Woodsies
Welcome to Woodsies, a live music hub and alternative hang-out in the day, which comes alive as a late-night, immersive area after the main stages close.
Taking its name from the Worthy Farm fields it occupies, the Woodsies Area is a new outdoor venue combining Woodsies Main Stage with the all-new Tree Stage, The Wood (complete with aerial walkways in the trees and interactive spaces) and the Wood’s Bar.
At the heart of the area, Woodsies Main Stage 2024 offered some same raucous, effervescent and gloriously sweaty vibes as it always has from indie rock and pop, Irish rap, punk and metal to chart music and plenty more to get you dancing. With the same great team at the helm, they’ve delivered another fantastic lineup of both new and well-established acts from Indonesian all-female rock band, Voice of Baceprot, who kicked things off on Friday morning, to the incredible James Blake closing the stage on Sunday night. With headline sets from Gossip and Jamie xx and not forgetting the winner of the Glastonbury Festival Emerging Talent Competition, Jayahadadream, we had an amazing three days on the Main Stage celebrating diversity in music from around the world…
What was new this year was the expansion of the area’s eclectic sound with the introduction of the Tree Stage. This new outdoor venue, set beneath an oak tree décor canopy, is zeroing into the immersive, ambient and experimental.
A new playground for sound, artists come here from different fields to share an audio-visual spectacle, opening into the arts, folk, science and the elements of music. Highlights included Jon Hopkins – RITUAL – Exclusive Album Playback Listening Experience on Saturday night and a dive into the microscopic lives of fungi with natural scientist, Merlin Sheldrake. Leading ambient artists include Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy, presenting Rainbow Dome Musick with spacious sounds and field recordings from Ana Roxanne and KMRU in his deepening and experimental path.
The Tree Stage is curated by Lilith Piper. She sees the relationship between Woodsies and the Tree Stage as being like the sun and the moon – the Tree Stage will only open after Woodsies’ headliners finish each night, and will continue well into the early hours. With Woodsies empty on Thursday, though, the Tree Stage will be packed with events throughout the day. “It’s the complete opposite of the raucous, charged energy of Woodsies,” says Piper. “It’s meditative, immersive, experimental, a space to dream in.
And what better place to immerse yourself in the natural world than in The Woods? Into the ‘wild’, The Wood and the Other Wood are the perfect counterpoint to the bustling arenas and a space to reflect, find shade or perhaps find yourself. An aerial walkway through the tree canopy takes you over Peter’s Pond. Dappled in sunlight during the day, the Woods become an enchanted fantasyland at night.
Over at The Wood’s Bar expect rare grooves, world and jazz from our two house bands, keeping the bar alive as a vibrant and welcoming spot to quench your thirst.
Every night, from dusk till dawn, the Tolpuddle Fire is lit in the ring of great stones below the ship. Historically connected to the Eavis family, the stones and the fire symbolize the legacy of a small group of agricultural labourers from Dorset, whose conviction, deportation to Australia and subsequent pardoning in the early 19th century became the first semblance of the trade union movement in the UK. Convivial, warming and close to the Tree Stage happenings, the Tolpuddle Fire is the perfect place to make friends and immerse after a hard day of festivities.
A ship-shaped platform high up in the big ash tree, christened Union Castle (named after the ship that took Michael Eavis on his seafaring adventures), overlooks Glastonbury Tor and The Woodsies Arena. We have planted more than 1000 new trees in Woodsies alone as part of our commitment to maintain the magic of the original Worthy Farm and to let us remember the importance of keeping the land as a haven for wildlife. In the arena, we have reerected a 300-year-old Oak tree as a symbolic totem to our connection with nature and the wild spirit of place as well as a focus for the Tree Stage venue and the Woodsies Area as a whole.
So that’s Woodsies. Find us a stone’s throw from Silver Hayes and San Remo, just north of the river and next to the Pyramid field and we can’t wait to see you there!
