Love Worthy farm, leave no trace | Glastonbury Festival Please, Remember Your Pledge: Love the Farm, Leave no Trace Pledge Everyone that comes to the festival has been asked to sign up to our ‘Love the Farm, Leave no Trace’ pledge when you completed your ticket transaction: – I will use the toilets provided and not pee on the land. – I will use the bins provided and not throw away my rubbish on the ground. – I will take all my belongings home with me again, including my tent and camping equipment. – I will bag up all my rubbish using the bin bags provided by stewards and use the recycling pens and bins in each campsite. Recycling Pens We have 100 recycling pens spread across all of the campsites. Please use the pens provided for all your campsite waste, this will help prevent bins from over flowing. Recycling bags and black bags will be attached to the barrier or in a bag dispenser. Help support our ‘Love the Farm, Leave no Trace’ Pledge by using the recycling pens.

British Steel Pint Cups After three years of trial and research, Glastonbury Festival is delighted to launch a sustainable, recycled stainless steel pint cup for use on a major scale at this year’s event. Over 200,000 cups will be in circulation in ten major bars across the site, with customers paying a £5 deposit when they buy their first pint. Please click here for more information. Worthy Farm is a magical place and we want this magic to continue when the Festival ends and everyone leaves the farm to go home. We plead with you to take all your belongings home when you leave the farm. We really do want you to leave no trace of you ever having been at the Festival except for your memories. Please encourage people to use the bins provided and spread the message of ‘love Worthy Farm, leave no trace’ wherever and whenever you can. The History Of Glastonbury Festival The History Of Glastonbury Festival Updated: 28 October 2016 The highly anticipated Glastonbury Festival has been running for 46 years, bringing in millions of festival-goers and performers for this musical extravaganza.

Situated near Pilton in Somerset, the festival has been held on Worthy Farm since the very first show in 1970, expanding into nearby fields as numbers grew. Priding itself on their ethos of the hippie and counterculture, Glastonbury has always been at the centre point for festival-goers as the place to be every festival season. The Origins The great Glastonbury Festival rings out among households, whether you’re a festival fan or a music lover, the name is surely to have crossed your lips at one time. The name, however, was not originally Glastonbury, but Pilton Festival. Back in 1970, Pilton Festival entered the music scene as the organizer Michael Eavis decided to host an alfresco concert after seeing Led Zeppelin headline at an open-air festival. Inspired by this outdoor concert, the show was held at Worthy Farm on 19 September 1970 to an audience of 1,500 people. The headliner for the show was Tyrannosaurus Rex (later known as T.Rex) and the price for a ticket was (shockingly for us) only £1.

It wasn’t until the next year, in 1971, when the show converted to Glastonbury Free Festival. That’s right, free. The show was paid for by sponsors and supporters, allowing the tickets to come in at a massive…nothing. Festival-goers attended this free show marvelling at acts such as the late, great David Bowie and Mighty Baby. This was the first year the famed Pyramid Stage made an entrance, designed to replicate the Great Pyramid of Giza, scaling in at one-tenth the size of the original, built with scaffolding and metal sheeting. The festival was held sporadically from 1970 to 1981 and since then the show has been held every year. However, every five years the festival takes a break, known as the ‘fallow years’, where it allows the land, locals and dedicated organisers to take a break. The Stages Known for being the largest Greenfield festival in the world, Glastonbury is home to numerous stages that showcase all sorts of musical acts. The Pyramid Stage is one of the most famous stages, having had three different designs throughout the years.

The original 1971 stage, the second in 1981 and the third in 2000 have all kept the shape of a pyramid, but it is the third Pyramid that is the largest out of its predecessors measuring in at 30 meters tall and made out of four kilometres of steel pipes. The other main stage is named exactly that, The Other Stage (originally NME Stage). Introducing dance music to the festival in 1994, when Orbital performed to great acclaim introducing what was previously a small genre to one of the main stages at Glastonbury, throwing it into the limelight. Among these two main stages the areas and performance spaces on offer range from The Greenfields, a way to appreciate nature and its beauty, The Unfairground; providing side shows and rides for the festival-goers, and even a Kidz Field for family members to relax and have fun with their little ones with rides and activities. The Acts To summarise Glastonbury’s greatest acts would be impossible, the festival has been host to hundreds of massive performers, starting with Bowie in ’71 and in 2015 showcasing Kanye West.

Throughout the years campers have been privileged to witness Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, Rage Against The Machine and Radiohead in 1994. 1999 saw in R.E.M, Manic Street Preachers, Coldplay, Muse and Blondie, while 2004 played host to Paul McCartney, Oasis, Muse, James Brown, Kings of Leon and Morrissey. More recent years have seen Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, The Who, Adele, Shirley Bassey and Amy Winehouse in 2007, with 2011 presenting a show-stopping performance from U2, Coldplay and Beyoncé as the three headliners. Last year’s spectacular show saw Florence and the Machine, Kanye West and The Who leading up to 2016’s massive three headliners of Muse, Adele and Coldplay, who gearing up to perform. The Tickets Whilst the first official festival was free, prices have steadily risen over the years. Not only have they increased, but the numbers of festival-goers has rocketed from its original 1,500 to 175,000.

In 1983, a license had to be placed upon the festival, as it had grown too large, in order to limit the crowd numbers, as it had grown from 30,000 to over 100,000 in the previous years. It was not uncommon to find fence jumpers and gate crashers in the earlier years, often swelling the numbers to twice the amount that were legally allowed. It wasn’t until 2000 when so many people crashed the festival that the District Council refused to give Glastonbury another license until the problem was resolved. Glastonbury began working with The Mean Fiddler Organisation in 2002 so that they could handle security, installing the so-called ‘super fence’ which dramatically helped to reduce numbers. The introduction of the new, impenetrable fence meant that when 150,000 tickets went on sale in 2003 they sold out within 24 hours in contrast to 2002’s 140,000 tickets taking two months to sell.

