大象传媒

Glastonbury 2019: All the facts you need to know

Crowds at Glastonbury.Image source, Getty Images

It's nearly time to pitch your tent and pull on your wellies as the Glastonbury festival returns.

Following a break last year to allow the land to rest, masses of music fans are about to swarm into Worthy Farm in the south-west of England for five days of music and events and plenty of big names this year.

The main Pyramid stage will be headlined by Stormzy on Friday night and The Killers on Saturday night. Meanwhile Sunday night's headliners are The Cure, who are returning to the Pyramid stage for the first time since 1995. It means The Cure will equal a Glastonbury record held by Coldplay, who have headlined the event four times.

So you've had one Glastonbury fact - would you like a few more?

Eco-friendly

It's estimated that once the festival has come to a close, there's enough litter to fill half a million bags of rubbish and more than one thousand tons of recycling left on the site. The festival gets rid of rubbish by recycling, but single-use plastics can't be recycled and may end up in landfill and our oceans.

So this year, Glastonbury has banned the sale of single-use plastic drink bottles across the festival site. Co-organiser Emily Eavis estimates "the ban will save the million bottles that we would have otherwise sold" and follows the festival's motto to tread lightly on the land.

Instead, the 200,000 people at the festival will be served by 850 water taps and dozens of water kiosks, using Worthy Farm's purpose-built water reservoirs.

That means plastic bottles won't be available anywhere on site, even in dressing rooms or VIP tents backstage. While people won't be barred from bringing their own reusable plastic bottles with them, ticket holders will be encouraged to take as little single-use plastic as possible.

However, Glastonbury's efforts to remain environmentally friendly this year, comes after some mistakes in the past.

Three years ago the Festival was fined for polluting the nearby river with sewage, killing more than 40 fish. The festival was previously cautioned in 2010 for how it dealt with waste from toilets.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Glastonbury is taking steps to be more environmentally friendly because of the amount of rubbish the festival makes

How did Glastonbury start?

The festival was the idea of a man called Michael Eavis, who was inspired to create Glastonbury after watching the rock band Led Zeppelin at a blues festival in the UK city of Bath.

The very first Glastonbury festival was very small, held in 1970, and had only 1,500 people turn up. They were charged 拢1 for the ticket that included free milk from the farm. Today, a weekend ticket costs 拢248!

Since the 1970s, the site has grown to the size of 900 acres, which is large enough to fit 500 football pitches.

Back then, the now famous Pyramid Stage wasn't quite as epic as it is today, in fact it started off as a cow shed in 1971. It has since grown into the massive main stage we know today, inspired by the giant Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

In 1994, a few weeks before the festival was about to start, the pyramid stage burned down. Thankfully, the organizers were able to create a temporary stage before the festival started.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

The iconic Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury

Loud and proud!

The festival is known for iconic sets from bands from around the world but there are rules and regulations about how long they can play for.

So what would happen, if for example, Stormzy just went on, and on, and on...?

If a band overruns at Glastonbury, the local council get involved because of noise issues for local people living in the nearby area.

Big names like Paul McCartney have broken the 12:30 AM curfew at Glastonbury, which meant the festival got fined.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Stormzy is going to perform at Glastonbury on Friday night

More great Glastonbury facts

Set in 900 acres of countryside, Glastonbury calls itself "the largest green-field music and performing arts festival in the world".

The festival is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for some unexpected reasons, for example, juggling. Yes, juggling. On 26 June 1984, 826 people, each juggling at least 3 objects, managed to keep 2,478 objects in the air to set a Guinness World Record.

More recently, in 2017, 15,000 people gathered at Glastonbury's famous stone circle, to set a record for making the world's biggest human peace sign.

The peace sign was a show of unity after lots of terror attacks in Manchester and London at the time.

The Stone Circle is a famous monument at Glastonbury, people often go there early in the morning as it's a great place to watch the sun come up.

Glastonbury has lots of interesting things to see across the site, including a performance space underground! The secret stage is never shown on the map and the founder of the festival, Michael Eavis, says it's his favourite part in the Glastonbury, it is named as 'Underground Piano Bar.'

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Johnny Depp at Glastonbury in 2017

Glastonbury is also famous for attracting lots of famous faces, Pirates of the Caribbean actor Jonny Depp was famously spotted enjoying the music back in 2017. Actors and other musicians love to hang out in the fields, let's face it Glastonbury is a great place to pose for an Instagram pic.

Unfortunately for us ordinary people, finding an A-list celeb camping next door is very unlikely. For the rich and famous there are tents that cost 拢8,000 and they even have luxury items. Some include three bathrooms and even a butler!!