest being on the route from the M5.  The vast majority of ticket holders arrived on site on the Wednesday, earlier than in any previous year.
With the sun beating down relentlessly the demand for water was enormous, so the decision to build a second new permanent reservoir this year was more than vindicated. Both reservoirs hold about a million litres of drinking water each. Just over 800 taps were installed across site as were 600 basins, but there were still queues for water. In 2010, there were also some 4,600 toliets (a mix of longdrops, African, polyjohns and flushing) and 670 metres of urinals for the guys and much more modest 100 metres of  "she pees" for women.
Visually, the anniversary was recognised by two giant dates on either side of the Pyramid stage and a Hollywood-style display of letters that spelled out “Glastonbury 40” across the site’s southern grassy slopes. Classic photos taken by local Somerset photographers across the decades were exhibited in the main backstage area. Several performers from the original 1970 event appeared, including DJ Mad Mick, who dropped the Festival’s very first tune.
The Leftfield stage returned in a different position (close to the Glade) and with a new curator, Billy Bragg. More music was mixed with the usual wide range of political discussion and debate. For the second year running a giant screen of painted and embroidered banners broadcast messages such as “Give Bees a Chance”.
Two new areas were created in the late night corner of the festival – The Common and the Unfair Ground. Arcadia shot bursts of fire into the sky from its temple-like structures as dance music pumped through the night. Shangri-la’s casbah of the weird and wonderful was as rammed as ever.
A new bridge flanked with local Mendip stone was erected over the Whitelake stream, and named Bella’s Bridge after theatre fields founder Arabella Churchill, who died in 2007. This year’s theatre and circus highlights included Colombia’s Circo Para Todos, the Russian troupe BlackSkyWhite and slack-rope walker Kwabana Lindsay cutting a hornpipe between the tent tops.
The JazzWorld stage was given a new identity as West Holts. This was the original name of a “halt” on the railway line which once ran through Worthy Farm; Michael Eavis could remember driving cattle across it before the next train arrived.
Sunday was given a downside by the defeat of England’s footballers in the World Cup, an event for which two special fields were allocated with their own giant screens. 80,000 fans watched the match. More successful was a game played out in front of the Pyramid stage on Thursday, when Festival-goers representing England beat the Rest of the World and raised £9,000 for charity.
As ever, there were many musical highlights. Gorillaz filled the Friday night Pyramid headline slot with grooves and guests, following U2's enforced cancellation, although that band's guitarist, the Edge, did turn up do a song with Muse for their storming Saturday night slot. The final headliner, Stevie Wonder, brought things to a close on Sunday night with a wonderful, hit-filled set, which memorably also featured a duet of Happy Birthday with Michael Eavis.
Aside from the headliners, Shakira and Scissor Sisters lit up the Pyramid Stage on Saturday with suitably exuberant pop (the latter featured a guest performance from Kylie Minogue), while Biffy Clyro and Radiohead's Thom Yorke/Jonny Greenwood played warmly-received surprise slots in The Park.
Other Stage highlights included a rousing Pet Shop Boys set, a huge turnout for Florence and the Machine and a guest appearance from Doctor Who for Orbital's Sunday night set. Meanwhile, at the John Peel Stage, Groove Armada, Mumford & Sons and The xx were among the acts who attracted big crowds and warm reviews.
Over in the Dance Village, Glastonbury veterans The Orb and Fatboy Slim once again whipped up a storm, while the rise in urban pop music was reflected with blistering sets from acts including N-Dubz, Chipmunk, Plan B, Kelis and Tinie Tempah.
It was, all would agree, a vintage year. Michael Eavis told the world’s media at his traditional Sunday morning press conference: “It has been the best party for me – the weather, the full moon and last night a crowd of 100,000 people, every single one enjoying themselves.”
2010 - Attendance 135,000 Weekend Tickets, 37,500 passes (for crew, performers, stewards,traders etc,) and 5,000 Sunday Tickets. Ticket price was £185.