The inability to scale or break down the fence meant festival-goers were desperate to buy the tickets, as this was the now only way in. In 2007 tickets with a passport photo became compulsory, having to be security printed to stop the resale of tickets by touts. The Weather Glastonbury is known for its dramatic weather, almost becoming a tradition for it to rain at least once during the festival. Worthy Farm has seen some dreadful flooding, when in 1985 the dairy farm became so sodden that the mud and cow dung streamed down into the lower areas of the fields and flooded it with sludge and faecal matter. This didn’t dissuade festival-goers though, who proceeded to dance through the bog. Similarly, in 2005 the field saw in four feet of rain water, with thunderstorms blowing through the sites and lightning hitting tents and bars in the festival. Worst of all, in 2007 flood defences were installed for £780,000, but that did not stop the rain pouring and flooding the grounds, meaning partiers had nowhere to go that would keep them dry over the festival days.

When leaving the site on the last day, it proved impossible as the roads had turned to sludge, taking festival-goers over nine hours just to leave the site. The Charities & The Environment The festival prides itself on its work with charities and those in need, starting out in 1981 by working alongside the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which saw them receive £20,000. Over the years charities would provide a number of volunteers to help with the shows, being rewarded with money going directly to those in need. The main body of the charities receiving donations have been Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid, connecting up with Glastonbury’s strong belief in helping the environment. The festival has created a Love the Farm, Leave No Trace campaign to influence festival-goers to clean up after themselves and take care of the field it is hosted in. This campaign was spurred by Eavis when hundreds of tents were left behind in 2007, resulting in one of his cow’s dying after it ate a metal tent peg hidden in the ground.

The movement not only brings about the environmental message, but hands out biodegradable tent pegs for free to the campers and uses waste vegetable oil in their bio-tractors for the site. Glastonbury Festival | British music festival | Britannica.com British music festival THIS IS A DIRECTORY PAGE. Britannica does not currently have an article on this topic. Learn about this topic in these articles: in Glastonbury ...moors that were previously held in common. The chief modern local industry, apart from dairy farming, is the processing of sheepskins and manufacture of sheepskin goods. Nearby Worthy Farm hosts the Glastonbury Festival, a popular music and performing arts event that is typically held every summer. Pop. (2001) 8,784; (2011) 8,932. in rock festival: Festivals in Europe and Japan ...Roskilde Festival and France’s Trans Musicales in Rennes, with their balance of big names and developing acts, became important career stepping-stones for international performers, and England’s Glastonbury Festival became a cornerstone of the British rock scene for established acts and newcomers alike.

England’s Reading and Leeds festivals achieved new prominence in the 21st century, and... Glastonbury town | Glastonbury Festival The Assembly Rooms The Assembly Rooms is arguably the birthplace of the first “Glastonbury Festival”, held back in 1915. Then known as the Rural Arts Festival, Rutland Boughton crafted what was a contemporary experiment of drama and music. It somewhat paved the way for the festival we have now, certainly setting the mystical scene of what was to come. Regularly invited to the festival were T.E. Lawrence, George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Hardy. The enchanting 19th Century Somerset vibes are amplified through the beamed roof and stoned walls, making it the perfect venue for the early festivities and adding character to the events that happen today. assemblyrooms.org.uk/welcome/ Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey is beaten in size only by its sibling in Westminster. Despite its partial destruction in Henry VIII’s dissolution of monasteries, this spectacular feat of craftsmanship is not a lost message. Stretching parallel to the High Street it is accompanied by a tranquil garden. Take a relaxing stroll amongst a formidable setting.

With the earliest known documentation of it from the 8th Century, King Arthur features in the story surrounding this magnificent build, which also hosts the annual Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza concert organised by Michael Eavis. Glastonbury High Street Take a leap into the cult world of crystal shops and dragon dens. Better known, every day retailers would actually look out of place amongst the scene of myth and legend. Go and explore – and, among many wonderful cafes and restaurants, look out for Gigi’s Italian at the bottom of town, which Michael Eavis says is his favourite eatery. St. Michael’s Ley Line The fact that Glastonbury lies on a ley line could be totally irrelevant and the town’s genuine heritage and deep mystery would still stand, but the matter of the fact is that it does! Glastonbury and the St. Michaels ley line co-exist together to enrich the value of one another. It’s a ley line that goes from St Michaels Mount to Hopton, and also passes through Avebury and Bury St. Edmunds. The May Day sunrise lines eastbound down the line.

Glastonbury Festival Office Originally the base for the Festival within the town of Glastonbury, the office is an understated reminder of the existence of the event that is held in nearby Pilton. With many of its staff having recently moved over to new offices on Worthy Farm, this building now serves many purposes, including housing Children’s World Charity, and musical workshops for children. Located in Northload Street, it is just a very brief walk from the High Street. Northload St, Glastonbury, BA6 9JJ. For more on the Glastonbury area, see the town’s page on the Visit Somerset website . Click for info on the Glastonbury Fringe .

Glastonbury Festival: 43 years, 30 festivals, 30 facts | Gigwise Glastonbury Festival: 43 years, 30 festivals, 30 facts From free milk to the first toilets and much more Photo: WENN / Glastonbury / Press Since its beginning in 1970, Glastonbury has steadily got bigger and bigger over the past 43 years, starting with 1500, and now currently draws over 170,000 to Pilton in Somerset each summer for a celebration of music, art, and culture. Somehow, even while drawing more prolific and varied artists to perform on it's many stages, it has kept an inkling of its hippie roots. The idea to start the festival was that of Michael Eavis, who owns Worthy Farm in Pilton, and was inspired by a festival he attended in 1969 where Led Zeppelin performed in Bath. Glastonbury has changed a lot from the price to the size, but it's obviously got something that keeps people flocking to Somerset every year.

