#SpreadTheLove
Glastonbury Festival 2019
By the time you read this, our Disco Fairies will have set up camp at this year’s epic Glastonbury Festival. For those of you lucky enough to have tickets (and you are lucky considering they sold out in 36 minutes!!), it looks like you’re going to be at the best Glastonbury ever with a line up that just goes on and on, and on. And we have created our own 'Lovefields' Spectrum to celebrate!
Musically we’re talking the likes of Stormzy, The Killers, Kylie, Chemical Brothers, Proclaimers, Wu-Tang Clan, Roy Ayers, The Streets, Tom Walker, and that’s just a tiny handful from the big four stages. It’s literally music all day everyday from 11.30. Then there’s The Acoustic Stage, Avalon, Glade, Left Field, Arcadia’s Pangea, Sonic, Pussy Parlour, Gully Blues, Wow, Heds Party to name but a few. Click here to check out the full line up on and in the 90 stages, tents, bars and venues (yep - you read that right - 90!!).
An estimated 135,000 are expected to attend, and it’s not just for the music. Officially, Glastonbury Festival is the ‘Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts’, and the incredible diversity of performers is mind-boggling, with every age catered for too. From dance, comedy, theatre, circus and cabaret to talks, poetry workshops and acupuncture demos.
Of course it wasn’t always like this… The first ever ‘Pilton Festival’ as it was called then was held in 1970. It was attended by 1,500 people, and the ticket price was £1 (and included free milk from the farm!). Led Zeppelin headlined. The following year it was attended by 12,000 with artists including David Bowie, Joan Baez and Hawkwind. Click here if you want to read more about Glastonbury’s star studded rise to the festival hall of fame!
It hasn’t always gone to plan either… We’ve talked about the dreaded weather and how to prepare , well unfortunately Glastonbury has had more than its fair share of muddy moments! In 1997, one of the stages started to sink, and in 2005, after what had been a sunny start, a storm tumbled in and a month’s worth of rain fell overnight. I remember the footage well of tents floating on what looked like a large lake after several stages were struck by lightning, and people canoeing! You can read all about some of the wettest ones here .
Pretty much anyone who is anyone has performed at Glastonbury over the years, including the legend that was Sir Bruce Forsyth and the 14th Dalai Llama in 2015.
A personal favourite of mine though has to be 1995… Glastonbury Festival’s 25th Anniversary. I’ve only been once, and this is why. I used to be a keyboard player in bands back in the day, and it just so happened that the reggae band I was in at the time was asked to perform on one of the satellite stages.
We got to camp backstage (complete with hot showers and nice toilets), played all three nights, and went down a storm. It was wall-to-wall sunshine the entire time and loads of mates turned up. Some, I hate to admit, having jumped the fence. 1995 was the year when it’s said the numbers crashing the fence may have doubled the attendance on site. (It was also the year before the big fence went up!) Oasis, Elastica, Pulp and Jeff Buckley all headlined, and it was the first appearance of the dance tent led by Massive Attack, one of my favourite bands at the time. Basically I had such an amazingly mind-blowingly magical festival, I swore I would never go again as it could never be as good, and so far I haven’t! That said, this week’s lineup is looking pretty incredible…
If you’re there, don’t forget to go and see our gorgeous Disco Fairies between the Bandstand and William's Green and of course don’t forget to take your Disco Beads!
Here’s to a fabulous festival!
Love
Lisa
x
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