Ian Anderson, 1970
“The night before we’d been at the legendary Bristol Troubadour club celebrating the release of the first albums on what became quite a well-reputed ‘alternative folk’ label of the day, Village Thing. I’d been booked for this unknown festival, as had fellow Troubadour resident Keith Christmas. Various bods from the music press and artist friends like Al Stewart had come down from London for the Friday night, so the next day a whole gang of us – some rather the worse for wear! – piled into vehicles and pointed ourselves south.
I just remember our gang lounging on the grass, like everybody else as was the hippy habit in those days, and watching whoever came on. I’m not entirely sure that those appearing on the day bore much relation to the poster. Quintessence, Amazing Blondel and Stackridge (several times, i.i.r.c.) came and went.”
© photo taken by Jo Gedrych
Will Blomfield, 1971
“From what I understand from my dad's recollections, the '70 "Pilton Pop, Blues and Folk Festival", as it was originally known, was a bit of a non-event. The hippy jungle drums had spread word of the festival to London where my parents lived at the time. They drove to the festival in a VW Camper out of idle curiosity and the fact that it only cost £1 to get in. Perhaps as a further incentive Worthy Farm was also offering free milk to festival goers. The experience can't have completely put my parents off because they returned for the second festival in 1971 - one of my favourite photos is of a hippy getting a ride in a tractor bucket (I'm in the background with my mum). My dad's photos of 1971 festival are more striking as the event was clearly a little bit bigger and the Pyramid Stage was a great focal point but it was still tiny compared to the current version.””
© photo taken by Robert Blomfield
David Trippas, 1984
“I hitched from the stones to Worthy farm and got in for free, no fences see, I had my camera with me, it was funny like crossing into another land. I parked myself, boots, sweater, a stripped suit top and shorts, by a bloke to the right of the farmhouse. He had a hut surrounded by a fence and a union jack flag on a flag pole. I pulled my coat over my head and crashed out, the first sleep for a couple of days after snorting wizz at the stones.
When I woke up it was a glorious summers day and chummy with his flagpole leaned over his fence and said "24 people walked over you last night", you couldn't make it up, he must have counted and so it was festival time.
All I remember was the mud and Ian Drury getting it throw at him as he performed. He stopped singing and then went into Spasticus Autisticus, you could have heard a pin drop when he finished and then they went wild. The finest piece of stage craft I have ever seen. And that was that.”
Miranda Millan, 1985
“I was born in Undle Ground field on 23/06/85, after my parents were part of the peace convoy who had been caught up in Battle of the Beanfield. This photograph circa 1989 after spending all day making my outfit in the kids field. Glastonbury is my birthday party every year, best place on Earth.”
Steve Streetly 1985
“We set off from Blackpool and the oil light came on after about 10 miles, ignored it and hoped for the best. Got to M5 and car overheated and we pulled up in a village in Somerset. Miraculously a vicar came out of the house we stopped at and offered to fix the car, which he did (changed a belt or something) we offered to pay but he insisted he didn’t want paying and gave us a bible each. Bizarre but true.
We got in the queue of cars and could hear a reggae band playing (either aswad or steel pulse?) two of the lads jumped out and went over the fence, we got to the gate and my other pal had a broken leg in plaster so I asked where we should park? They said turn left into field and we parked opposite the pyramid stage as v muddy. Left car there until we got towed out on Sunday. Didn’t sleep for 2 days had a memorable weekend.”
Adi-Guru Dasa
“I was a London and Amsterdam squatter every year our tribe went to Glastonbury Festival.
One year my friend and I walked all the way along the Ridgeway sleeping out under the stars...all the ancient sites along the way and from Avebury we hitchhiked and walked straight in to Glasto fest site really early and set up a camp in the kings meadow and waited for all the others to arrive.
By ’91 I had left the drug hippy scene and became an ecstatic Hare Krishna monk.
Every year I begged to be allowed to have a break from my temple services and join the Festival team that did Glastonbury.
In the day time we went on singing procession around the site and fed thousands free food by our tent.
At night we chanted from when the last band stopped playing on the main stage til early hours with a tent full of trippers. we had sitar players, dramas and kirtan and lots of incense.
They were the days.
Now Glasto became a bit commercial. In the old days it was wild, every year a vehicle was burned and the travellers and drug dealers scared everyone.”
Jimmy Green
“Muddy late 90s. Forget which year, we all piled down in his bosses hired BMW. Had to be dragged out by a tractor. Farmer was making a fiver a pop, had to stop at a garage while my mate jet washed the mud off it. Even tho it was muddy saw Radiohead play OK computer I think, it was either that or the proceeding year, or possibly 2000. Honestly, can’t remember the gigs but it was a mudbath!”
