Glastonbury Festival Trivia Quiz

Answer: Michael Eavis

Michael Eavis has organised every Glastonbury festival, originally together with his wife, Jean, and since her tragic death in 1999, the Eavis' daughter Emily has helped coordinate the event.

Answer: 1970

Worthy Farm, where the festival is based (although it has long since spread onto neighbouring farms), lies in the village of Pilton, near Glastonbury. Glastonbury, and in particular Glastonbury Tor, has long been associated with mysticism. Ley lines are said to cross at the tor, and Joseph of Arimathea is said to have visited, myth claiming he brought the teenage Jesus.

As such, the name and location were ideal for a festival at the end of the hippy era.

Answer: T-Rex

The Kinks were booked to headline the first, free event, but pulled out when the music press reported it was only a 'mini-festival'. T-Rex were booked at short notice, and the Eavises made a point of shaking the hand of every visitor, and providing free milk from their dairy herd! Sadly, Jimi Hendrix's death was announced on the day of the festival (he had headlined the Isle of Wight Festival earlier in the year).

The Glastonbury Town Band have become a Sunday morning fixture at more recent festivals.

Answer: Glastonbury Fayre

The Bath and West Blues Festival was the event which inspired the Eavises to start the Glastonbury Festival. Renamed the Glastonbury Fayre, it ran every year during the 1970s, but was a more disorganised meet-up for hippies, with few star acts.

Answer: CND

The Eavises were always Labour voters, and they supported the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the face of a Conservative government. Renamed the Glastonbury CND Festival, it raised money for the campaign, and began to act bigger acts in the newly radicalised atmosphere. The festival linked up with Greenpeace at the end of the 1990s.

Answer: Pyramid Stage

The pyramid stage has become something of an icon for the festival, and it now acts as the festival's second stage. Beyond the two main stages are a wealth of stages and tents, some dedicated to specific styles of music, providing something for everyone at the festival.

Answer: True

The stone circle is only a few years old, but it still acts as a focus for druids and pagans at the area on Midsummer Day. The Greenfields next to it are a haven for stalls promoting every kind of campaign and idea, from the eminently sensible to the protests for 'nude rights'. As such, a visit is an essential part of any trip to the festival.

Answer: Magic Mushroom Field

The festival offers a huge variety of entertainment. There is a whole field dedicated to circus acts, one to theatre performances (some quite outlandish!) and one dedicated to children. At night, there's a cinema tent, and there are acres of stalls selling everything under the sun, including some surprisingly good food.

Answer: All of these

Just about every guitar-based act, and a huge variety of dance, jazz, world music acts have appeared at the festival. Although in recent times, the festival has sometimes skipped a year, each festival is bigger and attracts yet more groups to the festival, whether they are returning, newly formed, or are among the dwindling few never to have played.

Answer: 150,000

Traditionally, security at Glastonbury has been loose, allowing many revellers to scale the fence (or burrow under it). After several festivals in the 1990s when rain and the estimated 200,000 - 300,000 attendees (mostly fence-jumpers) led to unbearably muddy conditions and crowds which made It difficult to move around the site, Michael Eavis reluctantly hired an outside security company in 2002 to control entry.

Despite predictions that this would ruin the spirit, it has largely proved a success. Hopefully, in future, it will be possible to release yet more tickets, and so allow a broader mix of people to attend, but the future of the Glastonbury Festival looks rosy.