A tale of two Glastos

DAVID BUTTERFIELD says that with ho-hum bands, faux-eco fans and sky-high prices, Glastonbury Festival has strayed far from its countercultural roots

TO JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, WANDERING ALBION while clutching his nephew’s final drinking cup, the rolling Somerset hills would have seemed the perfect setting for a New Jerusalem. To King Arthur checking in on the Holy Grail, Glastonbury Tor would have seemed the ideal spot to round-table. And to us in our own millennium, m, this hill is still the stuff of legend: just wander six miles east to farmland south of Pilton in late June, and you will find the greatest of England’s summer myths — the neo-utopian Republic of Glastonbury. With a population a little north of 200,000, the temporary settlement of Worthy Farm is the third largest city in the South-West, trailing Bristol and Plymouth, but edging Bournemouth and Swindon. And, as cities go, the Republic of Glastonbury is…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, August - September 2023

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