Glastonbury Begins - Michael Eavis Keen Until 2015 - Hails 2008 Line-Up As Best Ever
by 
Dave Parrack on June 27th, 2008
The 2008 Glastonbury Festival is finally upon us, with the first set of headliners set to take to the stage tonight. While the whole nature of the festival has been brought in to question over the past few months, Michael Eavis is convinced the festival has a future, and that this year’s controversial line-up is a winner.
Glastonbury used to be a very free and easy festival where almost anything was allowed. This included people just turning up and gatecrashing. The music was also very firmly grounded in the hippy/indie genre, with mainstream acts left for other more poppy festivals to mop up.
But the last few years has seen a number of big changes occurring. First and foremost, the nature of the festival was changed, with high ticket prices, more security to keep out the unwanted elements, and a severe system for ensuring only proper ticket-holders made it on to the site.
The first noticeable effect of this was of less atmosphere reported at the festival over the past few years. If only the middle-classed wealthier gig-goers can afford to make the journey to Glastonbury, then the atmosphere is clearly going to change, and not necessarily for the better.
Then we had the line-up altered significantly to include a much more diverse range of tastes, including, shock horror, hip-hop. When Jay-Z was named as a headline act for this year’s festival, there was an outcry which continues to this day, the first day of Glastonbury 2008.
Michael Eavis, the organiser of the event and owner of the land it takes place on is still as keen and enthusiastic as ever. Speaking to BBC Somerset from Worthy Farm, in Pilton, he said:
“Last year I thought ‘I don’t think I can go through this again’. But it’s like having a baby - it’s painful at the time but you get over it don’t you?”
“All the tents were left behind and the site was a mess. I’ll certainly go until I’m 80, which is seven years.”
“It’s a schoolboy’s dream come true this is. When it works like this, we’ve got the best, fantastic show.”
“This is going to be a vintage Glastonbury, it really is the best show we’ve ever done. The people I’ve spoken to on site already, we’ve got all the ages back.”
I actually like the line-up this year but I can see why some of the veterans of the festival would be a bit annoyed at the chance in on-stage personnel.
It is great to hear Eavis talking about holding the festival until at least 2015 though, and then I’m sure Emily Eavis, his daughter, and fellow organiser, will take over the role of chief coordinator from then. This should ensure Glastonbury carries on for a long time to come.
Now we just need to see if the sound problems from last year have been fixed, and whether of course the rain stays away for the duration. The signs so far don’t look good.
[Photo Source: welsh boy at Flickr]
Tags: Brit, British, Emily Eavis, Glastonbury, Hip Hop, Hippy, Indie, Jay-Z, Michael-Eavis, UK, Worthy Farm| 2.5 |
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