大象传媒

2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Glastonbury Festival. But strictly speaking, Glastonbury as we know it now wasn’t the first Glastonbury festival. From 1914 to 1925, classical music composer Rutland Boughton organised a series of cultural events in the town over summer, which he called the .

But when Michael Eavis began his now-iconic festival in 1970, it was called the Worthy Farm Pop Festival, not Glastonbury. As you can see from the above flyer, it cost a quid to get in (about £15 in today’s money) and featured eight performers - at least!

Here are some other facts…

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Michael Eavis advertised the Worthy Farm Pop Festival as starting on September 19, 1970 “and goes on over”. If you’d bought a newspaper that morning, you would have read some tragic news: had passed away the day before. Here’s the 大象传媒’s Brian Matthew talking to Jimi about how he formulated his “freakish blues” sound.

In this intriguing 大象传媒 interview, Michael Eavis fesses up: he’s in debt and the festival is an attempt to get him back in the black. Asked whether “hard cash” is the object of staging the event on his farm, he replies: “I think I’m just an average sort of fella - I’m not all that cunning. I do enjoy it, but obviously I’ve got an overdraft and I’ve got to try and clear it.” Eavis also talks about satisfying the local authorities, the type of people he expects to turn up and how many of them. And, yup, even back in 1970 he was worried about gatecrashers.

Back in 2015, Michael Eavis had to contend with cancelling their Friday night Pyramid Stage set after frontman Dave Grohl broke his leg - eventually replaced by Florence + The Machine. Headliners pulling out, though, goes all the way back to very first festival when (as well as , the other act listed on the flyer) were no-shows. They were replaced by ’s . Other performers included singer-songwriters and , and psych-rock bands and .

These days, the Eavises sell a jaw-dropping 175,000 tickets for Glastonbury in about two nanoseconds after they go on sale. Back in 1970, Michael was hoping 5,000 people would turn up at Worthy Farm, but far fewer made the trip. In this wonderful film, one punter says: "Very poor attendance, I think mainly due to bad advertising. Could have been a gas, great show, had it been better advertised.” Others say they had a good time, but Michael is disappointed: "I wouldn’t say a disaster, but it hasn’t been as good as I hoped."

They may have over-cooked the number of people that turned up (the says it was as low as 1,500), but the Central Somerset Gazette gave the festival a positive write-up. However, within the review, Eavis mentions that he made a loss. "The incredible response I have had from the people that did come has wiped out the gloom of not managing to make a profit," he said. "There is no question of my having to sell the farm or any part of it. Although I don't know exactly what my loss will be of yet, I can say it will not be too great." Oh well, at least the weather was good, as the review also mentions.

When Glastonbury turned 40 in 2010, artists who played the first festival were invited back. Some, like DJ Mad Mick, hadn't returned in the intervening years. They all have fond memories, no doubt assisted by the fact that, as a member of Quintessence (who played again in 1971) says, "Everybody was high. We were all high, man! Everybody!"

As for the future of the festival, we all know how well that panned out. Here's a reminder...

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