As we draw closer to the 2013 event, we have taken a look every event since 1970, and have pulled together weird and wonderful facts from every year. 1970: The first festival, and originally called Glastonbury Fayre. Costing one pound (with free milk included) Glastonbury 1970 was held the day after Jimi Hendrix died. Around 1500 people attended, and it was headlined by Tyrannosaurus Rex - stepping in for the Kinks who failed to show up. 1971: Back for a second year Glastonbury Fayre had Hawkwind and Traffic headlining, while David Bowie played his first, of three appearances (to date), on Worthy Farm. 1978: This, the third year of Glastonbury Fayre one wasn't planned as per se. People showed up, en route from Stone Henge as they heard a festival was set to take place. After a discussion, it was decided that indeed, a festival would happen. It was powered by a caravan and a makeshift stage, there were no headline acts as such.

1979: Grown to a three day event, Eavis raised funds for this by securing a bank loan against the deeds to his farm. Peter Gabriel was one of the headliners. However, unfortunately the festival was a huge financial loss and thus 1980 there was no Glastonbury. But it was back in 1981 with 'proper management'! 1981: Back with a new name, Glastonbury Festival, 1981 saw the arrival of a permanent Pyramid Stage, which when not used as a stage was a cow shed. Hawkwind were among the bands performing. 1982: This year Glastonbury Festival was involved with the Mid-Somerset and Western Region 'Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament'. To deter an anti CND plane, Festival organiser Michael Eavis aimed a £70 firework at it, in order to chase it away. There was also the festival's first laser light show was backed by backed Tubeway Army's iconic 'Are Friends Electric'. 1983: This was the first year of proper toilets! And the first of Glastonbury's Radio Station Radio Avalon broadcast the three day festival.

1984: This year The Smiths played, which led to uproar amongst those who attended, who questioned whether popular bands should perform on the Pyramid Stage... 1985: The festival was now so big that it took over neighbouring land on Cockmill Farm, to add another 100 acres. It was also hit with seriously bad weather. However Michael Eavis, said he was pleased that "we have had the mud bath and proved we can still cope with the conditions." This is just as well, for there have been several mud-filled festivals since. 1986: The Cure performed the Pyramid Stage, and also, in contrast, to show the spectrum of musical and artistic talents catered to by Glastonbury as it was the inaugural year of the classical tent curated by composer (and Daft Punk collaborator) John Williams. 1987: By now the festival was gathering a crowd of over 60,000 - huge compared to the 1,500 who attended the first, but who pale in comparison to over 170,000 who now attend.

1989: Suzanne Vega, who headlined the Friday night, played wearing a bulletproof vest, after death threats were directed at her and her bassist. Not that that deterred her, above she is pictured performing nearly two decades later! 1990: 20 years since the first festival and the festival had increased almost beyond all recognition. Now boasting theatre and arts as well as musical performers, the festival was re-titled 'Glastonbury Festival for Contemporary Performing Arts'. French theatre troupe Archaos performed atop the Pyramid Stage on both Friday and Saturday nights. The numbers attending topped 70,000, and security became noticeably tighter - for better or worse. 1992: The released line up had a slot named 'Special Guest' which provoked much curiosity. Tom Jones turned out to be the performer, and was apparently 'fantastic.' 1993: Lenny Kravitz stepped in to the headline slot when confirmed performers Red Hot Chili Peppers failed to turn up. 1994: This year, the Pyramid Stage burned down, but a makeshift one was made so the festival could continue.

The festival was broadcast by Channel 4, which only added to the festival's growing publicity. A dampner on this weekend was the festival's first fatality - a result of a drugs overdose. But the most memorable thing about 1994 was Manic Street Preachers performance, complete with Nicky Wire's infamous 'joke', when he said "someone should build a bypass over this shithole." It didn't go down well. "It was supposed to be a joke," he said later. "As I was saying it I thought 'this is going to be really funny'. Then this deathly silence descended on the place." 1995: The Silver anniversary of Glastonbury was worthy of some celebration. Tickets sold out faster than ever before - within four weeks of going on sale, and Original performers Al Stewart and Keith Christmas returned to perform again. The festival expanded again - opening a Dance Stage which featured Massive Attack (who in later years headlined the festival), System 7 and Eat Static. 1997: This was deemed another 'year of mud' not that that deterred the enthusiastic crowds. This was also the year they introduced solar-heated showers, perfect for mud-splattered revellers.

1998: Yet another muddy year - although this gave rise to the sport of mud surfing. It was the biggest festival yet, with over 100,000 attendee's, and 1000 acts over 17 stages which included Robbie Williams, Foo Fighters and Bob Dylan. 1999: The sun came back! This year was held in the memory of Michael Eavis' wife Jean, who was known as 'Mother Glastonbury'. She was remembered with a fireworks display and a wicker structure. Blondie, REM, Manic Street Preachers (who were allowed back after their haphazard comment years before) and Courtney Pine featured in this year's line up. 2000: The new millennium brought with it a host of new stages (and a ruined outer fence thanks to hoards of gatecrashers). The new stages included a new Pyramid Stage, (over 100 ft tall), a left-wing political stage, Leftfield, and outdoor dance venue The Glade featured for the first time. Billy Bragg, who's frequented the festival, played the Leftfield stage which opposes apathy and encourages left-wing politics with speakers and activist performers.

