Music Festival
June 2015Glastonbury
The world's biggest greenfield music and performing arts festival brings thousands of revellers flooding to the lovely Vale of Avalon with its age-old myths and religious traditions.
Set up in 1970 by a dairy farmer inspired by a blues festival, and featuring Marc Bolan in its first year, this most famous of music festivals began with an attendance of 1,500 and now welcomes 100 times that number.
The Festival is held over a 900-acre farming site in south-west England, amidst countryside variously claimed to be the place where King Arthur is buried, where Joseph of Arimathea walked and where several leylines converge. At the top of the site is the Sacred Space, a modern stone circle where revellers go at dawn to chant and play drums.
Often accompanied by rain and mud, the festival is highly supportive of green issues, with some of the profits going to charitable causes.
It is held over a long weekend in June, and a variety of tastes are catered for: the Pyramid, Other and Dance stages feel like London nightclubs; the Acoustic area and Jazzworld are mellow and laid-back; the Field of Avalon, Tipi Field and Green Fields are more 'alternative'; and the Kidz Field and Theatre and Circus fields are family orientated. As well as contemporary music, there's comedy, theatre, cabaret, circus and dance.
There are fields for camping all around the site; arrive early to secure a spot within your preferred zone. Popular areas are Pennard Hill Ground and The Park, Limekilns and Hitchin Hill Ground (both quieter spots), and Cockmill Meadow (for families). Alternatively, tipis can be booked in advance, or there are off-site options, including neighbouring Camp Kerala with its luxury tents.
