This weekend saw the opening of our Worthy Pastures pre-erected campsite at the Festival, and it was so nice to have our first guests along. There was a really lovely atmosphere on-site, with Michael chatting with the campers as they explored the site and sampled the stalls and activities.

We’ve also had our first media reviews, with The Telegraph calling the site “a beautiful place to spend a few days”, The Sun describing it as “perfect for a nostalgic holiday” and Greatest Hits Radio declaring, “there’s much more to see and try than I expected… it’s also great having so much safe space for kids to run around in and I saw lots of relaxed parents”.

The site is now open for the summer until the end of August – get more information and book your space here.

All pics above by Tom Jackson

It’s now just 10 days until our summer 2021 pre-erected campsite, Worthy Pastures, opens here on the Glastonbury Festival site – and we’re so excited that we’ve created a line-up poster! Come and experience Worthy Farm in a way you’ve never been able to before, with prices starting at £195 for a 3-night stay for two adults and two kids. Or bring your campervan for up to five nights for just £150! Get all the info on the Worthy Pastures website, or click here to book your accommodation now.

Worthy Pastures guests will be able to enjoy a whole host of attractions and activities: whether it’s chilling out in the Stone Circle, sampling some of the Festival’s best food traders, taking part in a wide range of on-site workshops for kids and adults, or visiting all the amazing places close to the farm. Find out more on our Things To Do page.

We’ve just added some new items to our online shop, including a jigsaw featuring Stanley Donwood’s Hold Your Cool Glastonbury artwork and a range of new T-shirts, hoodies and accessories. You can also buy copies of the Glastonbury 50 book signed by Michael and Emily Eavis.

And don’t forget you can order our 2021 Crew Solidarity T-shirt, with all profits from those to be shared between the live events crew charity Stagehand and Somerset Community Foundation.

Click to visit the shop now.

It is with massive sadness that we learnt our dear friend and colleague Penny Kemp, who ran the Speakers Forum in the Green Futures Field, passed away on 12th June 2021 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. She had her loving family and friends around her and our hearts go out to them in their grief.

Early Festival Beginnings

For nearly four decades we worked together, shared ups and downs and plotted to create a blueprint for a better, greener world for all. Her work with a developing Green (Ecology) Party all those years ago was nothing but inspirational. When our local Green Party was being formed, Penny was the first person to turn to for advice . It was a joy to hear her words of encouragement, especially at a time when anyone with the remotest of green ideas was seen as a crank, almost existing on the edge of society.

It wasn’t long before our worlds began to coincide. We were simultaneously building a new kind of public event. With the Maidstone and Kingston Green Fair both falling on the same Bank Holiday. We didn’t know it but along with creative protests and gatherings at the same time, those events were to serve as embryos for a whole change in attitudes towards live events, influencing the emergence of off grid and green festivals,( The Green Gathering and Green Fields at Glastonbury included). Now many of these early green principles are firmly in the mainstream events industry.

During the early nineties Penny was always willing to share her field in Kent for weird and wonderful ideas and events. Culminating until recently with the hugely popular Small World Festival. Again based on green and earth magic principles.One happy memory of the early days was Penny opening and using the first compost toilet on her land, emerging form the canvas curtain to a rapturous applause from the gathered crowd.

Speakers Forum, Glastonbury Festival

Running the Speakers Forum was perfect for Penny. She embraced it with open arms. Her work with the Green Party Executive gave her access to a host of personalities, many as personal friends. Always aware of the bigger picture Penny made a point of choosing people with different viewpoints, inviting speakers from all sides of the political and social divide. Always with an environmental focus and always with a good spirit.. Much of the success of the forum is not just based on inspirational topics or exploring the issues of the day (whether they be human rights or the ongoing climate crisis) but the lasting friendships and camaraderie, with unusual bedfellows sitting around the campfire backstage, discussing topics well into the night.

Under her watch Penny developed a fantastic team. Insisting the space be welcoming and homely for speakers and the public alike. So everybody could connect and relax. Where else can you rub shoulders with famous media personalities and politicians under one beautiful (pink) canvas roof.

Sir David King, Tony Benn, Ruby Wax, Justin Rowlatt, Billy Bragg, Vince Cable, Ed Milliband, Jonathan Cainer, Mark Thomas, Polly Higgins, Ko Aung, Dr. Muang Zarni, Jenny Jones, John McDonald, Caroline Lucas, John Sauven, Molly Scott Cato, Gail Bradbrook are among the very many who have graced the wooden benches at the forum and drank fresh apple juice at the Brixton Tea Party Cafe. Not to mention Michael and Emily Eavis with their regular Q and A session every Festival Sunday.

