Glastonbury Festival’s founder Michael Eavis.
©Jason Bryant

It’s great news and wonderful to think that the festival has been recognised by the British public as a national institution of iconic status. 

What else inspired you to start Glastonbury Festival besides the blues festival in Shepton Mallet?

 
I’ve always loved my music – it’s in my blood. I read loads of music magazines and listened to Radio Luxembourg and Top 100 while I was at boarding school. I used to smuggle my radio under my pillow. In fact I got such a beating one time I got caught - and I only had thin pyjamas on! I’m from a Methodist family who sing a lot and we’ve always had a great love of music.

Methodism was born in song. I enjoy singing very much and even made a record when I was just 16. It was made up of two songs, “Around the World” and “True Love” - I know them from memory.  I basically got the bus all the way down to Bournemouth to make this record. It was all a bit random really. It’s in the house somewhere, the girls fish it out and put it on now and again.

Another reason I started the festival was because I needed a way of repaying the loan I took out to fully own the farm. I also wanted to bring something else to my life besides milking cows – a bit of glamour if you like!

Was your commitment towards the environment and giving to charity in place before you even started the festival?

From day one the festival was always intended to be a political rallying point. I always wanted it to be a campaigning vehicle, a way of raising awareness about social and political issues and raising funds for charities.

Michael Eavis documented the following objectives for Glastonbury Festival when registering the company, and it is as relevant now as it was when first written:

"The Glastonbury Festival aims to encourage and stimulate youth culture from around the world in all its forms, including pop music, dance music, jazz, folk music, fringe theatre, drama, mime, circus, cinema, poetry and all the creative forms of art and design, including painting, sculpture and textile art.

A large area of the Festival (the "green" area) is set aside for complementary and alternative medicine, demonstrations and displays of environmentally-friendly technologies and techniques, various forms of religious expression, and a forum for debating environmental, social and moral issues.

The Festival organises market places, selling an enormous range of wares, and which place particular emphasis on offering high quality prepared food and hand-made goods, including clothes and jewellery.

The company makes films and recordings of the event, which are sold all over the world.

In addition to all of this, the company actively pursues the objective of making a profit. And in so doing is able not only to make improvements to the site, but also to distribute large amounts of money to Greenpeace, Oxfam, Water Aid and other humanitarian causes, which enhance the fabric of our society. In the running of the event the Festival deliberately employs the services of these organisations, increasing the amounts they can raise towards their objectives.”

What do you think attracts thousands and thousands of people to the festival year after year? What’s its ‘special ingredient’ if you like.

The festival is a truly creative experience for all involved and it takes no less than 20,000 people to get it up and running each year, and they work so hard and put their hearts and souls into it – over and over. It’s a huge thing – a huge accomplishment. 

To be honest I let them get on with it now! I give the thumbs up or thumbs down and let it roll. People are so pleased to be involved and everyone works so closely together to get the festival up and running – from the scaffolders to the trapeze artists to the loo cleaners to the bands – everybody turns up and gives it their best shot. It’s wonderful.

Why do you think Glastonbury Festival is upheld as a symbol of our national identity? What makes it a true national treasure?

The creativity of British people is amazing. If you give them enough space, ‘rope’ if you like, they just get on and do it and do it so incredibly well. Our team put so much love and care into putting the festival on and then the festival-goers themselves arrive and put their hearts and souls into it too.

And even when the skies open and the mud lets rip, the atmosphere remains fantastically buoyant. The British seem to love a good challenge and possess a stoic quality - a ‘we won’t be beaten’ Dunkirk spirit. No wonder we managed to win so may of those medieval skirmishes. It can pour, it can thunder, it can snow even, but we’re not going home!

After how many years did you come to the realisation that you’d created something special and so wonderfully unique?

 
We started something in 1970 that in our minds was just a small simple thing, and then it just grew and grew. Obviously, we’re doing something right! The locals thought I was crazy at first  – can you believe that?

Surely being awarded with a CBE by the Queen put paid to such accusations - what was it like meeting Her Majesty?

It was great – all 30 seconds of it! No, she was very nice indeed and seemed very knowledgeable about the festival. The medal is nice and pretty, too.

What aspects of the festival do you love most? What is it that even when the mud is flowing, there’s thunder up ahead, you’ve had flack from Mendip Council, been fined, loads of people have gate-crashed etc… makes it all worthwhile?

I love the fact that the people who come to the festival are all there for the same reason: to have the times of their lives. It’s a massive celebration of life and joyful thing, it’s a huge thanks-giving in a way.

I also like the way that the festival has retained a sense of freedom, there’s so much space and people feel completely free to loon around, which is part of the fun. The festival certainly does seem to attract a fair few loons!

It harks back to the traditional medieval festivals taking place in Britain where people would really let their hair down. I like the way Glastonbury Festival has retained that medieval, devil-may-care spirit.

With said mud and adverse weather conditions in mind, have you ever been tempted to change the festival’s dates despite the Summer Solstice?

Never, we’re the first festival of the season. The bands start with us then leapfrog on. We might run the risk of losing the calibre of bands if we moved our dates back. And of course we have always celebrated the summer solstice. There’s a lot of history and great sense of spirituality tied up in the festival’s dates and it’s a wonderful time of year - that shift from spring to summer. We would never meddle with it.

What year in your opinion marked the best Glastonbury Festival ever?

We try our very best to try and succeed every year we do it. It really is a labour of love. And as I said, it takes a staggering 20,000 people to make it work and everyone involved is so keen, so enthusiastic. It’s such a privilege for me to work with these people.

Strangely enough though, the best part of the festival for me is when it’s over! There’s a great sense of achievement, there’s time to reflect, the fields are cleared… and I think to myself, phew, another year done.  I then feel so pleased and so proud, but actually during the event I feel way too strung-out.

Which musician/band/act blew you away and left a lasting impression on you for years to come?

It happens all the time. All the top bands The Smiths, Oasis, Radiohead were all great of course. But Mark Bolan from T. Rex - his set played at the first ever festival in 1970 was brilliant. It was so inspirational. In fact it gave me the inspiration to carry on with the festival, it was so special. It was a very good moment.

How do you feel about leaving the festival in your daughter Emily’s hands? And do you think you’ll still be donning your wellies even when you hit 80? Will you ever retire – hang your Hunters up?

Emily is getting more and more involved and is one of the festival’s prime movers and shakers. She’s involved with booking the bands and is responsible for the Park field, but I still decide who the headliners will be. I save that part for myself still at least!

As far as will I hang my wellies up any time soon, I hope I can last another 10 years – at least.

With Kings Of Leon, Jay-Z and The Verve headlining 2008's festival (the full line-up will be announced in June) the much anticipated event looks set to become another unforgettable and wonderful experience, as do all the future Glastonbury festivals set to follow it...

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