CalendarZ

    • English English
    • español español
    • français français
    • português português
    • русский русский
    • العربية العربية
    • 简体中文 简体中文
  • Home
  • Religious Holidays
  • National Holidays
  • Other Days
  • On This Day
  • Tools
    • Date converter
    • Age Calculator
  1. Home
  2. On This Day
  3. September
  4. 19
  5. Glastonbury Festival

Events on September 19 in history

Glastonbury Festival
1970Sep, 19

The first Glastonbury Festival is held, at a farm belonging to Michael Eavis.

Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, in England. In addition to contemporary music, the festival hosts dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret, and other arts. Leading pop and rock artists have headlined, alongside thousands of others appearing on smaller stages and performance areas. Films and albums have been recorded at the festival, and it receives extensive television and newspaper coverage.

Glastonbury is attended by around 200,000 people, thus requiring extensive security, transport, water, and electricity-supply infrastructure. While the number of attendees is sometimes swollen by gatecrashers, a record of 300,000 people was set at the 1994 festival, headlined by the Levellers, who performed on The Pyramid Stage. Most festival staff are volunteers, helping the festival to raise millions of pounds for charity organisations.Regarded as a major event in British culture, the festival is inspired by the ethos of the hippie, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the free-festival movement. Vestiges of these traditions are retained in the Green Fields area, which includes sections known as the Green Futures and Healing Field. Michael Eavis hosted the first festival, then called Pilton Festival, after seeing an open-air Led Zeppelin concert at the 1970 Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music.

The festival was held intermittently from 1970 until 1981, and has been held most years since then, except for "fallow years" taken mostly at five-year intervals, intended to give the land, local population, and organisers a break. 2018 was a "fallow year”, and the following festival took place from 26 to 30 June 2019. There have been two consecutive "fallow years” since then due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

  • Glastonbury Festival
  • Michael Eavis

Choose Another Date

Events on 1970

  • 12Jan

    Nigerian Civil War

    Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian Civil War.
  • 28Apr

    Richard Nixon

    Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
  • 5Sep

    101st Airborne Division

    Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: The United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thừa Thiên-Huế Province.
  • 28Sep

    Gamal Abdel Nasser

    Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser dies of a heart attack in Cairo. Anwar Sadat is named as Nasser's temporary successor, and will later become the permanent successor.
  • 8Oct

    Richard Nixon

    Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects US President Richard Nixon's October 7 peace proposal as "a manoeuvre to deceive world opinion".

About CalendarZ

CalendarZ

In addition of showing the dates of significant holidays and events; CalendarZ enables you easily check out the time remaining to a certain date and all other details.

Our Partners

WoWDeals : All Deals in One Place

Quick Navigation

  • Home
  • Upcoming Holidays
  • Religious Holidays
  • National Holidays
  • Other Days
  • Blog
  • Age Calculator
  • On This Day

© 2025 CalendarZ. All Rights Reserved. Contact Us / Privacy Policy

English   |   español   |   français   |   português   |   русский   |   العربية   |   简体中文