The last few years at Glastonbury were particularly hard and by 2019 it was obvious Penny was quite ill. The gradual onset of the disease was both debilitating and frustrating for Penny as her speech was affected. For a woman of many opinions it was difficult for her to be understood but understood she was . Along with being highly respected and loved.She insisted on being there and luckily had the support of her dedicated and wonderful friends. Making the burden just that little bit easier. The Speakers Forum , Green Futures and Glastonbury Festival were a great love for her.

We shall miss you for sure.

Jean Vidler & Sam Hermitage

From 25th to 27th June, the V&A will host a three-day Glastonbury Weekender featuring a mix of digital experiences and in museum events and installations. This free programme builds on the V&A’s Glastonbury @ 50 research project that launched last year, delivered in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Starting on 25th June, a one-day virtual conference will feature unrivalled insight into the unseen world and history of Glastonbury. Featuring collaborators, co-creators from the festival together with scholars in festival culture, this exclusive conference will go behind the stage to explore the evolution and influence of the Festival. Speakers include Green Fields Coordinator Liz Eliot, Head of Events at Greenpeace Bob Wilson, Founder and Creative Director of Arcadia Pip Rush, artist and Founder of Mutoid Waste Company Joe Rush, Founder of the Kidzfield Tony Cordy, artist and geographer Luke Piper, Dr Roxy Robinson and Dr Beatriz Garcia.

The Glastonbury Weekender running 26th-27th June includes responses to the Glastonbury Archive by artists, designers and students creating new, interdisciplinary work which champions the resilience of the performing arts in the wake of the last year and celebrates the extraordinary significance of the Festival’s social and cultural impact.

An immersive video experience that explores the landscape, mapping, history, and experience of attending Glastonbury will take place in the museum’s Lecture Theatre, as the V&A Glastonbury film archive is intertwined with memories and photographs from festival goers and collaborators.

In the museum’s iconic Raphael Gallery, a programme of classical and contemporary orchestral music will explore the landscape and mythology of the Glastonbury site. A selection of spoken word interpretations, soundscapes and moving image pieces inspired by festival culture, from students at London’s South Bank University, will be on display in the museum and online. Festival favourites the Kidzfield will bring fun family activities to the V&A garden over the weekend.

The weekend will also see the launch of Mapping Glastonbury, the V&A’s Interactive Map of the Festival, made possible by funding from the AHRC. Created by digital studio We are Freak, this online digital experience of Glastonbury Festival enables the public to explore the evolution and growth of the Festival across five decades.

The map invites users to discover stories, memories, objects, sounds and images, many collected following the V&A’s open call out in June last year. Highlights include hundreds of photographs, memories and oral histories collected from the public, new soundscapes and film experiences, all newly digitised to create unprecedented access. Original programmes, posters and additional objects have also been added from the museum’s Glastonbury Archive providing new ways for people to engage with the archive and the Festival history from all over the world.

The fully searchable database will be available to researchers and the public and will facilitate new research which will shed new light on the impact of Glastonbury Festival.

In 2014, the V&A became the home to the Glastonbury archive for the nation. Documenting the cultural importance of the world’s leading performance Festival, the collection brings together Glastonbury’s performance history across the stages and the years.

For more information, head to the V&A’s website.

For a second year, BBC Music is bringing the Festival to viewers and listeners with The Glastonbury Experience 2021. This will be a celebration of Glastonbury across BBC television, BBC iPlayer, BBC radio and BBC Sounds between Friday 25th – Sunday 27th June. The Glastonbury Experience 2021 will include:

• A BBC iPlayer Glastonbury pop-up channel across the weekend
• Over 50 full sets from the archives available to watch on BBCiPlayer and over 30 sets to listen to on BBC Sounds
• An exclusive 60 minute BBC Two documentary – Live At Worthy Farm: Backstage
• A weekend of Glastonbury-themed programmes across BBC Radio 1, 1 Xtra, BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music
• Classic Glastonbury performances broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Four across the weekend

Click here for lots more info on the BBC’s website.

We’re very pleased to launch the Glastonbury 2021 Crew Solidarity T-shirt, designed by Stanley Donwood, which is available to order now from our online shop, along with a kids crew T-shirt and baby vest.

All profits from the sale of this range will be shared between the live events crew charity Stagehand and Somerset Community Foundation, who will direct the funds to local causes who have missed out on funding as a result of the Festival not taking place, with an emphasis on those which provide vital services in the community.

Stagehand is the live production welfare and benevolent fund, founded by Production Services Association members and operating since 1998. Stagehand has recently been raising funds for the technical production crew who have been hardest hit by the pandemic, with the simple aim of helping to keep roofs over heads and food on tables. technical production crew can apply to Stagehand’s COVID-19 crew relief fund here.

