 | 1970 - the first festival |
September 1970, and Michael Eavis is busy building toilets for his first festival when the BBC's local news programme Points West caught up with him. Isn't a peaceful farm the wrong place for a pop festival? "It's a super place, it's a kind of euphoria down here, it's away from the awful realities of life." But he is candid about one of the other reasons for holding the festival. "I'm just an ordinary sort of fellow - I've got an overdraft and I've got to clear it."
| | 1970 - the verdict |
Afterwards, the fans have mixed opinions about the first festival. One wants it to go on "for a million years", while others find it too quiet. One hardened festival-goer finds the lack of crowds perfect - because that means the wrong kind of person isn't there.
The mixed feelings are shared by Michael Eavis - who is "very glad to go back to the cows". But after seeing £30 raised for a group of revellers who have fallen on hard times, he praises his festival-goers. "You couldn't find a more unselfish lot of people."
| | 1971 - the festival gets bigger |
By 1971, Points West reporter John Craven - later to host the Newsround children's news show - was telling how the "straight society" was horrified by the "free love-making, fertility rites, naked dancing and drug-taking" going on in Worthy Farm. But police only reported two arrests, and said they were pleased with the low level of crime. Medical teams at the festival reported an unpleasant problem - women falling ill after refusing to use the makeshift lavatories.
| | 1971 - the locals' reaction |
Locals were not as impressed - and feared the hippies would settle on the farm for good. "If they stay, our property's not going to be worth tup'pence," said one. Shops refused to serve festival-goers, and their style of dress came under scrutiny. "That kind of dress is alright for children, but for grown-ups it isn't very attractive." They got their way, for the next seven years at least, as the festival was not held again until 1978.