last weekend Glastonbury Festival celebrated 45 years

By Scott Williams | Published: Mon 21st Sep 2015

Glastonbury Festival 2016 - around the festival site (2)
Photo credit: Jamie Cooney

Glastonbury Festival 2016

Wednesday 22nd to Sunday 26th June 2016
Worthy Farm, Pilton, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 4AZ, England MAP
£228 - SOLD OUT
Daily capacity: 203,000

45 years ago the first Glastonbury Festival took place on Worthy Farm. The event which has become Britain’s greatest regular pop-cultural event, was first held on Saturday 19th September 1970 on the Somerset dairy farm of Michael Eavis, who himself will be 80 years old next month.

The Festival came about after Farmer Eavis, and his future wife, Jean, sneaked through a hedge to avoid paying the entry fee for the Bath Blues Festival, which took place a couple of miles down the road. Realising he had the land to try and hold something similar they decided to hold the Glastonbury Festival on Worthy Fam in Pilton. Tickets to the first event cost only 1 pound, included free milk from the farm, an ox roast, food at fair prices, and attracted 1,500 people.

The line-up advertised included The Kinks, Steamhammer, Duster Bennett, Alan Brown, Wayne Fontana, StackRidge, Amazing Blondel, Ian Anderson and Ian Hunt, Malsulami, Originn with Mad Mick, and Derek James. It also advertised a "lightshow, lightship diorama and films, freaks, and funny things."

The first year was to see T-Rex with Marc Bolan take the place of The Kinks after the headliners pulled out, as well as Keith Christmas, Al Stewart, and Quintessence.

It's gown a bit since then with 203,000 (including workers and staff) set to gather for next year's Glastonbury which will take place at a farm in Pilton, Somerset over five full days on the last weekend in June, that's from Wednesday 22nd to Sunday 26th June 2016.

Tickets have been confirmed as being priced at £228 + £5 booking fee per ticket + postage per booking with up to a maximum of 6 tickets able to be booked at once. Car park tickets will be priced at £35 and campervan ticket will be priced at £100.

While the bulk of Glastonbury tickets go on sale at 9am on Sunday 4th October 2015, those travelling to the festival by coach will be allowed to book theirs four days in advance at 7pm BST on Thursday, 1st October, as part of the festivals commitment to green travel.

Online registration is free of charge and only takes a few minutes, and will close on 9am on Tuesday 29th September, you must be registered before this date if you intend to book tickets in either the coach or general admission sales in October.

Online registration for 2016 can be carried out by clicking here

You can also check your existing registration by clicking here, and edit the details here.

Tickets for this year's event sold out in in just under 26 minutes.

Festival goers will be able to book a ticket by paying a deposit of £50, with the balance payable in the first week of April 2016.

Farmer Michael Eavis has said that the headliners lined-up for not only next year, but also the following year, with the next fallow year proposed for 2018, and has said he intends to make 2020 his last at the helm.

There are no acts confirmed yet for 2016. As usual eFestivals will bring you the very best-sourced rumours, allowing festival-goers to see who is playing long before the bands are formally announced - keep your eyes on the Glastonbury 2016 rumours, updated as we receive information.

Help us to help you - if you hear of a band that's playing, please let us know.




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