Glastonbury Festival
From ArticleWorld
The Glastonbury Festival or the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, also abbreviated to Glasto, is the largest and most popular greennnfiled music festival on Earth. Along with contemporary music, the festival also features performing arts like dance, theatre, come, carabet, circus and many others. When the fetival began, had a profound influence of hippie culture and the free festival movement of the 1970s.
Site
The festival is celebrated at the Worthy Farm in South West England, between the villages of Pilton and Pylle. The Farm is located between A37 and A361 roads. The closest town is Shepton Mallet. It is six miles west of Glastonbury town and overlooks the Glastonbury Tor, a famous landmark in the “Vale of Avalon”.
Organization
The festival is put together by the owner of the site, Michael Eavis (who had formed a company for this purpose called Glastonbury Festivals Ltd.) with help from the local farmers. Recently, a 40% of the festival has been taken over by a USA media conglomerate called the Mean Fiddler Organisation. Glastonbury Festivals Ltd. donates a big chunk of their profits for charitable causes. Michael Eavis, who celebrated his seventieth birthday in October 2005, has hosted the festival since its inception and voices his wishes of continuing to do so, till he has to retire.
Numerous areas and stages are controlled by companies or co-operatives and managed independently. The festival is chiefly managed by volunteers with the exception of the technical staff and security officials. Bars are organized by Workers Beer Company and sponsored by Budweiser. The stewards are arranged by aid charity Oxfam.
Small companies and mobile catering vans provide the catering and retail services. Millets, a camping retail chain, sets up temporary shops at the festival site. The waste is handled by Network Recycling.
In 2005
The tickets to the 2005 festival were sold out in a record 3 hours and 20 minutes. The headline acts were by The White Stripes, Coldplay and Basement Jaxx. the enclosed area was measured at 900 acres and consisted of mor ethan 385 live performances. It was attended by about 150,000 people.
The first day of the festival was delayed due to heavy rain and floods. Many ten, including the Acoustic Tent, were struck by lightening. The Mendip District Council gave a glowing review about how they authorities managed to deal with the extenuating circumstances.
The festival shal not be held in 2006. Instead, a documentary film called Glastonbury, directed by Julien Temple, will be released on 14th April, 2006. It will showcase archive footage and those sent in by fans rom across the globe.