Bragg went on to curate The Leftfield in 2010. 2002: To deter gatecrashers, who had been a problem for almost every festival so far, a steel fence was put up, letting only the 140,000 ticketed guests in. Among the music, arts, and general vibe of the festival a new venue Lost Vagueness brought a silver service restaurant, encouraging guests to add a Glastonbury spin on evening wear. Coldplay were one of the headling acts, and the crowd's gentle sing along almost brought a tear to Chris Martin's eye: "Best choir I ever heard in my life," he choked during the show. 2003:The Best Glastonbury to date? Crime free, gatecrash free (relatively), rain free, and with a cracking line up. Also over £1 million was raised for charitable causes. The Lost Vagueness, an off the wall venue which in amidst festival madness allowed for silver service dining and evening wear, facilitating ballroom dancing was growing in popularity too! 2004: This year saw the launch of the Unsigned performance competition, giving new bands the chance to perform at the festival.

The festival screened the 2004 England vs Portugal European Cup match, and 65,000 people are estimated to have watched the game - more than who were at the stadium watching the game. 2005: Mud glorious mud again... Two months of rain in hours floods could have been a disaster if not for the drainage system installed the previous year. Celebrating the Make Poverty History campaign, festival creator Michael Eavis, Bob Geldof, and Greenpeace took to the stage and declared: "This year, let's make poverty history and get clean energy for our future." 2007: This year the festival expanded again, with Emily Eavis opening her own area, The Park Stage. The Who pulled out all the stops, and triumphantly closed the festival on the Sunday night. 2008: This was a rare year where tickets didn't sell out within hours. However, a last minute boost in the weather was followed by a surge in ticket sales to ensure a sellout festival.

Jay-Z performed, and was received well, despite early criticisms that 'rap didn't have a place at Glastonbury.' 2009: As the death of Michael Jackson broke, the entire festival paid homage to the King of Pop. Lily Allen performed wearing a white glove. 2010: Happy 40th Glastonbury! To honour the anniversary of the festival, event organiser Michael Eavis joined Stevie Wonder on the Pyramid Stage to sing 'Happy Birthday'. Eavis said: "It has been the best party for me of 2013. The weather, the full moon and last night a crowd of 100,000 people, every single one enjoying themselves." Doctor Who actor Matt Smith joined Orbital on stage to play a remix of the TV show theme tune. 2011: The popularity of the festival is seen most clearly in that gates opened two days before the main stage kicked off. Jessie J plays with a broken foot, and Beyonce headlines.

Tort's Glastonbury FAQ Part 1 - GlastoEarth Tort's Glastonbury FAQ Part 1 Part 1 Introduction Hello and welcome to this festival goer's guide to Glastonbury. It's designed to provide illustrated answers to the most Frequently Asked Questions which pop up on Facebook, Twitter and festival website message boards, by utilising a small selection of the ever-expanding library of photos I have taken at the festival over the years. I hope that you find it to be informative and useful. It's an ongoing and constantly evolving project which I first dreamt up well over a decade ago now in order to show new visitors (or Glastovirgins as we affectionately call them) what the festival is all about and to give a pictorial guide to a lot of the attractions and facilities which make Glastonbury stand out as the UK's premier performing arts event. Newcomers make up an estimated 30% of the Glastonbury population each year and if you are going to be one of them in 2017 then these pages are predominantly for your benefit.

However there might be a few useful tips in here for experienced festival goers too and I often get positive feedback from Glastonbury regulars who enjoy reading this every year in order to help get them in the mood in the build up to the festival. Although I have previously worked voluntarily on one of the Information Points at Glastonbury, I'm not employed by the festival or involved in any way in its organisation and the contents of this piece of work are based entirely on my own independent punter's perspective. I've been to the last fifteen festivals stretching back to 1999 but I have friends who have been going since the 70's and also one who is now in her thirties and has been to every Glastonbury since she was born. So I’m still barely reaching the point where I can really consider myself to be a genuine veteran. However I have clocked up a total of more than 150 festivals over a period of some thirty five years and so I hope that the advice I give here can be considered useful, sound and based on experience. There is plenty more in the way of excellent advice to be found within the Information section on the Official Website .

If you have any additional questions, comments or suggestions for improvements to these pages then I'd be delighted to hear from you. Please email me at faq@glastoearth.com and I’ll do my best to assist, or at least point you in the direction of somebody who can. When is it? The festival is always held on the first full weekend after the Summer Solstice, which generally coincides with the last full weekend in June. The dates of the next festival will therefore be from Wednesday 21st to Sunday 25th June 2017. There is no entertainment on the main stages until the Friday but the pedestrian gates open to ticket holders at 8 O'Clock on the Wednesday morning and as far as I’m concerned the festival starts then and doesn't finish until I head for home on the following Monday. In the past Glastonbury had to apply for its license annually and we would be on the edges of our seats every year, waiting to hear whether the license had been granted. But nowadays most of the issues for objection have been ironed out and the festival organisers have a much better working relationship with the local Mendip District Council.

The festival also generates a considerable income for the local economy and as a result in 2007 the festival was licensed to take place for each of the following 4 years, which took us through to 2010. The most recent license was granted in advance of the 2014 festival and is valid for 10 years. Traditionally there has been a "fallow" year every fifth year. The festival took a year off in 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006 and the most recent was due to fall in 2011. However the anticipated year off was postponed until 2012 as the timing of the festival would have fallen very close to the London Olympics, with which it would otherwise have had to share a lot of its logistics. You may remember headlines like "The Battle of Portaloo" on some of the redtop papers when they belatedly and rather misinformedly got hold of the story.

