NPR takes listeners on a tour of the world’s largest music fest: 200,000+ campers in a muddy discipline, rocking out. Lately, Glastonbury has gone plastic-free, family-friendly and accessible for all.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Image this – lush inexperienced fields in southwest England, a couple of cows, some apple timber – a quiet countryside scene. However then image one thing else – a few of the world’s largest names and music, descending on this farm, bringing with them greater than 200,000 followers who all camp on the market for 5 days, rain or shine. The outcome is likely one of the largest performing arts festivals on this planet, Glastonbury. It’s underway proper now, and NPR’s Lauren Frayer is true in the course of it. Hey, Lauren.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Hello, Scott.
DETROW: Let me get proper to it. Are you in the course of a muddy mosh pit?
FRAYER: Scott, I took an enormous danger, and I left my rubber boots at residence, and now I am watching these darkish clouds roll in ominously.
DETROW: Uh-oh.
FRAYER: I am additionally taking a look at a sea of multicolored tents and phases the place Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Femi Kuti, Shania Twain – these are a few of the headliners enjoying right here this weekend. This place is known. This is one of many music followers I met right here, Sam Llewellyn, and he has his child son, Theo, in his backpack.
SAM LLEWELLYN: It is his first 12 months. He is 1. He was 1 within the 1 Could. I have been coming since I used to be 6 months previous. I am now 29.
FRAYER: Wait, you’ve got been coming right here because you have been a toddler?
LLEWELLYN: Yeah.
FRAYER: Your mother and father took you right here?
LLEWELLYN: Yeah, yeah.
FRAYER: And now you take your little one.
LLEWELLYN: Now I am taking my little one. I am residing on the generations of Glastonbury.
FRAYER: This competition has been occurring since 1970. It is form of like Woodstock. So there are these generations and generations of followers. There is a children discipline with playgrounds, arts and crafts, face portray. There’re diaper-changing areas.
DETROW: I imply, 50 years is such a very long time for popular culture and music. I am fairly certain there weren’t diaper-changing areas at the start. What did it seem like to start with? How has it modified over time?
FRAYER: There was nothing. This was a farm. There is a farmer named Michael Eavis. Again in 1970, the tickets price one pound – about $1.25. Now they price greater than $450. Most individuals, like me, camp in their very own little tent within the grass. However there are glamping choices now. There are luxurious yurts for hundreds of greenback an evening. There is a pop-up resort with a swimming pool.
Michael Eavis continues to be round, by the way. He is 88. He is now Sir Michael Eavis. He is a knight now. He nonetheless runs this competition. He was really on stage at the moment singing Frank Sinatra’s “My Manner” to large cheers. It nonetheless retains Eavis’ ethos, although, which is resisting commercialization. You do not see a number of huge logos right here. Glastonbury has type of managed to keep away from controversies which have hit festivals like South by Southwest, for instance, the place artists have pulled out, objected to sponsorship from sure industries. The motto right here is depart no hint on the land. Each 5 years or so, they’ve a fallow 12 months. They actually skip the competition to let the grass regrow as a result of that is really nonetheless a functioning dairy farm. They make cheddar cheese right here.
DETROW: I imply, let’s get to that. I have been to a number of music festivals, and I can see how a lot of a large number they make. How can tons of of hundreds of individuals camp for 5 days and depart no hint?
FRAYER: I imply, the organizers are simply critical about sustainability. There are composting bogs. There’s a military of volunteers who clear trash in change at no cost tickets. The competition is plastic-free, glass-free. This is Sarah Stevens. She’s been volunteering right here for the previous 40 years.
SARAH STEVENS: Yeah. The cows are simply lacking in the meanwhile. And that is why you must respect the land much more – you recognize, no glass and no nonbiodegradable glitter. ‘Trigger what you drop, a cow may very well be consuming in, you recognize, three weeks’ time.
FRAYER: And it isn’t simply music. There’s artwork, magic, acrobats, political activism. Final 12 months, this competition raised greater than $2 million for 3 huge charities – Greenpeace, WaterAid and Oxfam.
DETROW: That is NPR’s Lauren Frayer on the Glastonbury Music Pageant in southwest England. Lauren, get pleasure from this hardship project.
FRAYER: (Laughter) Thanks a lot.
DETROW: Thanks.
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