13 Facts You Didn’t Know about Glastonbury Festival

This post was put together by Simon Price from All About Electrics, a local LED lighting firm in Bristol, close to the home of the might Glastonbury Festival.

Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is one of, if not the, most iconic festivals in the world. Starting in 1970, the festival has had many ups and downs but has always managed to attract some of the world’s biggest and most exciting music acts along the way.

From Jay-Z to the Rolling Stones, many heroes and legends have played on the hallowed Pyramid Stage and have reveled in the muddy fields of Pilton’s Worthy Farm.

But how much do you know about this iconic festival? 

Here 13 facts I bet you didn’t know:

1) Glastonbury Festival started the day after Jimi Hendrix died in 1970. There was an attendance of 1,500 and the ticket price was £1 and included a bottle of fresh milk from Worthy Farm’s dairy herd.

2) The Green Police was started at Glastonbury in 1976 by Save The World Club. They were set up to help encourage litter picking and recycling and stop people polluting the hedgerows. They are responsible for making sure people show Worthy Farm the respect it deserves and can be seen in their fun fancy dress outfits singing in gangs and gaggles all over the site.

3) Every morning, Worthy Farm’s dairy cows provide fresh milk to festival go-ers for £1. The organic milk is brought round by a ‘Green Tractor’ and is given out to happy campers.

4) Glastonbury uses cutting edge ‘Orion’ solar generators and modern LED lighting technology during the festival. This modern green technology saves over a tonne of carbon emissions and helps reduce the festival’s carbon footprint.

5) The festival site is home to a 500-year-old Oak tree. This tree can be found in the back corner of the Green Kid’s Field where it is regularly given some hippy style tree hugs.

6) There are on average 177,550 attendees at Glastonbury every year.

7) There are 15,000 hand painted bins located around the Glastonbury Festival site.

8) The Pyramid Stage didn’t make its debut as Glastonbury’s headlining stage until 1981. Up until then, it was made of corrugated iron and telegraph poles and doubled up as a cowshed for Worthy Farm’s dairy cows for the rest of the year.

9) In 2008 Glastonbury recycled 193.98 tonnes of composted organic waste, 400 tonnes of chipped wood, 9.12 tonnes of glass, 54 tonnes of cans and plastic bottles, 41 tonnes of cardboard, 66 tonnes of scrap metal, 11.2 tonnes of clothing, tents and sleeping bags, 0.264 tonnes of batteries, 10 tonnes of dense plastic, 0.25 tonnes of plastic sheets. In total, 863.32 tonnes of waste was recycled.

10) Glastonbury Festival is the biggest single regular donor to Greenpeace. The festival also provides a recruitment area for members and promotes environmental campaigns the charity are running.

11) Glastonbury 2010 was the hottest festival on record with temperatures hotter than Mexico. A second new permanent reservoir was built to try and lower the demand for fresh water.

12) 2008 was the only year the Glastonbury ticket ballot didn’t sell out immediately. However, after the re-sale, tickets were all sold.

13) 2008 was also the year rap legend Jay-Z headlined Glastonbury which resulted in a ‘pre-festival hoo-ha’ as many festival goers and critics felt rap had no place at Glastonbury. However, Jay-Z delivered a storming show filled with wit and style proving everyone wrong.