Info for Students



Introduction

Since it began as a small-scale event on a dairy farm in 1970, Glastonbury has become one of the world’s biggest festivals. Each year, more than 140,000 ticket-holders enjoy entertainment at over 100 stages across five days, in the heart of Somerset. You can read a brief introduction to the Festival here.

The ethos of Glastonbury Festival has not veered from the Michael Eavis’ founding objectives when first establishing the company. A summary of each Festival can be found in our History section.

Impact

From the very beginning, the aim of Glastonbury was to bring people together and celebrate diversity in culture, and it has since become a place of joy and discovery for those who attend. But the Festival has also proven to have a positive impact beyond the arts.

Environmental sustainability has been a driving force for the Festival – the Festival’s Green Fields area has always been run on solar and wind power – and after years of work and incremental increases in the use of sustainable power, in 2023 Glastonbury Festival was run entirely on renewable energy and renewable fuel. The Festival’s guiding principles of sustainability also inspired the Festival to ban the sale of single-use plastic drinks bottles across the Festival site in 2019.

To find out more about Sustainability at Glastonbury, please read our Impact Summary.

Every year, the Festival makes substantial payments to a range of charitable causes and campaigns. To read more about the Festival’s charitable contributions, please read our Worthy Causes page.

Glastonbury Festival has also shown to have a beneficial influence on both the immediate local economy and the wider economic environment. For more information please read our 2023 Economic Impact Summary. Our previous economic impact survey, conducted in 2007, is available to read here.

Back to top