Interview with Emily Eavis in the paper today

[Mardy]

article

[Funkfarley]

article

Edited April 26, 2009 by Funkfarley

[DaveMac]

Thanks Mardy for posting this. I found it quite interesting as a behind the scenes look at Emily Eavis's role and her various experiences over the years:

Jean Eavis had been one half of Glastonbury, founding it with Michael almost 30 years earlier. The couple had planned to retire in 2000, bringing the tradition to an end. "In the years that my parents were running it, it was so stressful," says Emily. "You would be sat down for dinner and there would be someone at the door, at the window, on the phone; people turning up in massive trucks in the middle of the night - it was like the Wild West in the 80s."

The reason her parents felt ready to end it was because it was hard to see how it would go on, she says. Things could be volatile. Emily remembers how, in 1990 when she was 10, she was sitting at the kitchen table, doing her homework, when she saw "a row of people running towards the window with telegraph poles that were on fire. It was horrific. And my parents began to think, 'Is it worth it, what is the long-term future, how can it continue?'." Towards the end of the 90s, "they quite liked the idea of just sitting in a couple of deckchairs on the beach".

That changed when her mother died: "Dad needed it more than ever and I needed to be there with him." It was never supposed to be long term for Emily. "It was a distraction from the pain that everyone was going through and a tribute to my mum," she says. "I felt she'd been through so much, we had to keep it going for her."

.............

"The biggest misconception is that my dad and I are sitting around the kitchen table with goggles and test tubes creating the ultimate concoction for each year, going 'No, let's make it a bit younger or a bit older'. Just creating this mad experiment. It isn't true. We are just trying to make the best of what we've got."

[Curtains1]

"The biggest misconception is that my dad and I are sitting around the kitchen table with goggles and test tubes creating the ultimate concoction for each year, going 'No, let's make it a bit younger or a bit older'. Just creating this mad experiment. It isn't true. We are just trying to make the best of what we've got."

That is a bit annoying....does she think she has it bad?

[glastoman417]

"The biggest misconception is that my dad and I are sitting around the kitchen table with goggles and test tubes creating the ultimate concoction for each year, going 'No, let's make it a bit younger or a bit older'. Just creating this mad experiment. It isn't true. We are just trying to make the best of what we've got."

That is a bit annoying....does she think she has it bad?

[paulo999]

I interpreted it as they are trying to book the best lineup they can with the money they've got available, rather than aiming for a particular audience.

[mandypants]

Shame really, I'd love to think of the Eavis clan sitting at the table doing hippy magick stuff to make the perfect fest

[TomfromStroud]

Emily's getting married? And not to me? Bloody Nick Dewey...

[Chimps in Balaclavas]

Thanks for sharing.

[muddyslingbax]

Cheers Mardy. i think it's really interesting as i know very little about the Eavis family and how Glasto is run.

[MEGABOWL]

"The biggest misconception is that my dad and I are sitting around the kitchen table with goggles and test tubes creating the ultimate concoction for each year, going 'No, let's make it a bit younger or a bit older'. Just creating this mad experiment. It isn't true. We are just trying to make the best of what we've got."

That is a bit annoying....does she think she has it bad?

[BIG question @ Glasto]

Very interesting article, thanks for posting it Mardy.