Secret bar inside world’s biggest festival

June 24, 2015 5:23 pm 8 comments Views: 5

Luckily the Brits don’t mind a queue. Fans line up to enter Glastonbury. Picture: Jim Ross/Invision/AP.
Source: AP

THEY’VE packed their cut-off denims and the wellies are on. The biggest day in the calendar of any self-respecting festival goer has arrived: Glastonbury 2015.

More than 100,000 people poured off trains and out of cars in the tiny village of Pilton near Worthy Farm, the site of the world’s biggest and longest running music festival on Wednesday.

For the next five days they’ll drink and dance their way into oblivion at the annual event which started in 1970 with tickets costing just £1. Now more than $ 500 each, it’s renowned for pulling the biggest names in the music business — from David Bowie to Jay Z, Beyonce and The Chemical Brothers — all of whom often take a severe cut on their fee to perform.

This year Kanye West and Florence and the Machine will headline — both controversial choices which have led to vocal complaints from elitist fans. Kanye has been slammed for his grandiose comparisons to Da Vinci and Florence as a last minute schedule promotion after Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters were forced to cancel after he broke his leg jumping off stage in Sweden.

Founder Michael Eavis and daughter Emily, who live on the farm and run the event are undeterred, even after death threats and a petition to remove Yeezy from the bill hit 125,000 signatures.

“One of the world’s biggest superstars and a music legend, always interesting, never boring. He has agreed to play a festival where headliners get paid a fraction of their normal rate in support of Oxfam, Water Aid and Greenpeace as well as thousands of other worthy causes. We think that’s pretty great,” Emily wrote in a blog post for the Guardian.

Had a lovely walk up to The Park with my dad and the boys. Two days to go! #glastonbury2015 pic.twitter.com/77vWqZcZE0

— Emily Eavis (@emilyeavis) June 22, 2015

Motorhead, Mary J Blige, Pharrell, The Who, Alt J, Patti Smith and Lionel Richie will also take to the multiple stages on the 1000-acre farm which will be locked down by 12-foot high fences.

More than 1200 compostable toilets have been trucked in and phone company EE anticipates swapping 200,000 power bars to recharge phones and ensure no dance move or festival outfit goes un-Instagrammed.

One of the most exclusive spots on site is the Underground Piano Bar, a tiny bar for just 30 guests which you won’t find on any map, that has been home to impromptu private concerts and named by Michael Eavis as his favourite haunt. But good luck finding it and getting in — rumour has it beating ever-changing challenges of mind and body is required for entry.

It’s that time of year again. As #Glastonbury opens we open our #KateMoss style file: http://t.co/U3Se0Y6anu pic.twitter.com/fjlQpWicZ2

— Vogue.fr (@VogueParis) June 24, 2015

See the most stylish women to have ever hit the fields of #Glastonbury: http://t.co/juC13eGxiD pic.twitter.com/XsFZgapwAi

— Glamour Magazine UK (@GlamourMagUK) June 23, 2015

The 2015 even is unlikely to be the giant mudslide it’s been in years gone by with a high of 22 degrees (!) expected on Wednesday before rain later in the week. But with Kate Moss rumoured to be selling jam and a pregnant Kim Kardashian likely in attendance it’s bound to be full of pop culture moments for the ages.

But enough with the facts. Here’s what it looks like when 100,000 Brits do a festival.