Overview - Glastonbury
Date of release
Genres
- Documentary
Spoken Languages
- English
Production companies
Name: BBC
Production country United Kingdom
Overview
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.
Seasons
Name: Glastonbury 1997
Episode: 1
Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts returned in 1997 after 1996's fallow year. The attendance was 90,000 and tickets cost £75 including official programme. What was different this year was a a major sponsorship from The Guardian and the BBC, who had taken over televising the event from Channel 4. This was also the year of the mud, with the site suffering severe rainfalls which turned the entire site into a muddy bog.
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Name: Glastonbury 1998
Episode: 0
In 1998 the Glastonbury festival was once again struck with severe floods and storms, and again some festival goers departed early – but those who stayed were treated to performances from acts such as Pulp, Robbie Williams and Blur. Tony Bennett, however, overcame the messy environment in an immaculate white suit and tie. 1998 was also the first year that attendance officially broke the 100,000 mark
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Name: Glastonbury 2010
Episode: 0
The 2010 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts took place in Pilton, Somerset, England, 23 - 28 June 2010. The festival was headlined by Gorillaz, Muse, and Stevie Wonder. U2 were initially announced as headliners, but withdrew on 25 May 2010 citing Bono's recent back surgery. Gorillaz were announced as the replacement. A crowd of 177,500 people attended the event, which was totally rain-free for the first time since 2002.
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Name: Glastonbury 2012
Episode: 0
The festival was not held in 2012, giving the site and organisers a "fallow year" which originally would have been in 2011, in keeping with the tradition of taking a break every fifth year. BBC however, still filled the TV slots with musical content.
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Name: Glastonbury 2014
Episode: 92
The 2014 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts was held between 25 and 29 June 2014.
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Name: Glastonbury 2015
Episode: 94
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Name: Glastonbury 2016
Episode: 98
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Name: Glastonbury 2017
Episode: 88
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Name: Glastonbury 2019
Episode: 94
The 2019 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts took place between 26 and 30 June. The three headlining acts were Stormzy, the Killers, and The Cure. This was the last regular edition until 2022 when the subsequent two editions were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, known as enforced "fallow" years. Kylie Minogue's much anticipated performance in the Legends time slot became the most viewed Glastonbury performance in the festival’s history with 3.9 million viewers, marking the Australian's return to the festival after being forced to pull out in 2005 after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Partway through the Killers' set the stage was swept by Jimmy Carr.
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