{{Short description|Music festival in England}} {{Infobox recurring event | name = | logo = <!--INCLUDE "File:Filename" when entering file name--> | logo_caption = | image = | imagesize = frameless | caption = | location = Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset, England | budget = | website = | next = Glastonbury 1971 }} The first Glastonbury festival was promoted as the '''Pop, Blues & Folk Festival''' and was held on Saturday 19 September 1970 at Worthy Farm, Pilton in Somerset<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Glastonbury Festival – 1970 |url=https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/history/history-1970/ |access-date=8 June 2025 |website=glastonburyfestivals.co.uk}}</ref>. Tickets were £1 (equivalent to £20.08 in 2026 <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1970?amount=1 | title=£1 in 1970 → 2026 | UK Inflation Calculator }}</ref>) The festival was attended by 1,500 people; the farmer & CND campaigner,<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2010-06-03 |title=BBC Music - Glastonbury, Glastonbury 1971 - Arabella Churchill: First Lady of Glastonbury |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0086fdc |access-date=2025-05-28 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref> Michael Eavis had hoped to get a crowd of 5,000.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00853r1|title=BBC Music - Glastonbury, Glastonbury 1970 - Scenes from the first festival.|date=June 1, 2010|website=BBC}}</ref>
Eavis decided to host the first festival after seeing an open-air concert headlined by Led Zeppelin at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music at the nearby Bath and West Showground yearlier that year.<ref>{{cite news |last=Smith |first=David |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/jun/19/popandrock.glastonbury2005 |title=A Far-out Man |date=19 June 2005 |work=The Observer |location=UK |access-date=27 June 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225200840/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0%2C6903%2C1509746%2C00.html |archive-date=25 December 2007}}</ref>: "12,000 people turned up for five days of music, dance, poetry, theatre and entertainment during which Hawkwind, David Bowie, Joan Baez and Fairport Convention gave performances".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Eavis |first=Michael |date=2007-12-31 |title=Arabella Churchill: Key figure in Glastonbury Festival |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/arabella-churchill-key-figure-in-glastonbury-festival-767454.html |access-date=2025-05-28 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref> Randolph Churchill's former literary assistant, Andrew Kerr, was staying at Worthy Farm. He was planning to stage "a free summer festival with 'cosmic significance' in one of the fields". Randolph's daughter Arabella Churchill put in up to £4,000 from a family trust fund to, among other things, purchase materials for Bill Harkin’s "visionary Pyramid Stage". Churchill helped them stage the first full-scale incarnation of the Glastonbury Festival.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Butler |first=Jackie |date=2021-12-20 |title=The hippy aristocrat who helped found Glastonbury Festival |url=https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/history/remembering-arabella-hippy-aristocrat-granddaughter-6370148 |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=Somerset Live |language=en}}</ref>
The original headline acts were The Kinks and Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders but these acts were replaced at short notice by Tyrannosaurus Rex, later known as T. Rex. Other billed acts of note were Steamhammer, Quintessence, Stackridge, Al Stewart, Pink Fairies and Keith Christmas.<ref name=telegraphmishaps>{{cite news |last=Chivers |first=Tom |title=Glastonbury 2010: disasters and mishaps at Worthy Farm |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/glastonbury/7822186/Glastonbury-2010-disasters-and-mishaps-at-Worthy-Farm.html |access-date=29 June 2011 |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=14 June 2010 |location=London |archive-date=23 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823090212/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/glastonbury/7822186/Glastonbury-2010-disasters-and-mishaps-at-Worthy-Farm.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Glastonbury 1970 Pilton pop, blues and folk festival |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/festivals/glastonbury/archive/1970/ |publisher=BBC |access-date=14 January 2012 |archive-date=9 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111209060538/http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/festivals/glastonbury/archive/1970/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/glastonbury-1970-menu.html |title=Pilton- Glastonbury festival 1970 |website=ukrockfestivals.com |access-date=27 June 2020 |archive-date=16 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200216104903/http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/glastonbury-1970-menu.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>
There had been a commercial UK festival tradition which included the National Jazz and Blues Festival and the Isle of Wight Festival.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00853r1 BBC at Glastonbury 1970].
{{Glastonbury Festival}}
1970 Category:1970 in England Category:1970 in British music Gla Category:June 1970 in the United Kingdom