When he was interviewed at the 2014 festival Michael Eavis stated that the festival would revert to its traditional 5 year cycle and that the next fallow year will fall in 2017. However in 2015 we discovered that the organisers had changed their minds and that there will in fact be a festival in 2017 after all. So unless their intentions change again the next fallow year is currently due to fall in 2018. I'm already starting to plan what I can do then instead. Where is it? It's in Glastonbury surely! Well, not quite. Anybody who hasn't been to the festival before would be excused for assuming that it is held either in or very close to the Somerset town from which it takes its name but this isn't strictly true. The site is on Worthy Farm, which is situated some 6 miles to the east of Glastonbury and 3 miles south west of Shepton Mallet, just off the A361 in the small rural village of Pilton.

In fact a few of the locals still quaintly refer to it as the “Pilton Pop Festival” which is similar to the name of the first event held on Worthy Farm way back in 1970. How big is the site? Even if you've been to some of the larger and more commercial UK music festivals before, nothing will prepare you for the sheer vastness of Glastonbury. It's a full mile and a half from the farmhouse at the northern end to the stone circle in the south and it will take you a good hour to walk from one end to the other when there are more than 200,000 people on site. It is also more than a mile across from east to west plus at least an additional mile in each direction from the pedestrian gates to the furthest extremities of the car parks. Here are just a few mind boggling statistics to give you some idea of the massive scale we are talking about:- Area of Site – 1,100 acres (that's the equivalent of more than 500 football pitches) Length of Fence - 8 miles Number of Stages - at least 100!

Number of Catering outlets - Nearly 550 foods stalls and over 100 Bars Number of Toilets - 5,750 cubicles & 700 metres of urinals Number of Rubbish Bins – 40,000 Number of Punters' Tents - 76,000 Number of Tickets Sold - 135,000 Total Site Capacity - 203,000 (and that's not including children under 13, police and officials), or to put it into perspective, almost the same population as a city the size of Southampton!!! How do I get tickets? Details of how you can go about purchasing tickets for the festival have a tendency to change from time to time and your best bet is to keep an eye on the official website in order to familiarise yourself with the procedures and dates involved and thereby hopefully avoid disappointment. In the past tickets used to go on sale in early April. Sometimes they would sell out within a matter of hours whereas in other years you could still pick up a ticket just a couple of days before the festival took place.

For several years now you have been able to pay a £50 deposit on the first or second Sunday of the preceding October in order to secure your ticket. According to updates which flashed up on Twitter and Facebook at the time, all tickets for the 2017 festival were sold within about 50 minutes of going on sale and before a single artist was confirmed on the line up. In some previous years it's taken barely half that time for all the tickets to be sold. The full price of a ticket in 2017 is £238 plus a £5 booking fee plus a further charge (£7:75 in 2016) for postage and packing for each order (of up to 6 tickets) placed. The balance is payable during a 1 week window at the beginning of April. For the last few years the organisers have made 15,000 coach package tickets available for sale 3 days prior to the main sale of the remaining 120,000 tickets. So if you are thinking of traveling by coach anyway, or you want to try to bag your ticket prior to the main sale, this may be an option worth looking at.

In order to be able to buy a ticket you first have to pre-register and supply a passport style photograph of yourself as well as your name, address and post code. The photograph is printed on your ticket so that the stewards at the gates can identify you as the genuine ticket holder. Make sure you register well in advance of the actual ticket sale date as registration is closed a few days beforehand and your photo has to be examined to make sure that it meets the required standard. When you are paying the deposit for your ticket all you generally need are your registration number, which is notified to you by e-mail, and also the post code which you entered at the time of registration. You can buy up to 6 tickets in a single transaction but you must have the registration numbers and post codes for everybody you are buying tickets for. Prior to the 2017 ticket sale Credit cards were not acceptable for UK residents but this has now changed and you are able to use them. However if you use a Debit Card make sure you have enough funds in your bank account to cover the £50 deposits for everybody you are buying tickets on behalf of. Tickets are only ever sold through one official outlet. This has been See Tickets for a number of years now.

There are however "agencies" (or "touts" to you and me) who sometimes claim to have tickets or hospitality packages for sale. They will not receive any official allocation so if you give your money to these people then the chances are you will lose it. Whatever you do, do not buy tickets on eBay or from any other private source. Tickets are personally identifiable and if you are not the person whose name and photograph are on the ticket then you run a very high risk of not getting in and you will have wasted your money. There are usually a limited number of re-sales of any tickets for which the balance has not been paid up during the first week in April or which have subsequently been cancelled. If you are trying to pick up a ticket in one of these sales it pays to keep an eye on the various website forums and festival news as they often happen with little or no advance warning. In 2016 two official resales took place on Thursday 14th April for coach package tickets and on Sunday 17th April for general entrance tickets. In addition there are usually a few tiny allocations of returned tickets which are resold during May.

The actual number of tickets available in the resales is never officially released but I reckon if you take a ballpark figure of somewhere between 10,000 & 15,000 you wouldn't be a million miles away. Tickets are non-transferable although you are able to change the delivery address if you move or if the details are incorrect. If you have to cancel your tickets for any reason you can get your money back, less a £20 administration charge (or £30 if you are cancelling a coach package ticket). You have until approximately 6 or 7 weeks before the festival to do this (by midnight on the 5th of May in 2017). There is no refund available after this date as the tickets will have already been printed with your photograph and personal details. If you can't attend due to accident, illness or any other unforeseen circumstances then I'm afraid your only way of getting your money back after this date is by claiming on any insurance you may have which covers such eventualities.