 

 

2011


Click below for photos from the 2011 Festival.
With a fallow year scheduled for 2012, this was the last Festival for two years. Tickets sold-out the day they went on sale and when gates opened on Wednesday morning, tens of thousands of revellers made their way in – a full two days before main stage music action kicked off. Traffic ran smoothly with no particular delays to the site. However, sheer numbers meant there were some queues at the pedestrian gates.

After the scorching heat of 2010, showers painted the air during the opening days of the festival. Umbrellas were opened and wellies were thanked. At least it had been worth hauling them cross-country.


The rain tried to dampen Friday night’s headline Pyramid performance by U2, but as Bono and his band tore through a powerful, career-spanning set, the barrage of crowd-pleasers drowned-out the weather instead. Chase and Status and Cee Lo Green raised pulses over on West Holts, while across the fields on the Other Stage, Primal Scream battled the elements with a fierce back-loaded set. Earlier that day, as Fleet Foxes hypnotised their brimming crowd with their haunting, reverb-driven folk, thousands traipsed through drizzle to the Park, for the day’s much anticipated Special Guests. There, the packed hillsides were treated to a suitably atmospheric, un-billed set from Radiohead. 

Stornoway opened Saturday’s Pyramid stage, warming soggy souls with their shimmering folk-pop as the sun’s rays teased shoulders out of macs. It was a welcomed warmth that awoke the grass and brought a bright new buzz to the previous-days’ bedraggled. Blur’s rough diamond, Graham Coxon, and New York’s new wave stalwarts, The Walkmen, rocked The Park stage before the day’s Special Guests, Pulp, delighted record crowds with a triumphant greatest hits set. At the John Peel Stage, Noah And The Whale lead a rousing sing-along while at the Pyramid, Elbow delivered a deep, happy sigh of a set matched in beauty only by the setting sun which it soundtracked. Coldplay followed and in their charming, inimitable way, played a thrillingly-paced, momentous show, lighting up the Pyramid stage both metaphorically and, for the first time, literally. Over the way, The Chemical Brothers ignited the Other Stage with their explosive day-glo beats and propulsive rhythms.


Elsewhere, over the weekend, East Dance played host to heavyweights Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox, Professor Green and Pete Tong as well as memorable live appearances from Ke$ha, Fenech-Soler and Azari & III. Away from the main stages, the Kidz Field – this year playing host to tot heroes The Gruffalo and Rastamouse – was a world of inspiring invention, bustling with kid-friendly mayhem. In the Circus tent, No Fit State Circus redefined the genre with their frenetic and jaw-dropping show.

Down in the late-night corner, a new one-way system was introduced after hours to ease revellers through the distorted wonderland of the south-east corner of the site. There, apocalyptic Arcadia impressed with its mesmerising fire shows on the new fully-animated 360 degree stage. Block9 again hosted an alternative reality, spiked with the surreal: its surging nightclubs and pounding house-parties set in crumbling inner-city towerblocks, built from scratch in a farmer’s field. While over the railway track, the dystopian future-themed Shangri-La enticed and seduced as a neon-lit pleasuredome.

Of course Glastonbury is not just about hedonistic abandon. Mind-altering Green-themed debates and inspiring talks from the likes of Tony Benn and Clare Solomon rocked Billy Bragg’s Left Field. And throughout the Festival, over £2 million was raised for WaterAid, Greenpeace, Oxfam as well as other local good causes. Up in the Park, the White Ribbon Alliance were again raising the plight of mothers and the right for safe childbirth throughout the world.

For young tykes and Pixar fans, the Pilton Palais Cinema was the only place to be on Sunday morning; the tent was filled to the rafters for the UK’s first screening of 3D high-octane extravaganza Cars 2. The Pyramid stage opened with the stirring baritones of Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends. Later on the main stage, Laura Marling’s sassy timeless folk echoed the heady warmth of the afternoon. Paul Simon resurrected his hits to the packed banks of the Pyramid Stage field while on the Other Stage, TV On The Radio brought a refreshing blast of spiky alt rock.


