Phil Miller (1947 - 2015)

13th May 2015

We are deeply sorry to report the death of Glastonbury Festival’s much-loved Head of Infrastructure, Phil Miller.

A note from Michael Eavis:

Phil Miller died last night in a hospital in Bath, following a short illness.

I met him about 20 years ago when he was organising local housing for Mendip District Council. In fact, he made it happen for me in Pilton where we built the first 10 of 22 houses with the Hastoe Housing Association. His enthusiasm and determination caught my eye then, and I offered him a job when he retired from Mendip Council seven years ago.

His concern and dedication to this job of organising all the infrastructure was exemplary. Nothing was left to chance, and as a result, we have the Glastonbury we have now. We owe you so much Phil, for these incredible years, and all of the people you trained to walk behind you are now well placed to maintain your incredible record.

Thank you to you and Clare for being here, and for being such a big part of what we do.

Michael

A note from Emily Eavis:

Phil has been here for seven years but in many ways I can’t remember a time here at Glastonbury without him. He has been on a one man mission to make this festival’s infrastructure as brilliant as it can possibly be – every detail on site, Phil was on top of.

Every morning at 7am he’s here, not just planning for the day but planning for next year and the next five years! New ideas all the time, building reservoirs, long drops, reducing gully suckers, building new drainage systems, protecting the streams, creating new areas of the site for people to enjoy, creating our first fully sustainable area this year, making a plan for the future of the Festival, the list goes on and on. He has built an incredible team and been so ambitious with his ideas about how to make Glastonbury the best event for people to come to.

We recently unveiled new offices that were driven completely by Phil. Michael named the building TNG after “The Next Generation”, which is fitting because Phil believed completely in giving huge support to young people and giving them responsibility. Those offices are now full to the brim and it’s hard to believe we didn’t have them last year or that we could have organised the Festival without them.

Phil had enormous amounts of energy and poured endless love into our Festival and farm, without ego or needing everyone to know. A great man whose name is carved firmly into the Festival’s history.

It’s a very sad day for Glastonbury Festival. Phil will be sorely missed and never forgotten.

Emily