Glastonbury 2024 is well and truly underway, with the third day in full swing.
After travel chaos and outrage at the food and drink prices at the festival, as thousands descended to Worthy Farm, Somerset, an overall idea of profits has been revealed.
This year’s event sees headline performances from Dua Lipa, Coldplay and American R&B singer SZA, while country star Shania Twain will play the coveted Legends slot.
Thursday festivities included a tribute to the late DJ Annie Nightingale, the first female presenter on BBC Radio 1, who died in January at the age of 83.
The special event took place across two stages at the festival and included a daytime celebration on The Glade stage, featuring King Of The Beats and Paper Dragon, before it moved to the BBC Music Introducing stage for the evening.
Elsewhere, and just days after the birth of his fourth child, Joe Wicks led a fitness session and set his sights on taking his workouts to the Pyramid Stage.
The founder of the festival, Sir Michael Eavis, delighted audiences with a few songs at The Park Stage and one couple got married, and another took part in a handfasting ceremony at the festival.
We’re going to be keeping you up to date with everything from artist antics to the rumours of who will be making a surprise appearance, with reporter Danni Scott on the ground for her first-ever Glasto!
Get ready for the next three days of music, celeb spotting, and the weird and wonderful world of Glastonbury 2024.
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Woman working at Glastonbury reveals staff perks
A volunteer working at the festival has shared the perks she gets during Glastonbury, and consider us impressed.
@stef_smith_af has been sharing her Glasto updates on TikTok, as she volunteers with a catering company.
Talking through her shift patterns on TikTok, Stef explained she gets one meal a day while working, access to the crew camping, gets to go to all the crew bars and use any of the access routes available to crew.
She also gets access to crew showers, revealing: ‘They’re a lot better than the ones in the general camping apparently.’
‘Loads of stuff is better, and in return for doing that, I get to enjoy the festival,’ she added.
Stef was particularly lucky, after failing to get tickets for the festival before her now-boss saw her TikToks and invited her to volunteer.
‘I’m not going to pass up an opportunity like that,’ she told her followers.
Glastonbury first almost saw ‘voter registration booths’ on site for the General Election
This year’s festival is taking place in the week before the General Election, which Emily Eavis acknowledged they have ‘never had’.
‘I feel a bit like we’ve stepped out of the election, even though it’s next week,’ she told PA.
‘We were working on having voter registration booths, but then the day moved.
‘It’s a big one for us, we’ve never had a pre-election festival.’
The General Election was announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on May 22, a month before Glastonbury, and will be taking place next Thursday, July 4.
Seagulls spotted causing chaos…
Emily Eavis defends Glastonbury line-up as Dua Lipa readies to dazzle crowds
Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis has defended the festival’s line-up amid criticism of there being a lack of rock bands as pop star Dua Lipa prepares to headline Friday’s music.
‘I think the line-up reflects what’s happening in the music world at the moment – there aren’t a lot of new rock acts to choose from if I’m honest,’ Eavis told the PA news agency.
‘Hopefully that will emerge again, my heyday was 1995 with Pulp and Oasis and Radiohead… and that was great but music changes all the time and right now this is where we’re at.
‘Every year, we’ve been criticised for being too rock, too grime, too hip hop, too pop… it’s just part of our year.
‘Generally it’s not from the public… everybody’s really happy and excited to be here.’
How much profit does Glastonbury make?
With more than 200,000 people taking to Worthy Farm for the festival, and spending a ‘criminal’ £6.50 for a pint and a further £9.50 for a toastie, it’s safe to say Glastonbury will be raking it in.
Despite the whopping cost of paying headliners, with Coldplay and Paul McCartney previously being paid approximately £200,000, according to reports, for their previous performances at the festival, huge profits in the past have reached seven figures.
When Michael Eavis founded Glastonbury Festival in 1970, he cited it as the ‘quickest’ way to clear his overdraft, and the first ticket to (what was then known as) the Pilton Pop, Folk and Blues Festival cost £1 – and included free camping and free milk from the dairy farm.
Things are a bit different these days, with tickets costing £355, however amount of overall profit the festival makes is a subject of some speculation.
In 2019, the BBC reported that Glastonbury Festival Events maintained a cash buffer of £10.6 million – with reports that, in the year ending March 2018 (so pre-Covid), the company had made a post-tax profit of £1.43 million, and made charitable contributions of £2.1m.
Welcome to Friday’s Glastonbury blog!
Good morning and welcome to Friday’s Glastonbury live blog where we’ll be keeping you updated with all the best bits from the festival at Worthy Farm.
This year’s event sees headline performances from Dua Lipa, Coldplay and American R&B singer SZA, while country star Shania Twain will play the coveted Legends slot.
Today marks the first full day of music on the main stages, with Dua Lipa taking to the Pyramid Stage tonight.
Thursday festivities included a tribute to the late DJ Annie Nightingale and Joe Wicks led a fitness session and set his sights on taking his workouts to the Pyramid Stage.
Meanwhile, the founder of the festival, Sir Michael Eavis, delighted audiences with a few songs at The Park Stage and one couple got married, and another took part in a handfasting ceremony at the festival.