Later in the valley, as Pyramid headliner Beyoncé belted-out bootilicious platinum chart-toppers, on the Other Stage, Queens Of The Stone Age offered a raucous adrenalin-fuelled antidote to Mrs Z’s feisty tunes. Above the writhing bacchian mass, up on the sloping hillsides, the enchanting wonky world of The Park was perfectly soundtracked by Sunday night’s headliner, Welsh psychedelic pop-meister Gruff Rhys. From there, high over the site the picture was perfect. Pastel skies prevailed as a crystalline sun set on another great year.

2011 - Attendance 135,000 Weekend Tickets, 37,500 passes (for crew, performers, stewards, traders etc,) and 5,000 Sunday Tickets. Ticket price was £195.


GLASTONBURY 2013 - HISTORY PART 1

1970 (19th September)

 The first Festival was held on the day after Jimi Hendrix died, over a two day period and before long “word had got around”. It was the Blues festival at the Bath & West Showground that had inspired Michael Eavis to begin a festival of his own although on a smaller scale.
Acts included: Marc Bolan, Keith Christmas, Stackridge, Al Stewart, Quintessence
Attendance: 1,500.
Price: £1 including free milk from the farm.



1971 (20th - 24th June)

Pyramid StageThe Festival moved to the time of the Summer Solstice and was known as the "Glastonbury Fair". It had been planned by Andrew Kerr and Arabella Churchill who felt all other festivals at the time were over commercialised. It was paid for by the few who supported the ideal so the entrance was free and took a medieval tradition of music, dance, poetry, theatre, lights and spontaneous entertainment. It was in this year that the first "pyramid" stage was constructed out of scaffolding and expanded metal covered with plastic sheeting, built on a site above the Glastonbury-Stonehenge ley line. The musicians who performed recorded a now very rare album. The Festival is also captured "a la Woodstock" by a 1972 film crew that included Nick Roeg and David Puttnam. This film was called "Glastonbury Fayre".
Acts included: Hawkwind, Traffic, Melanie, David Bowie, Joan Baez, Fairport Convention and Quintessence.
Attendance: estimated at 12,000.
Price: free.




1978 (28th - 8th July)

The Pyramid Stage This became known as the “impromptu” Festival. This happened with the arrival of travellers washed out from Stonehenge who were led to believe that a festival was taking place. After persuasive discussion, a free mini Festival did take place. There was little organisation and few facilities layed on but somehow it did not matter - the stage was powered by an electric meter in a caravan with the cable running to the stage.
Attendance: 500.






1979 (21st - 23rd June)

Now a three day event and was still referred to as the Glastonbury Fayre but with the theme of “the year of the child”.  Bill Harkin and Arabella Churchill were the instigators on this occasion and turned to Michael Eavis for financial backing.  He secured a bank loan against the deeds of the farm.  Special provision and entertainment was provided for children and it was at this event that the concept of the Children’s World charity was born which still exists today and works in special schools throughout Somerset and Avon Again, despite the numbers attending, the organisers suffered a huge financial loss and no one wanted to risk another festival in 1980. It was also this summer that Michael’s youngest daughter, Emily was born.
Acts included: Peter Gabriel, Steve Hillage, Alex Harvey Band, Sky and the Footsbarn Theatre. Attendance: 12,000.  Tickets:  £5.
 
