Michael Eavis’s battle for Glastonbury’s soul

Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts has grown from a “pop, folk and blues” festival boasting £1 tickets, The Kinks and free milk. Now, it’s a £32 million (€45 million) enterprise drawing the world’s top acts. It shows no sign of slowing down, with founder Michael Eavis confirming its plans for the future at a recent discussion in London’s V&A museum.

The farmer and founder of Glastonbury Festival has marked its 45th year by building a new headquarters on Worthy Farm, dubbed TNG (The Next Generation). The consolidated site is where his daughter Emily runs operations with her husband, Nick, and an expanding team.

“There are around 30 of them now,” says Eavis (79), looking eccentrically dapper in a shirt, jacket, denim cut-offs and new trainers. “So I got a new building for them, rather than them having to work in a shed. This is for everyone to work together, and it’s a very positive place to be.”

Eavis is still hands-on. His typical day begins with a 7am swim (his third wife, Liz, wakes at 3am to milk the cows). At about 8am he checks in on operations at the farm and festival.

“I have a snooze in the afternoon. It helps at this age,” he smiles. “I have a nap after lunch until about three o’clock, and that keeps me going until the evening.”

Eavis hasn’t fully succumbed to routine just yet. He speaks with enthusiasm about going to Bristol to see James Bay and returning at 12.40am: “So I’m still at it.”

Indeed, Glastonbury regulars will have seen Eavis explore the same 100 stages as the 177,000 who attended last June. Asked for his personal highlight, he cites the underground piano bar, created and run by an Irish collective including Mick Curtin, Paddy Bloomer, and The Bog Cottage and Gramophone Disco teams.

“They dig a hole in the ground, so I’m not sure it’s entirely safe,” he says. “But there’s a little piano at the end of it on a stage. It’s fantastic: there’s lots of Irish fiddles and cloggy things. Nobody knows where it is, it’s so small.

“But that kind of thing is what makes a festival different. The Pyramid Stage is fantastic, the energy from there. But it’s not the whole thing.”

Even with a team of 12 bookers, Eavis is vital to corralling the major acts. Kanye West is still to perform his fractious 2015 headliner and the mystery Sunday finale is yet to be announced, but Eavis has already lined up next year’s big draws.

“We’ve been through all the headliners,” he says. “They’re a bit like London buses. They come in groups, so next year we’ve got loads of headliners, funnily enough. They’re all grouped together and come at once. But I’ll tell you, it’s a lot easier than it was 45 years ago.”

Much has changed, yet Glastonbury’s spirit remains the same. Despite its incredible popularity, the organisers have kept ticket prices at a somewhat reasonable £225 (€314) in order to keep attracting a mix of festivalgoers. More than one million people registered for tickets this year.

“We do things to try and hang on to the working-class people; like the whole deposit system helps all of those people buy a ticket,” he says. “It’s really important to me, because those people have spirit and fun, they’re inventive, they’re clever, they’re attractive – rather than have a whole field with just rich people.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with rich people per se. But I’ve got the young working-class people, the likes of Noel Gallagher and Liam. They’re a bit lippy but they’re good fun.”

Always a socially conscious festival, Glastonbury’s emphasis on environmental matters continues in the Green Fields. And it donates £2 million (€2.8 million) to charity each year; social housing in the Pilton area is Eavis’s newest project.

As for the free milk, it didn’t last past the first year. Sadly.

• Glastonbury Festival takes place on June 24th-28th near Pilton, Somerset. glastonburyfestivals.co.uk