For the last few years See Tickets have offered cancellation insurance for an optional premium (£5:25 for ordinary tickets in 2016 or £6:75 for coach packages) which is payable when you settle the balance in April. In the past tickets used to be sent out during the first half of June and many people didn't receive theirs until a matter of a few days before they were due to leave for the festival. Naturally panic ensued but thankfully for the last few years they have started appearing through people’s letter boxes a week or two earlier. In 2016 my tickets were amongst the first to be received on 19th May, although it still takes a couple of weeks for all of the tickets to be sent out so don't panic if yours doesn't turn up straight away. Anybody who orders their tickets online will receive a reference number and may use this to check on the progress of the distribution of their tickets via an order tracking facility on the See Tickets website. You’ll also need to enter details of the card you used to pay for your tickets and your post code to do this. Tickets are delivered in the UK by Royal Mail registered post.

You’ll usually receive an email advising you that the tickets are on the way a couple of days before they are due to be delivered. If you are not at home when the postie tries to deliver the tickets you'll be able to pick them up from your local postal sorting office. Can I buy day tickets? Unless you live very close to the festival site then no I'm afraid you can't. There are usually a few thousand one day tickets for the Sunday alone but these are only made available to people living in Pilton and the surrounding towns and villages and details on how to obtain them are generally only ever published in the local press. When is the line up released? It varies year on year. According to Glastonbury folklore the festival never used to release the line up in advance at all and you would have very little idea who was appearing until you opened your programme when you got there. I'm not altogether sure how true this is but nowadays the headliners are often announced several months before the festival takes place. In recent times the names of a lot of the acts appearing on the larger stages are generally released in mid-April.

With the advent of social media Glastonbury receives a lot of criticism for not releasing its line up earlier in the same way that a lot of the other larger UK festivals do. To my mind this criticism is totally unjustified. The fact is that Glastonbury doesn't have to release its line up in order to sell its tickets and personally I enjoy the anticipation in the build up to the main release, especially as nobody outside of the inner sanctum at Glastonbury HQ knows exactly when that line up poster is going to drop. In the lead up to the 2016 festival the first name to be released on 1st February was Jeff Lynne's ELO to fill the Sunday afternoon legend slot. The first headliners, Coldplay, were announced on 16th February, followed by Muse on 26th February and Adele on 18th March. A poster naming more than 70 of the major acts appearing at the festival was released on 29th March.

As always, a few of the smaller stages and areas released their own schedules individually before the full line up for an incredible 100 different stages and venues was released complete with running orders and set times on 2nd June. In a complete move away from tradition Radiohead were announced as the Friday night headliner for the 2017 festival as early as 20th October of the previous year. The announcement was preceded by a teasing image of the band's bear logo appearing on the grass in front of the Pyramid Stage, which was spotted by eagle eyed viewers of the webcam. If you want to get a better idea of when the various line up announcements have been made every year since 2000 the "The Glastonbury Thingy" might be of interest. Some people put together "Clashfinder" timetables so you can work out whether any of your favourite bands are likely to be playing at the same time. The one I use is on Halvin’s excellent “Clashfinder General” website which can be found HERE . You can customise it to your own requirements, highlight the acts you want to see and print it off to take with you to the festival.

If you have an android or iphone the festival's official app is also a good way to work out your schedule for the day as well as having numerous other features. How do I get there? Research shows that the vast majority of carbon emissions connected with festivals are released into the atmosphere as a direct result of punters traveling to and from the event. Glastonbury encourages all attendees to use more carbon efficient modes of transport so please consider using bus, train or even your bicycle as a means of getting there rather than simply jumping in the car. My mate Chris has been known to turn up in his Sinclair C5 but for the less eccentric among us there are basically 7 modes of transport for getting to the festival:- By Bus National Express run bus services to the festival from many major towns, cities and airports around the country. More details can be found on the official website as the Festival approaches or from the National Express website. For the first time in 2007 you could buy a combined coach and festival ticket package. This was to encourage the increased number of ticket holders licensed to attend that year to use greener transportation methods.

Anybody choosing this form of transport only gets their festival ticket given to them en route to the festival site in order to discourage them from subsequently changing their minds and arriving by car. Most of the buses arrive on the Wednesday and leave in the early hours of the Monday morning in order to avoid adding to the traffic congestion during peak departure times. Although there were a few teething problems with the combined coach arrangements in 2007, lessons definitely appear to have been learned and I have heard of nothing but positive experiences in subsequent years. And don't forget that if you choose one of the coach package deals you have the opportunity to secure your ticket prior to the main sale in early October. Buses drop festival goers at the Festival’s own Bus Station, which is close to Pedestrian Gate A at the north-western corner of the site. By Train There is no train station at either Glastonbury or Shepton Mallet. The disused railway line which used to lead to Glastonbury, prior to Mr Beeching wielding his axe in the 1960s, actually passes through Worthy Farm and forms one of the main vehicle and pedestrian routes across the site.

The nearest train station is at Castle Cary, which is 6 miles from the festival site. Castle Cary is on the main line to the South West out of London Paddington Station. Full details of special train services are released as the festival approaches. A fleet of double decker buses provides a free shuttle service to all ticket holders from Castle Cary Station to the Festival. This service generally runs into the night for as long as trains continue to arrive so nobody needs to worry about being stranded overnight with all their gear on a station platform. The free bus service will drop you off at the Festival Bus Station close to Pedestrian Gate A and return you to Castle Cary at the end of the weekend. By Car If you are traveling by car then don't forget that you will need to purchase a Car Park sticker (cost £45 in 2017). It's best to order this at the same time as you pay off the balance of your festival tickets in early April but it is possible to buy one later if you forget to do so at the time or if your travel arrangements change.

