Collecting water from standpipes
1971 saw the second festival held at the Worthy Farm site and the first use of the Glastonbury name. The Glastonbury Fair, as it was called, welcomed guests to its muddy fields with the chance to catch headline act David Bowie on stage. Here festival-goers, or fair-goers, can be seen collecting water from standpipes set up throughout the site.
Introducing: the Pyramid Stage
1971 saw the introduction of the now infamous Pyramid Stage. It was made to represent a one-tenth-scale replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza and was constructed from sheet metal. The structure was located over a mythical underwater spring. Here, a group of hippies can be seen taking refuge in a disused farm building, also made from sheet metal, at the site.
Performing for 12,000
Visible here is the Pyramid Stage in 1971 with guests pitching their tents just yards away. The event drew 12,000 people, a huge leap from the inaugural year’s 1,500. The event wouldn’t be held officially again until 1979, but a small contingent of 500 held an impromptu festival at the site in 1978.
Open fields and self-built shelter
A far cry from even the basic tent set-ups of today, in 1971, many people opted for self-built shelters made from scrap material. It looks like this lean-to has been made from foraging in the local fields and woodland with branches as support and bales of hay as bedding. The hippie lifestyle was in full swing in the 70s and this picture proves it.
John Lennon’s food kitchen
During the Glastonbury Fair in 1971, one of the many farm buildings was converted into a free food kitchen. The food kitchen was set up by the Digger Action Movement, a hippy commune founded by Sid Rawle and located on Dorinish. Dorinish is an unpopulated Irish island once owned by the king of peace and love himself, John Lennon.
Jesus comes to Glastonbury
The Jesus tent was erected at Glastonbury in 1971. The Jesus tent holds particular importance at the festival as, according to a 19th-century West Country legend, Jesus visited Glastonbury with his great uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. The pair apparently came to England to engage in tin trading. This legend is still in circulation among English Christians today.
1983 and legal licences
The 1983 Glastonbury Festival was the first to go ahead under strict new rules and regulations. The regulations set by the local council called for better sanitation and, specifically, a cap on attendance of 30,000. This 1983 picture shows the hippie movement was on the way out, with acts that year such as UB40 bringing a more reggae and pop feel.
Peace and love was still in the air
Despite the changes in musical taste, hippie culture was still a huge part of Glastonbury by 1983. The event raised £45,000, or $55,000, for local charities that year and the entry price was just £12 or $14. Pictured here is a stallholder selling her wares to the masses. Note the ‘spiritual sky oil’ on the left.
Fancy dress freedom fighters
By the 80s, Glastonbury had become far more than a music festival – it was a movement. The festival was seen as an opportunity to protest against the actions of governments through acts of love and defiant counterculture. This picture from 1983 sees a protesting couple holding a mock wedding, complete with cake and fancy dress.
War, what is it good for?
With the Cold War still rumbling on in the early 80s and conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, the threat of nuclear annihilation was in the air, even at Glastonbury. In typical fashion, demonstrations and public defiance were centre stage at the 1983 festival. Pictured here is a humorous umbrella salesman advertising his personal ‘fallout shelters’.
The first-ever festival
The inaugural Glastonbury Festival took place on September 17th, 1970. Dairy farmer Michael Eavis was the host, and audience members received free milk from Worthy Farm. The event, entitled the Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, managed to rack up 1,500 attendees, who came to see headliner T. Rex, an English rock band.
‘A perfect disgrace’
Some locals were not fans of the music festival, dubbing it the annual “hippie invasion”. There were also concerns about littering and cleanliness. “I feel that it’s a perfect disgrace,” one local lady told the press, “and I object to all the filth and flies they bring, [which are] left about our hedgerows.”
Strange sights
More than a music festival, Glastonbury became a celebration of exotic oddities and strange sites. Here is a picture of a man lying down on a bed of nails – a popular sideshow magic trick. In the following moments, another man carefully steps onto him, as children and adults look on in both horror and wonder.
Young love
These young newlyweds visited Glastonbury Festival for their honeymoon in the 70s. “We’ve heard so much about the place because the vibes and the land around here are very nice and peaceful, you know,” the groom said. To this day, love is in the air at Glasto, with many couples getting engaged at the famous event. In 2022, there were two simultaneous proposals at the site.