 
 
 

1981 (19th - 21st June)

The name was changed to Glastonbury Festival and Michael Eavis took the helm running the event again. This was the first “Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament” festival. Michael helped positively towards the peace movement by holding the Festival at Worthy farm to benefit the Mid Somerset CND campaign. Michael had to convince National CND and said that with proper management the Festival could be turned into a profitable venture. Agreement was reached with National CND sending out information in their mailings, handling advance ticket sales and allowing the use of the CND logo. It was up to Michael to provide the money, arrange entertainment and organise the event, liaise with the authorities and organise market stalls etc.
Original Pyramid Stage!It was this year that it was decided to build a new Pyramid stage. However, this time it was a permanent structure, doubling as a cowshed and animal food store during the winter months. It took two months to build the permanent Pyramid stage out of telegraph poles and ex-MOD metal sheeting. The CND logo was not present at this Festival, as it was too heavy to lift into position at the apex. Michael Eavis eventually handed over approximately £20,000 to a very grateful CND.
Acts included: New Order, Hawkwind, Taj Mahal, Aswad, Gordon Giltrap.
Attendance: 18,000. Tickets: £8.


1982 (18th - 20th June)

Again, there was CND involvement and it was this year that Western Region CND took control of the entrance gates and Mid Somerset CND took charge of all the information.
This year was a muddy year with lots of bad weather. In fact, the highest rainfall for a single day in 45 years was recorded on the Friday but it was also the year of the first laser show backed by Tubeway Army's "Are friends electric?".
Acts included: Van Morrison, Judie Tzuke, Jackson Browne, Roy Harper, Richie Havens.
Attendance: 25,000. Tickets: £8.







1983 (17th -19th June)

1983 called for a licence to be obtained for the event since the introduction of the local Government Act became law, giving local authorities the power to regulate such events by stipulating the conditions.  Mendip District Council issued a Public Entertainment Licence which set a crowd limit of 30,000 and went into considerable detail about access roads, water supply, hygiene and so on.  It was also the first year that the Festival  had its own radio station, Radio Avalon. £45,000 was eventually raised for CND and local charities.
Acts included: Marillon, The Beat, UB40, Curtis Mayfield, King Sunny Ade.
Attendance: 30,000. Tickets:  £12. Programme price:  80 pence.


1984 (20th -22nd June)

In January 1984 Michael Eavis successfully defended 5 prosecutions bought against him by Mendip District Council alleging contravention of the previous years licence conditions. All five charges were dismissed after a day long hearing at Shepton Mallet Magistrates Court. The local council then announced that the licence for 1984 would cost £2,000. The licence numbers were set at 35,000 and for the first time specific car parking areas were designated with stewards employed to direct the traffic. Messages were also broadcast on the radio to advise people not to turn up unless they had purchased a ticket in advance. 1984 also saw the start of the Green Fields as a separate area within the Festival. £60,000 was raised for CND and other charities.
Acts included: The Waterboys, The Smiths, Elvis Costello, Joan Baez and Ian Drury. Guest speakers included Bruce Kent, the chairman of CND and Paddy Ashdown.

Attendance: 35,000. Tickets: £13. Programme price: 80 pence.






1985 (21st - 23rd June)

By 1985 Worthy farm was considered too small to accommodate the Festival so the neighbouring Cockmill farm land was purchased to enlarge the site by a further 100 acres. The sheer size of the newly enlarged site meant that communications were stretched to the limit - the ultimate test for any organisation. With tractors the only possible means of towing people off the site in seriously bad weather. Michael Eavis was pleased that, “we have had the mud bath and proved we can still cope with the conditions”. £100,000 was raised for CND and local charities.
Acts included: Echo & The Bunnymen, Aswad, Joe Cocker, Style Council and The Boomtown Rats.
Attendance: 40,000.Tickets: £16. Programme: 90p.






1986 (20th - 22nd June)

FlyerAgain, this was a bigger Festival than the preceding year’s event.  Due to the growth there were additions to the farm office, communications, welfare and medical teams.  The Theatre and Childrens Areas moved to new homes, the first Classical music tent was introduced and the market areas  relocated  from the top of the site. £130,000 was raised for CND and local charities.
Acts included: The Cure, Madness, Simply Red, The Housemartins, The Waterboys, Pogues and Level 42.
Attendance: 60,000. Tickets:£17. Programme: £1.Glastonbury 1986














1987 (19th - 21st June)

1987 TicketThe council’s decision to refuse the licence was overturned in court only in May.   1987 saw the introduction of the Womad  stage to the Festival. £130,000 was raised for CND and local charities.
Acts included: Elvis Costello, Robert Cray, New Order, Paul Brady, Michelle Shocked and Van Morrison.
Attendance:  60,000. Tickets:  £21.