You used to be able to simply ring See Tickets and add one to your existing ticket order but I understand that nowadays they will charge you an additional booking fee which seems a bit cheeky. As a last resort it is possible to buy a car park sticker when you arrive at the festival site but be prepared to pay a little more than face value. The price often increases by £5 if you choose this option. While we're talking about car park stickers, a small word of caution if I may. It's sensible not to attach your sticker to your windscreen until shortly before you arrive at the festival site. This is especially applicable if you are stopping at motorway services en-route, where you will often find police pouncing on cars which are on their way to the festival in search of an easy drugs bust. Whether you have illicit substances on you or not, having the entire contents of your car rifled through is seriously inconvenient and a situation best avoided if at all possible. Another handy tip regarding car park stickers is that the glue they use to attach them to your windscreen is probably stronger than the stuff they used to stick the heat resistant tiles onto the space shuttle.

Attaching the car park sticker to a piece of acetate and then blu-tacking that onto your car will mean you can keep the sticker for posterity and reduce the risk of an MOT failure for obscured visibility. Remember that everybody in your vehicle will need to show the stewards that they have a festival ticket before you will be allowed to enter the car parks. There are 2 main car parking areas and these are situated to either side of the site and the routes which you need to follow to get to them are colour coded, blue in the east and red in the west. Apart from that I’m afraid you have very little choice as to which of the dozens of car parking fields you end up in. You’ll just be stewarded into whichever one they happen to be filling at the time when you arrive. Very few of the main eastern car parks are particularly close to the nearest pedestrian gate and you will also have to scramble down the "Hill of Death", which isn’t anywhere near as dreadful as it sounds but is nevertheless a rough and fairly steep track.

Access to the car parks to the west is comparatively flatter but with the rapid expansion of the site in this area over recent years you may find yourself parked in one of the newer "Pink" car parks on the northern side of the A361. Each of the car parking fields is colour coded and numbered so make sure you keep a note of which field you are parked in so you can find your way back to your car when you leave. In the past the car parks haven’t officially opened until the same time as the pedestrian gates, at 8am on the Wednesday morning. But with an unexpectedly large number of people turning up early in 2009, the roads around the site got very congested with traffic at a standstill waiting for the car parks to open. As a result, an amendment to the license in 2010 allowed the car parks to be opened from 9pm on the Tuesday evening. Since then many thousands of people have taken advantage of this every year and have already been in the car parks and queuing to get into the site long before the pedestrian gates open at 8am.

In fact for the last couple of years some of the gates have been opened a little earlier than 8 in order to get the lengthy queues moving. The Festival has its own radio station, Worthy FM (wavelength 87.7FM), which often has traffic updates both before and after the festival so you can get a good idea of how long you are likely to be queuing for. Later arrivals will find themselves parked anything up to a mile away from the nearest pedestrian gate, so be prepared for a long hike. However you will probably have the advantage of a comparatively quicker getaway at the end of the weekend. Warning - Although the actual festival site is cleared of the resident cows some weeks before the festival, this isn't necessarily the case in the car parks so mind where you are putting your feet as you skip barefoot in excitement from your car! If you are being given a lift to the festival by a friend or relative who isn't staying then please note that vehicles will not usually be allowed to stop on the road close to the festival site.

The Drop-Off Point is at the Bath and West Showground, which is sign-posted to the south of Shepton Mallet and from where you are able to get a free shuttle bus to the Festival Bus Station. If you are arriving by taxi then there is a taxi rank at the festival site and local taxi companies are given clear instructions on how to get there in order to avoid blocking the traffic when they are dropping off festival goers. If you are hitch hiking then please be very careful. The roads are narrow with high banks and few footpaths and the traffic can be very heavy. By Campervan or with a Caravan The majority of campervan drivers and people bringing a caravan approach via the "Blue Route" in order to access the fields specifically reserved for them to the east of the festival site. However, 2010 saw the introduction of 2 campervan fields in a separate area to the west which benefits from having its own pedestrian access gate into the main site. Approach the festival via the "Red Route" from the direction of Glastonbury and enter at the “White” gate in order to use these.

Due to the adverse weather conditions in 2016 a number of campervans had to be relocated to the Bath and West showground and this was deemed to be such a success that in 2017 you are able to choose this as an alternative. A 24 hour shuttle bus service will be available to ferry people to and from the site. Please note that security will not allow you to sleep in your vehicle if you park it in the ordinary car parks. You will need to buy a permit in advance. These cost £100 in 2017 and, whereas previously they weren't available until the ticket balances were payable in April, they have gone on sale (and sold out very quickly) in late October for the last couple of festivals. Another change in 2016 saw the name of the lead booker printed on the campervan permit in order to prevent people selling them on at a profit, as had previously been the case. You need to decide whether you want to be parked in the East or West Campervan Fields or at the Bath & West Showground at the time you buy your permit.

There are at least 4,500 campervan pitches in the fields on the Eastern side but only about 1,000 to the West so the western ones do tend to sell out even quicker. I am not sure how many vans will be catered for at the Bath & West but it should at least alleviate some of the demand for campervan passes. The rules as to what does and doesn't constitute a campervan seem to change on a regular basis so check out the Campervan Information on the Official Website and keep an eye out for last minute changes in arrangements, which invariably seem to happen. As a general rule of thumb you must have permanent cooking or washing facilities in order for your van to be allowed entry so an old transit van with a mattress and a bucket in the back won’t cut the mustard I’m afraid. Friends can usually camp with you. Officially they are only able to pitch their tents behind your vehicle and within the allotted space but this never seems to be enforced particularly rigidly as you can see from my family's 2015 encampment above.

