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England: Glastonbury

Sparky Mulholland - 29 Feb 2008

glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/

WHERE: Glastonbury
WHEN: 27 - 29 June 2008

Possibly the most famous festival on the circuit, Glastonbury’s inaugural event took place on 19th and 20th September 1970, the same weekend that Jimi Hendrix died.

As organizer Michael Eaves likes to tell you, it was attended by just 1500 people, who paid one pound each for a ticket that included free milk from the farm.

It has since exploded into a 3 day event that boasts over 150,000 patrons, despite its notorious reputation as the festival most likely to be drenched in rain.

Last year was a wash-out and 2005 saw 2 months worth of lovely rain fall in just a couple of chaotic hours.

But nobody seems to care.

The festival that soaks a nation is located 30 miles south of Bristol, making it an easy commute from London if, of course, you can manage to score a ticket in the first place.

Hen’s teeth, rocking horse shit, whatever metaphor you want to use, getting into this event is as much of a challenge as surviving the mud, but if you don’t try…….well, you’re just not trying.

The line-up in recent years has continued to showcase some of the best music the world has to offer, including Arctic Monkeys, The Who, Shirley Bassey, Amy Winehouse, Iggy Pop, Billy Bragg, The Go Team, White stripes, Babyshambles, Brian Wilson, Bob Geldof, Paul McCartney, James Brown, Muse……actually, it may be easier if I list the ones that haven’t performed.

Artist line-up are never released until long after all the ticket registrations are sewn up, but there are always some tasty headline rumors floating around at this time of year to keep the excitement up.

This year they include Radiohead, Coldplay, Bowie and (God I hope this true) Neil Diamond.