this year's Glastonbury Festival will be hard to beat

This year's Glastonbury Festival was once again a fantastic success, with big name star headliners, a burgeoning bill of legends, rising stars, and a wealth of thrills, spills and surprises to keep Festival goers entertained across the site. For many who were there it will also be remembered as the place where they heard the news that pop legend Michael Jackson had died, on the Thursday whilst the festival was getting underway.

As news spread and people wondered if it was just another Festival rumour, the bands playing began to pay homage to the 'King Of Pop' with a medley from Dizzee Rascal, and culminating in a Jackson singalong performed by Jazz World headliners Black Eyed Peas who had the crowd dancing on the Sunday. Nick Cave on the otherhand dedicated his performance to Farrah Fawcett.

With the festival getting in full swing even earlier this year, more people than ever before arrived early, causing traffic chaos on the Wednesday and resulting in depleted teams for the inaugural eFestivals' Glastonbury World Cup played in front of the Pyramid Stage to raise money for Wateraid. There was even a chance to talk to festival founder Michael Eavis after the match for those who had watched the game.

Huge crowds gathered at the Queens Head for the first official band of the weekend, Maximo Park, and crowds also filled the Jazz World field to capacity for Rolf Harris. The vintage headliners of Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen attracted large numbers with both providing showcases at which those in their older years danced just as frenetically as their teenage counterparts.

Dance acts were also the order of the day with The Prodigy, and Pendulum whipping the crowds into a seething mass on the Other Stage. For the more alternative festival goers there were rare chances to see Steve Hillage, and Gong performing on the Glade Stage.

With strong line-ups on both the big stages this year, and grass still available to sit on, sun drenched music lovers baked whilst enjoying classic acts like Status Quo, and Spinal Tap, Tony Christie, Crosby Stills & Nash, The Specials, and Madness. Intermixed across the big stages were also pop treats in abundance, as well as featuring many of the influential women in the music industry in a line-up that included Lily Allen, Karen O, Gabriella Cilmi, Ladyhawke, Bat For Lashes, Florence And The Machine, and Regina Spekter.

The Acoustic Stage offered appearances from seminal acts such as The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and Roger McGuinn founder of The Byrds. The Avalon stage bounced to festival favourites from The Wonderstuff, to Dodgy, Seth Lakeman to 3 Daft Monkeys.

This year also saw more people venturing to the further reaches of the 8 mile wide site, with many finding their way to the Park Stage for surprise guests Jack White with Dead Weather, Klaxons, and Supergrass side project Hot Rats.

At the pulsating Dance village, which stayed mud free after the rain fell along with previous festival reminders of lightning and thunder on the Thursday. Often slightly edgy on the first night, this year there was a terrific atmosphere with sound systems, DJs, crazy characters, and live acts all blending into one glorious 'up for it' boogie into the night. Oxfam's blue face paint providing a common tribal theme for many this year.

The late night south east corner of Shangri La, Trash City, and the new Arcadia Arena really came into their own. Despite a long walk to get into, the exhilarating party venues delivered the unexpected, amongst the highlights were surprise performances from Festival regular Fatboy Slim, and a raunchy set from Lady GaGa. Shangri La especially had evolved with a rabbit warren of covered 'Subway' labyrinths offering hidden venues, twisted bars, shocking sights, and a myriad of surprises. A return to the old 'unexpected and unpredictable' days of late night fun at Glastonbury.

Away from the music there were enough craft workshops to keep festival goers busy throughout, plenty of good causes to get involved in and even an opportunity to buy your very own wind turbine, just like the one iconically placed beside the Pyramid Stage. There was also a huge range of stalls and catering outlets, with many of the best ones completely selling out of delicious fodder by Sunday lunchtime.

Theatre, Circus, Poetry, and Cabaret, also blossomed again this year with the addition of more site art, a couple more random stages, and a host of crazy characters in full costume to give the festival many moments of mirth with a host of performers wandering the fields to add to the fun.

There seemed to be even more children on site this year, possibly due to the attraction of the veteran headliners to parents and grandparents. And, with buggies able to traverse the pretty much mud free site by late Saturday, alongside the vibrancy of the festival with so much on offer - they spilled happily from the Kidz Field, and family camping to all corners of the site, giving the festival a grand family feel that's been slightly less noticeable in some areas in previous 'muddier' years.

Another welcome return to the festival was a more diverse crowd in terms of where people came from, the weaker pound, and a plethora of international male and female superstars had attracted a much more global crowd back again, something which had been noticeably smaller in the last couple of years.

The people who must have put so much time and effort into making the event so thrilling, and so diverse, must be heartily congratulated for providing a festival which burgeoned with more possibilities to thrill, entertain, and get involved than ever before.

Also worthy of huge praise is Festival organiser Michael Eavis and family, who have seen the festival grow into the largest and most diverse festival in the world. The dairy farmer said at Sunday's press conference that he felt this year was a zenith for the festival. It was clear that Eavis had waited a long time to finally fulfill his dream of having Neil Young grace the stage.

Once again he declared it the 'best year ever', but after such big legendary headliners, he conceded it might be hard to top it, wondering, “Can't we have the 40th Anniversary this year?“

“You'll come back next year though anyway, won't you?” he enquired, knowingly. He also mentioned that the festival were already talking to three or four possible headliners, some returning and some new acts for those 40th Anniversary celebrations in 2010.

We'll have loads of reviews and pictures of the festival online shortly (we're recovering just like you are).

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