Launched in 1970, tickets to the first Glastonbury Festival were £1 – including free milk from the farm! Today, Glastonbury attracts over 200,000 festival-goers each year, and has grown into the world's largest Green Fields event. But Glastonbury is more than the world’s greatest music festival, it is a space that encourages freedom, creativity, belonging and expression, inviting people to come together and participate in a mass experience unlike any other.
This series of exclusive interviews take you behind-the-scenes and back to the origins of the Festival. Find out what makes Glastonbury unique to those who make the Festival happen as we discuss the ethos, impact and future of Glastonbury.
Liz Eliot, Founder of the Green Fields
Liz Eliot, founder of the Green Fields area at Glastonbury Festival, traces her history at the Festival from her first visit in 1981 to today. On location at Glastonbury's Stone Circle, Liz reflects on how the green message has become embedded within the Festival ethos and on what makes the experience and landscape of Glastonbury Festival unique.
Bob Wilson, Head of Events for Greenpeace
As Head of Events at Greenpeace, Bob Wilson has been actively involved with Glastonbury since 1992. He draws connections between Glastonbury's radical and revolutionary roots in the 1970s to Greenpeace's action-led interventions that are a key component of the Festival's identity today.
Tony Cordy, Founder of the Kidzfield
Tony Cordy created Glastonbury's Kidzfield in 1994, following a number of years working at Glastonbury and within the UK's wider Free Festival movement before that. The Kidzfield is now Europe's largest free, outdoor children's festival, and has inspired generations of young people who now form part of Glastonbury's creative ecology.
Joe Rush, Founder of the Mutoid Waste Company
Joe Rush's spectacular artworks, made mostly from waste material, have been a significant part of Glastonbury Festival since his first arrival there in 1985. Joe discusses the mission of the Mutoid Waste Company and how his work, from Car-henge to Cineramageddon and Glastonbury-On-Sea, has found a home at Glastonbury through the years.
Luke Piper, Coordinator for Avalon, The Glade, and The Wood
Luke Piper is the Coordinator of Glastonbury's Avalon, The Glade and The Wood areas. He discusses the growth of the Avalon area from folk music to acid house. As a geographer and artist, Luke shares his research into the sacred landscape of Glastonbury and explores the connections between the Summer Solstice, the energy of the natural world, and the experience of festival-going.
Pip Rush, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Arcadia
Pip Rush grew up at Glastonbury, having been introduced to the Festival by his brother Joe Rush. He built his first stage and sound system at Glastonbury in 2008, and, as co-founder of Arcadia, has continued to merge large scale sculpture, aerial performance and rave culture ever since. Talking from Glastonbury's Stone Circle, Pip traces the history of late-night music at Glastonbury and questions what's next for post-pandemic Festivals.
These interviews were produced as part of the Glastonbury Weekender, June 2021 – a one-day conference exploring the impact and legacy of Glastonbury Festival.
