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From hippies to hip-hop - Glastonbury's rich history
25 Jun 2009From its humble beginnings as a left-field music show for hippies looking for peace and love on a remote dairy farm, Glastonbury has established itself as one of the world's largest and best-loved festivals.
It has survived riots, fires, mud swamps and the wrath of the local council over its 37-year history to become one of the country's cultural gems - and perhaps unwittingly part of the mainstream it originally fought against.
Farmer Michael Eavis organised the first festival in 1970, after being inspired by the psychedelic delights of the Bath Blues Festival.
He was convinced he could do even better by combining the pop festival culture with a more traditional fair and harvest event.
Around 1,500 people paid £1 to see Marc Bolan - who had arrived in a velvet-covered car - headline the first Pilton Pop Festival in September.
Free milk from Worthy Farm's dairy was also on offer to revellers, as the Glastonbury legend was born.
A second festival was organised a year later, but this time the date was moved to coincide with the Summer Solstice.
The first Pyramid Stage was built on the Glastonbury Stonehenge leyline for the event, which added a cosmic, mythical allure to the festival.
It was funded, in Eavis's words, by "rich hippies", who wanted to ensure no-one would miss out on the delights of Glastonbury simply because they could not afford to get in.
David Bowie played in front of 12,000 people, who had not paid a penny for the privilege.
But not everyone was happy with the new invasion of free-spirited souls descending on the rural communities surrounding Eavis's farm.
Outraged locals complained of revellers wandering the streets with nothing but a top hat on.
Eavis also became concerned about the impact it was having on his livestock and business and vowed to end it for good.
A small "impromptu" event was held in 1978 after travellers arrived from Stonehenge having heard rumours that a festival was planned.
They got what they wanted, despite virtually no planning. The stage was powered by an electric motor in a caravan with the cable running to the stage.
The following year, the Glastonbury Fayre - as it was then known - returned as a three-day festival, but continued to lose the organisers money.
Eavis stepped in to save the event in 1981, by persuading the Campaign Against Nuclear Disarmament (CND) to help run the festival - in exchange for the profits he told it would be made.
A new permanent pyramid stage was built, which would double up as a cow shed for the rest of the year, as the festival's organisation was stepped up.
The event was to be a turning point in Glastonbury's colourful history as it made money for the first time, which was handed over to a grateful CND.
But during the 1980s and early '90s, Eavis faced yet more challenges from unwanted revellers and his fed-up neighbours, which again threatened to end the event.
For the first time he had to apply for a licence from the local Mendip Council to stage the festival after a change in the law in 1983.
He was refused permission in 1986, 1987 and 1989, but took the authority to court and won each time.
In 1990, on the festival's 20th anniversary, travellers rioted with security staff after attempting to loot the empty site. Police made 235 arrests and the festival was cancelled the following year.
But it returned in 1992, having learned some tough lessons, and went from strength to strength - attracting bigger names and bigger crowds.
The Pyramid Stage burned down in 1994, but a replacement stage was provided by a local company, as the event was televised for the first time.
In more recent years, the festival site turned into giant mudbath in 1997, 1998 and 2005 - thanks to torrential rain and thunderstorms.
A £1 million "superfence" was erected in 2002 to finally beat the fence-jumpers and to boost security.
After a one-year hiatus, 2007's festival returned with new security features. More than 140,000 people supplied ID photos for their tickets in a bid to kill off the touts, who had grown rich off the booming demand for black market tickets.
Last year's festival failed to sell out - which some put down to the fear of poor weather and a controversial line-up featuring Glastonbury's first headline hip-hop artist, Jay-Z.
This month, at the age of 73, Eavis announced that he would retire as the festival's boss in 2011, handing over the reins to his daughter Emily and her fiance.