1988 - no festival

The Festival did not take place as a decision was taken to have a fallow year to regroup and review the problems associated with the increase in size.



1989 (16th - 18th June)

Again there were once again complications with the local council over the granting of the Festival licence. The Police were bought into the organisation and planning of the Festival for the first time. Donations of £100,000 were made to CND.
Acts included: The Wonderstuff, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison,  Pixies and Suzanne Vega who appeared despite a prior death threat.
Attendance: 65,000. Tickets:  £28. Programme price: £2.



1990 (22nd - 24th June)

The festival took the name of the Glastonbury Festival for Contemporary Performing Arts for the first time, to reflect the diversity of attractions within the Festival.  It was the twentieth anniversary of the first Festival but unfortunately ended with a confrontation between the security teams and travellers who were looting the emptying festival site.  This resulted in 235 arrests and £50,000 worth of damage to property and hired plant.
1990 was the first year that a professional car parking team was employed to encourage the best use of space.   Donations of  £100,000 were made to CND and other local charities.
Acts included: The Cure, Happy Mondays, Sinead O’Connor and World Party.
Attendance: 70,000. Tickets: £38. Programmes:  £3.



GLASTONBURY PRELUDE 2013

sábado, 22 de junio de 2013

2013 Glastonbury - Site snaps

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Glastonbury 2013 - Stones, BBC reportedly near Glastonbury deal



Rolling Stones fans know you can’t always get what you want. But they may get what they need, with agreement reportedly near between the band and the BBC over televising part of the Stones’ Glastonbury Festival show.

Festival organizer Michael Eavis says the BBC will air about an hour of the Stones’ set as part of its extensive TV coverage of the event.

The BBC and the band both said negotiations were continuing, with the BBC on Friday calling the talks “extremely constructive.”

The Stones are scheduled to headline Glastonbury’s biggest stage on June 29, the festival’s most prestigious slot.

About 135,000 music fans are due at the June 26-30 festival in southwest England. The lineup includes Arctic Monkeys, Elvis Costello, Kenny Rogers and Mumford & Sons.

viernes, 21 de junio de 2013

Glastonbury festival 2013: Hank the bin painter - video profile






Who are the people who make Glastonbury festival special? Meet Hank the bin painter, who spearheads the decoration of hundreds of steel drums used to collect litter at the annual music event at Worthy Farm, Pilton. He tells how festival founder Michael Eavis came up with the idea in the 1980s and why this year's preparations feel like a memorial

Rolling Stones to broadcast one hour of Glastonbury set

Deal reached with BBC over coverage of the veteran band's first-ever performance at the festival




Mick Jagger 
 
 
 
Let's spend the night together: fans can watch an hour of the Rolling Stones' Glastonbury set on TV. Photograph: Mark Stehle/Invision/AP
Music fans will be able to watch an hour of the Rolling Stones' headline set at Glastonbury on TV after a deal was reached over coverage of the veteran band's first-ever performance at the festival.
The band, who are scheduled to play for two hours and 15 minutes on the Saturday night of the festival, had at first reportedly limited the BBC to broadcasting four songs from their show. Urgent talks were then held between the parties.
But speaking yesterday, amid preparations for the festival's 43rd year, organiser Michael Eavis said: "I think they're all friends now. They're going to be playing for about an hour for the TV. I think Mick Jagger wanted to play to the people here, rather than a TV show."
Only those at the festival will see the band's finale, with fireworks set to light up the sky over Worthy Farm. Fans can expect a spectacular show, with 90 minutes between the end of the previous set on the Pyramid Stage – by Primal Scream – and the arrival of The Rolling Stones to allow for their set to be built.
Eavis admitted that the Rolling Stones could even be too popular. "With the whole Stones thing, there might be a problem with the size of the crowd so it's slightly worrying for me, in a way," he admitted.
The Pyramid area has been extended to allow for the thousands of fans expected for the band's set in a bid to avoid any problems with overcrowding. It is also hoped festivalgoers will spread themselves out across the site when top acts are performing at the same time.
"I'll be in there myself," Eavis said. "I'd love to see the Stones. It's taken a long time to get them to come and play. Everyone wants to see the Stones, basically."

