The Glastonbury Festival is starting to return to its political roots, its founder Michael Eavis has claimed.Speaking to the Guardian, he said: “We’ve always been a sounding board for lots of unrest … If people are really faced with dire circumstances, that will get them angry and motivated, and that’s the way we’re heading at the moment.”
Politics “gives Glastonbury soul and gives it back its purpose”, he added, reminiscing about when he first opened up his land for the event 41 years ago.
Indeed, the festival’s political newspaper, the Glastonbury Firelighter, which stopped being produced in the 1990s, is to be published once again this year.
However, Eavis has suggested that in recent years, people have not been using Glastonbury as a political platform.
Instead, he said: “The overriding reason people come now is to have a good time.”
Ahead of the festival, which opened its gates on June 23rd, Eavis said that he regretted that the Wombles would make an appearance this year and now he has suggested that while ticket prices are “good value”, they are out of reach for some people.
This weekend’s headline acts were Beyonce, Coldplay and U2.
U2’s drummer Larry Mullen Jr has told Radio 1’s Zane Lowe that the band have disagreed about their Glastonbury set list before appearing tomorrow night.
“We’ve gone through a number of combinations. Everybody seems to have a slightly different opinion, which is not good news,” he told the radio DJ.
“Everybody has a view on how it should go. There’s the Where The Streets Have No Names camp and then there’s the more subtle approach, the Achtung Baby dynamic approach where you build slowly.
“Then there are those who think we should open with 40 (from 1983 album War). It goes on. There are an awful lot of opinions.”