Early rejections
The very first Glastonbury was meant to look quite different from its eventual line-up. The Kinks were originally booked as the headline act, but the band, along with Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, dropped out at the last minute. It’s been suggested that the Kinks decided this festival wasn’t worth their time, although they claimed their cancellation was down to illness.
Financial strain
In its first decade, Glastonbury Festival was in dire financial straits. By 1979, the event required a bank loan and it was up in the air whether it would return at all in the 80s. When asked if he would keep running the event, Michael Eavis said: “I don’t know really. I’ve had a lot of enthusiasm and it makes me feel that we’ve got something nice, and maybe we should. But I don’t know, I haven’t got courage enough at the moment.”
Shocked new arrivals
The hype surrounding Glastonbury in the 80s led some families to push the boat out and attend the festival for the first time – but many were shocked at the muddy conditions and threadbare facilities. When one family was asked if the festival seemed “worth it”, they said: “[We] don’t know yet. If the toiletries are anything to go by, no!”
Charity and fundraising efforts
As Glastonbury became a staple of the hippie counterculture, it also became an epicentre for charity efforts and fundraising, with a particular focus on nuclear disarmament and education. In 1979, Glastonbury hosted a three-day festival in honour of the Year of the Child, at which Arabella Churchill started fundraising for her Children’s World Charity. Ticket prices were raised to £5 for the occasion.
Family fun
Glastonbury has always stood out among other festivals as a child-friendly event, although the party atmosphere at night means that most families with small children retire early to their tents. To this day, children under the age of 12 can attend Glastonbury for free, but they must be accompanied by someone over the age of 18.
Numbers swelled in the 80s
Throughout the 80s, Glastonbury’s attendance numbers ballooned up to 70,000 people per year. However, visitors still loved the laidback nature of the festival and didn’t appear too bothered by the new crowds. “[You’re] just out here, doing what you want,” one smiling visitor noted. “No one to get on your nerves.”
Police presence
New licensing laws hit Glastonbury hard in the 80s, and organiser Michael Eavis had to crack down on chaos and shoddiness in response to the fast-growing audience sizes. While other festivals faced fines for flaunting ticketing laws, Glastonbury began to invite a police presence to watch over people as they queued in their thousands to enter the hallowed event.
The start of big-name headliners
In 1982, Glastonbury welcomed Van Morrison as its headline act, along with Jackson Browne, Roy Harper and Richie Havens. U2 was also advertised via posters and flyers, but never actually played that year. The same year, the event introduced its first-ever laser show, which was played in sync with the Tubeway Army song Are Friends Electric?
The mother of Glastonbury
Arabella Churchill was the granddaughter of Winston Churchill and came from an aristocratic family, but she embraced the hippie subculture and played a huge role in shaping Glastonbury. She established child-friendly areas, fundraising initiatives and the theatre, from which she managed the non-music and circus acts that the festival had to offer. Tragically, she passed away from cancer in 2007, at the age of 58.
Motorbikes and motorheads
Motorbikes were a popular way of reaching the festival, and the region had roots in biking culture that even pre-dated the event. In 1965, the local Higher Farm hosted the 250cc International Grand Prix of Great Britain, a grand celebration of bikes and motoring. Nowadays, however, it is forbidden to enter Glastonbury by motorbike.
Dairy farm origins
Whenever Glastonbury Festival isn’t taking place, the site is instead a working dairy farm named Worthy. The festival’s founder Michael Eavis is part of a dairy farming family that goes back 150 years. Around the festival times, the cows are herded into shelters dubbed the ‘Moo-Tel’. Over the decades, Worthy Farm has had extraordinary success with cow breeding and milk production, with Eavis describing it as “magic”.
Spirituality and religion
The hippie subculture embraced a wide range of world religions and spiritual systems, and Glastonbury was a hotbed of philosophical and religious idea-sharing. Arabella Churchill was a Tibetan Buddhist and Michael Eavis is a practising Methodist. On Mayday in 1988, the local community in Glastonbury formed its first-ever Order of Druids.
A hostile environment
As the crowds at Glastonbury swelled, so too did the conflict between festival-goers and local people, who began to claim they felt threatened and intimidated. Some local businesses refused to serve hippie attendees. “Somebody has to make a stand against these very dirty, very unwashed people,” said one local, and another said: “We don’t feel safe.”