Awnings are allowed provided they are reasonably sized although a friend of mine reckons that he gets away with erecting one which is so large that security are often concerned that he plans to start up his own dance tent! The East and West Campervan Fields are some of the few parts of the festival which are positioned outside of the main fence. However the fields are still secure and are protected from possible intruders by some of the fencing which used to surround the main site before the “ring of steel” superfence was introduced in 2002. You will have to queue and run the gauntlet of security searches each time you enter the festival and it can be a bit of a hike so it's as well to take everything you need for the whole day and use the Property Lock Ups to store anything that you don't want to carry around with you all day. Some people actually go as far as pitching a small tent inside the festival so that they have somewhere more convenient to store warm clothes and other gear. There are toilet, water and some catering facilities in the Campervan Fields, although it is often felt that these could do with being more widely available and better maintained.

Unfortunately the organisers of many festivals appear to be under the impression that all campervans have the luxury of an onboard toilet and the sanitation provisions in these fields can often be somewhat inadequate as a result. If your van does have a loo then there are chemical waste disposal points in the campervan fields. Please dispose of your waste into these rather than pouring the contents of your toilet cassette into the composting loos. Also please note that the "No Glass" rule applies just as much in the Campervan Fields as it does in the rest of the festival site and your van may be searched to ensure that you have no bottles or glasses when you arrive. It's as well to leave any sharp knives which could be perceived as weapons at home as well. This always seems a bit daft to me as you can stab somebody with a tent peg but you can't slice a tomato with one. Rules are rules however! There is no electrical hook up available in the Campervan Fields and generators are banned so make sure that your leisure battery is fully charged up before you arrive and be sparing on how much juice you use in order to make it last for 5 or 6 days.

If you are worried that your battery won't last for the whole festival then it might be worthwhile investing in a spare one or a solar powered trickle charger. If you absolutely have to run your engine to recharge your battery then please keep it to a minimum and do it at a time of day when you are not going to annoy your neighbours with noise and diesel fumes. The Campervan Fields are open to punters from the Tuesday lunchtime nowadays although you won’t be able to access the main site until the pedestrian gates open at 8am on the Wednesday. If you are arriving on the Tuesday you may well find that the caterers won't be up and running yet so take enough food with you to at least keep you going until the Wednesday morning. The photograph above was taken from the roof of our van in the West Campervan Fields on the Tuesday afternoon in 2014. As you can see we were able to park very close to the perimeter fence and less than a minute's walk from the dedicated pedestrian gate. There is secure parking for motorbikes near to Gate A in the north western corner of the site. See the official site's guide on taking a bike to Glasto. What if I forget to bring something?

Sadly I understand that the village store in Pilton closed its doors for the last time in 2012 so I'm afraid that nowadays there aren't any shopping facilities within easy walking distance of the festival. But don’t worry! There are several General Purpose stalls on site. They might be a little more pricy than your local Lidl but they are extremely useful for replacing those everyday commodities which you somehow managed to leave at home or run out of during your stay. If you absolutely have to leave the site for supermarket supplies, regular buses run to both Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet. Have a chat with the helpful people on the Info Points for information on when these run. Glastonbury 2014: 10 facts you didn't know about this year's festival | Metro News Virtual Festivals by Chris Swindells Monday 30 Jun 2014 10:41 am Scenes looking over Glastonbury Festival 2014 (Picture: Getty Images) Now celebrating 44 years of existence as one of the leading international music and arts festival, Glastonbury still has many hidden secrets and mysteries to reveal across its huge, multi-district site.

Here are just ten of our favourites. The farm The place where the magic comes to life, the 900-acre Worthy Farm site has been in the Eavis family for 150 years and is home to his herd of 400 prize-winning cows. The dairy herd was recently nominated as one of the six finalists in the national Dairy Gold Cup. The real award-winning Worthy Farm dairy cows, housed in the cow shed during the festival. (Picture: Getty Images) The connectivity cows 2014 saw the introduction of life-size fibreglass cows, a 21st century replacement for Worthy Farm’s famous dairy herd, all offering 4G wifi. The cow hotspots, decorated by festival artist Hank Kruger, allowed revellers to log on and upload pictures and videos at key points around the Somerset farm. The impostor WiFi cows at Worthy Farm for Glastonbury Festival 2014 (Picture: Getty Images) No clowning around More than 8,000 performers and staff help make the Theatre and Circus area the magnificent spectacle that it becomes over the weekend. The festival claim to have more shows in this one area than the entire Edinburgh Fringe.

MORE: Ten reasons why Kasabian rocked their headline Sunday night performance at Glastonbury 2014 Read all about it The Glastonbury Free Press returned to Worthy Farm this year, armed once again with their five-tonne 1954 Heidelberg printing press. The manually operated printing machine printed 30,000 copies of the paper by the final day of the festival. Michael Eavis poses with a copy of the Glastonbury Free Press (Picture: Getty Images) Digging for water Glastonbury Festival 2014 might have be remembered for a surplus of water above ground but festival-goers will probably go without a thought for the huge three million-litre subterranean reservoir system installed right under their feet. The structure, aimed at avoiding the need to drive in fresh water, supplies 400 water taps and seven Water Aid kiosks with the 11 million litres of water needed for the festival. What’s cooler than being cool? Ice cold! Greenpeace returned with an unforgettable demonstration of their ingenious might and campaigning ingenuity.

Aside from the state-of-the-art 3D IMAX screen and replica of the Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise ship, the centre of their 2014 display was a giant animatronic polar bear that is larger than a double decker bus, and the biggest polar bear in the world! Scenes in the Greenpeace field at the Glastonbury Festival (Picture: Getty Images) Stinking feeling The facilities through the years might have caused some to turn their noses up but Glastonbury Festival now has the stink-free solution. 5,000 ‘long-drop’ toilets were this year expanded at 31 locations, each costing £20,000, of the deeper and wider long-drop loos, with the capacity of 28 gully suckers. Compost from one festival’s waste can be used to fertilise Worthy Farm for two years.

Question: What is the name of the farm on which the Glastonbury Festival is held?
Answer: WORTHY