Somerset Community Foundation is a charity that helps passionate people in Somerset change the world on their doorstep. They aim to build stronger communities in Somerset where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Since the charity was founded in 2002, they have awarded more than £15 million in funding, changing thousands of lives across Somerset.

Please see www.somersetcf.org.uk/glastonbury for information about how the funds raised will benefit local community groups, who during the pandemic have been unable to raise funds through their normal activities.

The Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza concert will return for its 25th anniversary celebration on Saturday, September 4th, 2021, with a headline performance from Van Morrison. Tickets are on sale now.

Also performing in the Abbey’s historic surroundings will be The Staves and the Glastonbury Male Voice Choir. The evening will conclude with the traditional fireworks finale.

Said Michael Eavis: “It’s so wonderful to be back together again enjoying this lovely space – especially to the songs of Van Morrison. What could be better?!”

Tickets are on sale now, costing £40 for adults and £20 for children aged up to 16. Any remaining tickets will cost £45 / £25 on the gate.

As always, overnight options are also available in the campsite nearby, at the foot of the Tor, which is also open for bookings now.

For more info and to book tickets, head to the Abbey’s website.

Photo at top by Andrew Allcock

UPDATE: We’ve just opened bookings for a limited number of 3 night stays from Friday 23rd July

With no Festival taking place on Worthy Farm for a second consecutive year in 2021, Michael and Emily Eavis are pleased to invite campers, for one year only, to experience the farm in a way you’ve never been able to before.

Over the school holidays, Worthy Farm will become Worthy Pastures – a tranquil, family-friendly campsite which will welcome guests to get back to basics in nature, with a range of pre-erected, unfurnished bell tents and scout tents available to hire for 3-, 4- and 5-night stays. Head over to worthypastures.com for all the info.

Bookings for short breaks will open at 10am on Saturday 1st May, via Seetickets.com.

Worthy Pastures will be set up sympathetically to reflect the rural, farming activities of the existing site, as well as capturing the essence of the Glastonbury Festival with its familiar style of signage, painted bins and décor.

This serene, pre-erected campsite will provide a pastoral escape, featuring well-spaced tents, spread across Worthy Farm, with a central village green at Williams Green, hosting the best of local food traders selected by the Glastonbury Festival markets team, along with speciality coffees,  a campsite bar and village store selling local produce and freshly baked bread.

Family Festival-favourites the Kidz’ Field Pink Castle and Green Kids Cadmus Ship will be available to enjoy, whilst the Pyramid field will be open for picnics, bike rides and generally enjoying the beautiful natural surroundings in the Vale of Avalon, close to Glastonbury Tor and all of Somerset’s magical attractions.

Intrepid explorers are welcome to roam the farm to find the Dragon, sheltering in the shade of its pond, with the Stone Circle providing the perfect spot to watch the sun rise or set.  Festival fans will also recognise some familiar sights amongst the site décor, which will have a distinct Festival flavour, delivered with a family-friendly audience in mind.

Showers and property lock-up facilities will be available onsite, and Glastonbury’s three main supported causes, Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid will be joining us, with a shared focus on tackling climate change. A programme of additional activities will be published on a weekly basis as campers arrive (please visit the campsite hubs on arrival for more information).

Please note that Worthy Pastures is not a party venue: there will not be any live music, soundsystems will not be allowed and a noise curfew will be in place after 11pm. Instead, come for nature, fresh air, calm and tranquillity.

With a focus on providing a safe, comfortable and relaxed environment, Worthy Pastures will provide the perfect base camp for a break exploring everything Somerset has to offer, and our information team in partnership with Visit Somerset will be happy to help with recommendations of local attractions, days out and activities for all ages.

After what has been a challenging year for so many, we’re so pleased to be able to provide the opportunity for our crew to do what they do best, and we can’t wait to welcome our first guests back onto the Farm. It will be a much-needed boost to morale all round!

A special, condensed director’s cut of the Live At Worthy Farm stream, which premiered online on Saturday 22 May, will be broadcast on BBC television in the coming weeks.

In addition, there will be another chance to catch highlights from the livestream across television, radio and online platforms between Friday 25 and Sunday 27 June, as a part of The Glastonbury Experience 2021 – the BBC’s annual celebration of Glastonbury Festival.

Alongside this shorter edit of the stream, BBC Two will also air a 60-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, presented by BBC Radio 2 presenter Jo Whiley, during The Glastonbury Experience 2021. The programme will feature the story behind the staging of Glastonbury’s first ever festival without an audience, interviews with the artists, backstage footage and performance highlights from Live At Worthy Farm.

The BBC-commissioned documentary will be produced by Ryan Minchin and Executive Produced by Alison Howe at BBC Studios Music Productions.