The muddiest years so far
In 1982, torrential rain fell on Glastonbury Festival. It broke records as the highest rainfall the region had seen in 45 years. Nevertheless, the extreme British weather did not manage to dampen spirits, and the year even saw the beginnings of a popular market that sold jewellery, traditional cider and other snacks and trinkets.
Reggae comes to Glastonbury
Reggae star Dennis Brown hailed from Kingston, Jamaica but, thanks to the immense popularity of his music in the United Kingdom, he relocated to England in 1981. In 1983, he featured at Glastonbury, resplendent in double denim and bringing a new side of pop music into the festival, which was traditionally driven by rock and folk music.
New talent Aswad shone
The British reggae band Aswad backed Dennis Brown in his Glastonbury debut. Their band name comes from the Arabic word for Black, and their music focuses on the experiences of Black youth in the UK. Following their hit festival performance, Aswad went on to score UK hits such as Don’t Turn Around (1988), Give a Little Love (1988) and Shine (1994).
Hare Krishna attended
Hare Krishna is a religious group with roots in Hinduism, founded in the 60s. On Hare Krishna’s festivals page, the organisation notes: “Since the very early years of [Glastonbury], Hare Krishna has been an integral part of the scene, sharing the chanting, wisdom and thousands of free hot meals in the spirit of peace and love that makes Glasto so famous.”
Trespassing controversy
In 1984, the number of festival-goers became so great that they began to spill out into the surrounding areas, camping illegally on private land. “I had people invading my land for five days. I had an estimated thousand people breaking through fences, walls, damaging property [and] defecating all over the land,” one local landowner said. Yikes!
The great clean-up
Perhaps due to increasing reports of heavy littering, filth and neighbourhood discontent, festival-goers began a concerted effort to clean up after Glastonbury Festival in the 1980s. This sign exhorts visitors to: “Keep this farm beautiful. Let grass and trees grow, not the litter. Get a bag and pick some up. Help needed!”
Substance abuse
In 1989, police and the press entered the Glastonbury site to investigate suspected mass substance abuse. They even established a makeshift police station at the local Bath and West Showground. This led to an escalation of hostilities between festival attendees and journalists. One reporter was filming a drug deal taking place when he was knocked down and all camera evidence was stolen from him.
Flags flying high
Glastonbury has long been a melting pot of different cultures, identities, subcultures and genres. As a result, flags and banners have always been a common sight at the event. In this photo from 1983, you can spot a flag with a white cross on a green background. This may have been an early peace sign, which originated in 1958.
Extraordinary vehicles
As well as motorbikes, vintage cars and campervans, Glastonbury visitors also brought an array of rarer vehicles to show off at the festival. This photo shows two festival-goers zooming along in tandem in a Canterbury double adult sidecar, powered by a Panther Model 100 motorbike.
Carls Fish and Chips
As early as 1971, local caterers had realised there was a fortune to be made at Glastonbury Festival each year. Carls Van sold traditional English fare including fish and chips, but also found a market for tempura and apple fritters, which fuelled festival-goers throughout the day.
Alexei Sayle’s hairy ride
In the late 80s, comedian Alexei Sayle hosted a stage at Glastonbury but then had difficulties getting his sluggish car off the site. “It was horrible. I can still remember people calling out, ‘Hey Alexei man I really lik… aghhh, dear God no!’ as I hit them with my big chromed bumpers. I tried to shout back, ‘Terribly sorry! Problem with the compression, can’t let the old bus drop below fifteen or she’ll stall!'” he has recalled.
A five-year-old star
Michael Eavis’ daughter Emily was born in 1979 and was raised in the heart of the festival. When she was five years old, she appeared on the Pyramid Stage to perform Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, just before the arrival of headline act The Style Council. Later in life, Emily Eavis worked for the festival and even booked Jay-Z, the event’s first hip-hop headline act.
The queue for the loo
Anyone who attended Glastonbury in the 80s will remember the terrible queues for bathroom facilities. For decades, plastic portable toilets dominated the site, often left in truly disgusting condition after just a few hours of use. In 2015, however, the port-a-loos were finally resigned to the history books, as they were replaced by organic compost toilets that are designed to be mercifully odour-free.
