Glastonbury festival (officially The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts) is biggest and one of the most important music festivals in the world, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts. It takes place in south west England.
The festival organiser Michael Eavis, a farmer in a Somerset decided to host the first festival, )then called Pilton Festival) as he saw open air Led Zeppelin concert in 1970. Fourteen people, including John Hoare, invested everything they had to build the stage on Michaels own farm. The first festivals in the 70‘s were influenced by hippie ethics and the free festival movement. After the 1970s the festival took place almost every year and grew in size, with the number of attendees and it becomes one of the most important events of the summer.
Nowadays in Glastonbury perform bands such as U2, Colplay, Queens of the Stone Age, Pendulum but also less known (so called indie) bands. The only czech representative in this festival was Gipsy.cz in 2007.
Altough festival is affected by barrages of rain and floods, the interest for tickets is enormous. For example in 2007, 137 tousand tickets was sold in only 90 minutes!
It's best not to come to Glastonbury with notebook full of plans of what you want to see. If there are one or two particular bands a day you really want to see, then let your day revolve around them and go with the flow! This festival is fill with the great summer atmosphere that only rock festivals can offer.
Gabriela Měsícová