The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or Glasto, is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world.http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/about_us.aspx?id=59 The festival is best known for its contemporary music, but also features dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and many other arts. For 2005, the enclosed area of the festival was over 900 acres (3.6 km²), had over 385 live performancesGlastonbury Festival, 2005. " Glastonbury Festival Line-Up 2005." and was attended by around 150,000 people. In 2007, over 700 acts played on over 80 stagesTimes Online. " Rainswept Glastonbury squelches to life." and the capacity expanded by 20,000 to 177,000.Contact Music" Extra Glastonbury Tickets Snapped Up"For line-ups from previous years see Glastonbury Festival line-ups.



Overview

Glastonbury was heavily influenced by hippy ethics and the free festival movement in the 1970s, especially the Isle of Wight Festival. Organiser Michael Eavis stated that he decided to host the first festival, then called Pilton Festival, after seeing an open air Led Zeppelin concert at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music 1970 at the nearby Bath and West Showground in 1970.Smith, David, 2005. " Far-out Man." In The Observer. The festival retains vestiges of this tradition such as the Green Fields area which includes the Green Futures and Healing Field.