Glastonbury
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. The festival is best known for its contemporary music, but also features dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and many other arts. For 2005, the enclosed area of the festival was over 900 acres, had over 385 live performances and was attended by around 150,000 people. While the villagers of Pilton have been complaining about the noise generated during the weekend for many years, in 2007 over 700 acts played on over 80 stages. Glastonbury was heavily influenced by hippie ethics and the free festival movement in the 1970s, especially the Isle of Wight Festival.
Episodes
Forty Glastonbury Gems With Glastonbury Festival taking a well-deserved fallow year break in 2026, this deep dive into the archives revisits 40 precious performances from Worthy Farm. This extended celebration spans from when the festival was first televised in 1994 right through to 2025, with appearances from the likes of Adele, Blondie, Blur, Dolly Parton, Elton John, Florence + The Machine, Johnny Cash, Kylie Minogue, Lizzo, Oasis, Olivia Rodrigo and Robert Smith, Paul McCartney, Pet Shop Boys, Pulp, REM, Radiohead, Robbie Williams, Stormzy, Sugababes and The Rolling Stones. Plus rarely seen performance footage of Amy Winehouse, Ed Sheeran and Olivia Dean.