Michael Eavis interview: 'We've got the perfect loos for Glastonbury'

The organiser of Glastonbury festival talks about its ups and downs and finally booking the Rolling Stones to play at Worthy Farm – in between judging cheeses and milking cows.


Glastonbury festival organiser Michael Eavis smiling at the wheel of a red Land Rover
Michael Eavis held the first Glastonbury in 1970 … 'I love the festival. That’s why it’s so successful – because I love it so much.' 
 
 

 
Michael Eavis has just been for an early-morning swim, and is explaining the relationship between work, pleasure and the tax man. Take his swimming pool. Originally, it served as the water system for the Glastonbury festival, then for the rest of the year he swam in it. "So the tax man took 50-50. Half for work, half for pleasure. Hahaha!"
The dairy farmer who founded the festival 43 years ago has the most joyous laugh I've ever heard. And he laughs a lot – at the oddities of life, the people who stood in his way, those who helped, his endless good luck, the wonder of it all.
We're in his red Land Rover heading for a festival in a field in Pilton, Somerset. But this is nothing to do with music. He's a judge in the cheese competition at the Royal Bath and West show a couple of miles away from his own farm, which will host the Rolling Stones for the first time next week, plus 2,000 other acts on 58 stages. Glastonbury is the largest greenfield and performing arts festival in the world. This year Eavis has had to turn away 500,000 people willing to pay £205 a pop. It all started in a field in 1970 when Marc Bolan turned up in his felt-lined Thunderbird sports car and did an acoustic set (folky Al Stewart and prog-rockers Quintessence were also on the bill – tickets were £1.)
Everybody knows Michael Eavis around here. White, moustachio-less beard, supremely bald, huge smile, always in shorts no matter the weather, he looks as if he's stepped straight out of a Thomas Hardy novel. Some locals bitch about him – jumped-up farmer, acts as if he owns Pilton, who is he to say what transport can and can't come into the village, makes a fortune at our expense, it's not only the cows he milks. Others adore him – he gives £2m a year to charity, helps the local schools, man of principle, this place would be nothing without him, best cows in the area.
It's 9.25am and he's due at the cheese pavilion in five minutes, but parking is not proving easy.
"From here all the way down is disabled, Mr Eavis," says the attendant. "The nearest car park to the cheese is the blue one. Have you been in the blue car park?"
"Where's blue then? I'm a judge at half nine you see."
"Go back up the road, turn left and the blue gate is right in front of you."
"Thank you very much, thank you."
Ten minutes later at the blue car park an officious security man takes great pleasure in stalling Eavis.
"Hello, hello, hello. You've got to stop, Michael Eavis. The problem is you haven't got the right pass."
"I've got all sorts of passes. I've got to go, I'm a judge. They sent me here."
"That's not the point. You need the right car pass to get into this section."
"Ah let me go, go on!"
"You should know the rules. I can't let anyone in."
"I shouldn't be here at all really. I've got too much on, and I'm doing them a bloody favour to judge the cheese." Eavis is peeved. "Who d'you work for?"
It turns out the security man works for a company that Eavis fell out with.
"We sacked that lot," he says to me. "Payback time! Hahaha!" And his humour returns.