© photo taken by Paul Tyler
Victoria Jackson, 1997
“It was an absolute mudfest. I was 18 and it was my first glastonbury with my boyfriend, my older brother (who had been going since the 80s), his wife and a big group of friends and family. I had no idea what to expect as it was my first ever festival. We didn't let the weather put us off (so cold and the rain never stopped) and to this day, its one of the best festival experiences that I've ever had. The pictures in the mud soup were in front of the other stage. I think it was Placebo that were scheduled to play that evening but the mud was that bad that the stage was sinking so there were delays with them coming on stage. We got drunk on tequila while we waited - thats whats in the bottle that I'm holding- and ended up just sliding around in the mud. Everyone around us gave us a really wide berth as you can see in the pictures. Still the best festival ever and can't wait to get back there in 2022!”
Seb Patane, 1997
“You might not believe this but I actually played at Glastonbury once. When I was at St Martin’s I was in a performance art group called ‘The New School of Pretension’, together with Christopher Owen and two more. We made homemade loops of things like Bowie, T Rex, Stereolab and Add N to X and mimed to them pretending to be electro/rock stars. For some reason people liked it and we were asked to play the ‘art’ tent in 1997. It was one of the muddiest years ever, when Radiohead headlined. I was so scared of going on stage that I downed half a bottle of Southern Comfort before so I was trashed and I don’t remember much of the performance, only that there were about 10 people in the audience. It was so grim, wet and depressing that we were almost crying all the time. We were supposed to play 2 nights but the morning after the first one we made a runner, leaving just a note for the organisers instead of our tent in the ‘VIP’ area which simply said ‘sorry’.”
Stevie Holmes, 1999
“This is in the dance tent 1999 - I'm the one in the bright orange sarong with the belly out (very nineties!). This photo came about as I always carried an immense polaroid camera around with me at Glasto, and someone spotted it and all wanted in on a mega 'selfie' before selfies existed as we know them!”
Jacqueline Azura Clayton, 2000
“Glastonbury 2000 (age 9). Bowie played on my mums 40th birthday which couldn’t have been more perfect! Me and brother got interviewed by top of the pops Saturday but sadly we never made it on TV but we were super excited. Looking back we may not have made the best music choices but going as a kid was such a special experience.”
Nick Weetch, 2005
“One of my favourite times at Glastonbury was also one of the most dramatic. In 2005 we arrived on Thursday in glorious sunshine. Having set up and met friends at the usual Thursday night cider bus, we headed up the hill to enjoy the build up to the weekend at the stone circle. As dawn broke we could see the storm clouds rolling in and retreated to our tent. The storm was huge and the ground vibrated with each clap of thunder. When we emerged there was a river running where there had been a line of tents. There was no power on site and a bar had been struck by lightning. At the bottom of the field the old railway track had formed a dam and there were many submerged tents. But this photo sums up people’s attitude - just get on with it!
The rest of the weekend was incredible. Everyone got really stuck in and wasn’t going to let the conditions get them down. There was also countless acts of kindness and charity along with the humour that defines the festival. I can’t wait to be back.”
Hannah Solle, 2007
“As a local my pa used to work on the worthy farm radio so from 3 months old I spent every year frolicking in the fields of laughter and dance. I had my first warning of drugs here, I saw my Dad at his happiest here, I fell for my first love here, I had my first heartbreak here, I watched and met famous people galore here.
My ultimate favourite memory was, I believe, in 2007 when I was 15. In the middle of the day I stumbled across the roots tent, which had a secret act about to appear. As I wiggled myself through a small crowd the Marley brothers were up on stage prepping.. A huge, tall rasta man guided me to the front, handed me a huge flag on a pole and said ‘I got ya, now soak it up kid’. And so I was there alone, with no woman no cry being sung to me by the Marleys themselves, holding my hand and everyone else with their lighters up. Wow, wow. I cry to this day hearing that song. The fields of Avalon and stone circle will always have a huge place in my heart”
Beth Rowley, 2011
“This was our first sunrise at the stone circle together. I was performing with my band and I invited him as a plus one… we’d not long been together. This night seemed to go on forever. I remember this moment at the stone circle so clearly, it felt like we were in a dream. I wanted to carry on forever and I knew I would never forget how perfect it was. He looked so beautiful. New love! No where on earth like it and no one else like my baby.”
Ali Bird, 2016
“2016 - gosh that was a hard year. Going to the Jo Cox Memorial and listening to Billy Bragg sing so sweetly on the Thursday, then waking up to hear the Brexit vote result reverberating across the site with tent after tent just going "fuuuuuuuuck". That was HARD. This picture was taken while we were waiting for ELO to start on Sunday afternoon.”
Inga, 2019
“The Beat Hotel at Glastonbury left some very special memories for me from the first time I went in 2017, and knowing that 2019 was their last year - I spent a large proportion of my time dancing there. It’s one of those places at Glastonbury where once you’re inside, you completely lose track of time. The strangers you end up dancing with are on a different energy level. My Kimono Partner - the girl I never even asked the name of, was full of that incredible energy. I swapped my kimono with her and the next thing we knew - we have started a clothes swapping chain with other dancers too!”