Michael Eavis in white coat helps judge cheese at the Royal Bath and West show 
  Michael Eavis's life outside Glastonbury festival – judging cheese at the Royal Bath and West show 2013 in Shepton Mallet.



Ten years ago, I met Eavis, now 77, at Worthy Farm with his daughter, Emily, who runs the festival with him. He seemed older then, a man in decline. His wife, Jean, with whom he started the festival, had died recently, and he was lost. He's remarried since then, and says the third Mrs Eavis, a retired midwife, has given him a new lease of life.
When we first met he also said it was his ambition to host the Stones at Glastonbury, but it would never happen because they wanted too much money. So what changed? "The Stones wanted to do it; that's the secret really. Who wouldn't want to do it? The point is they're exceedingly generous to us. There's no greed, no grabbing. They've got their 50-year anniversary." Eavis is fully aware of the cachet attached to his festival. "Everybody's done it except them, you see. They knew they were conspicuous by their absence. This is England's pride and joy. Americans love it. We've been chosen as the best festival in the world so many years running."
He's trying out the purple car park as he talks. "Can I get closer?" he asks another attendant. "Can you help me in? … The U2 did it two years ago as well. They didn't do it for money either. It cost them $2m to actually play here, the U2." It's common, he says, for major artists with huge shows to lose money playing Glastonbury. "Paul McCartney lost a lot of money here."
Eavis chortles his way through the cheese judging, pronounces that he's partial to a bit of cheddar, which his grandfather used to produce on the farm (the family have been there 150 years), and finally tells me he's cheesed off. One of his old enemies, a councillor who did his damnedest to destroy the festival, is in his eyeline. "I very nearly punched him once. His sole mission in life was to stop the festival. He didn't succeed," he says with a glint in his eye.
As a puritan Methodist, Eavis is an unlikely creator of Glastonbury. He doesn't approve of drugs, doesn't think much of alcohol. For two months before the festival he doesn't touch a drop to keep a clear head, and he can often be heard railing against the evils of booze. "Terrible drug, alcohol. The Muslims got it right on that, actually. If you've got responsibility, you shouldn't drink." Yet he says in some ways his religion has shaped the festival in a positive way – the risk-taking and embracing of freedom comes from his Methodism.
In the early days, he let in people who were skint or unemployed for nothing. Again, the Methodism. In the mid-80s he allowed a convoy of travellers who had been banned from Stonehenge into Glastonbury. They repaid him by burning 50 Land Rovers. That was when the festival reached its nadir, he says and he and his second wife, Jean, considered stopping the festival for good.
So you embrace the great unwashed, I say glibly, and they repay you by rioting. "Well I didn't care about them smelling." He pauses, and starts again. "Actually, I forced them to shower when they came on site" Amazing – the travellers were too smelly for Glastonbury. He laughs. "The real problem was the violence. They came on site with knives."
But he felt it was wrong to turn them away. "The fact that they couldn't go to Stonehenge, and they were stopped by the army. It went against the grain for me to do so much to get rid of a few hippies. I was in a position to let them in, and some of them were very creative, and they were on the same wavelength about CND and the whole green thing." Eavis is a natural optimist. It was a bad year, but out of it came some good – a working relationship with installation artist Joe Rush, one of the most obstreperous of the travellers, who has contributed regularly to Glastonbury ever since.
Eavis and Rush are collaborating on a stunt today at the Bath and West, and he becomes fidgety when Rush doesn't turn up on time. He fears that Rush may be in the wrong mood; that he's put off by the conservatism of the agricultural show.
In general, he worries more than he did when he was a young man. With age comes a sense of responsibility, he says. Plus, today's punters are paying so much. "Poor people have paid £200 for a ticket, another £200 to get here and food, so £400-500, and not to deliver to those people … that's what worries me more than anything. At 30 I didn't care that much, I just wanted to put a show on. When you get older, when you've got 17 grandchildren, you get more mature, and you get more concerned about people's wellbeing, don't you?"
Two experiences were crucial in shaping Michael Eavis. At nine he left the village to board at the upmarket Wells Cathedral school. His mother, a headteacher, wanted the best for him. Was he mixing with posher boys? "Kind of, yeah. They were really bright." After school he went to sea, and dreamed of becoming an admiral. But when he was 19 his father died and he was called home to work on the farm. He also spent two years working in coalmines; from being a bit of an oik when he started school, he was now the posh lad down the mines.



Michael Eavis talks to a smiling female festival-goer.

   In the sunshine … Michael Eavis talks to a festival-goer backstage at Glastonbury in 2010.






Forty-three years ago, Eavis started the festival with a £5,000 overdraft. Now that figure's up to £1.3m. Could he pay it off? "I'd feel guilty if I did. Isn't it funny?" Why? "We give away £2m a year to Greenpeace, Water Aid, Oxfam, we do local stuff at schools and housing. It's really important to keep that going. I can't just pay off my overdraft and say, 'Sod that.'" Do most people think he makes a fortune from the festival? "Yes they do, but they don't know. They just need to speak to my bank manager."
The festival was not started as an act of altruism. It may have only cost £1 a ticket in 1970, but at the time he said: "The farm is such a dead loss we've got to look at other ways of making money." These days it's anything but a loss. The money he has made, he says, is largely from farming. Eavis is quick to tell you that his herd is the highest yielding in Somerset and ninth highest in the country. "If we milked three times a day we'd be top, but we only milk twice a day."
I ask him how he feels about badgers. It's a delicate subject. On the one hand, he has a badger sett on the farm that is much-loved by festival-goers; on the other, badgers are thought to be responsible for TB in cows. "As a dairy farmer I am not on the side of the badger. They've also uprooted all the orchids and killed all the hedgehogs. They're treated like a protected species, but they're quite a damaging animal."
Eavis's cows have not had TB. Is he in favour of the cull? "In certain circumstances." Such as? "My first love, apart from my wife and children, are the dairy cows, because we've been doing dairy cows at Worthy Farm for 150 years. We've got about 400. If I thought for a moment badgers would infect my cows, I know which side I'd be on. There's a farm three miles down the road that lost 500 cows to TB. That's the whole of his career, and his father before him, and his grandfather, just destroyed in one fell swoop. It is serious, I'm telling you."
What if a cull included Worthy Farm? "We're not inviting people to destroy our badgers, OK? But in some areas there are problems that need to be tackled." The reality is that if there were a cull, it would include all the local farms.
Eavis regards himself as a farmer first and foremost. And the farming is easier to reconcile with his Methodism. "Being a farmer is more authentic than organising Glastonbury. You're rearing cattle, you're feeding people. There's no branding, no sales pitch, it's just a natural way of living. There's no contamination, no transport, trains or planes. The festival has got a lot of other stuff – drugs, drinking, branding. It's a different thing."
He pauses. "Don't get me wrong," he says. "I love the festival. That's why it's so successful – because I love it so much. But you offered me a preference, and I'm just telling you why I prefer the farm."
When Jean was alive, they were going to stop holding the festival in 2000. Then she died, and he felt he had to go on. A while ago, he said he'd stop in 2011. But that didn't come to pass, either. Now he's hoping to keep going until its 50th anniversary in 2020. He'll be 84 then.
His friend Peregrine Eliot, Earl of St Germans, who runs the Port Eliot literary festival, has said that Glastonbury hasn't been the same since it erected its £1m fence to keep out the gatecrashers in 2002; that it's become more corporate. "That's not true," Eavis says. "He doesn't need a fence because people don't go to his show. Haha!" And in fact, says Eavis, in typical bullish fashion, the festival's in the best nick ever. "The programme's better than ever … I'm particularly looking forward to Nick Cave and Steve Winwood. And wait till you see the new loos. No emptying – it goes straight into the ground. After 43 years, we've finally got the perfect loo." With that he roars merrily, and heads for the Land Rover.