Glastonbury founder Sir Michael Eavis wanted to pull the plug on the festival in the 1990s, his daughter Emily told Annie MacManus and Nick Grimshaw on the BBC’s Sidetracked podcast
Beyonce, Stormzy, Dolly Parton, Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John are just a handful of names who have headlined Glastonbury over the last decade or so.
But these iconic shows almost never happened, as the festival almost stopped in the Nineties. Sir Michael Eavis had founded the festival on his Somerset farm in 1970, and saw it grow into one of the world’s most prestigious music events, but he was ready to call it a day in the Nineties.
“My parents were always like, ‘This is the last one’,” Emily Eavis told the BBC’s Sidetracked podcast. “Everyone thought it was some sort of stunt to sell tickets but it wasn’t. They were genuinely like, ‘Well, we probably won’t do another.’”
It was only when Sir Michael’s wife, Jean, died in 1999 that the event became a permanent fixture. “My dad was like, ‘Oh, I think I might need the festival now’ Because they were going to retire and go on long cruises and things like that. My dad was like, ‘Listen, let’s keep it going.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll help you’. Never did I think I’d still be here a few decades on.”
Sir Michael, who is now 88, is still involved with the festival, but the bulk of the organisation – including booking the main stages – is now handled by daughter Emily and her husband Nick Dewey. They are preparing to open the gates for this year’s event in a few weeks with headliners including Dua Lipa, SZA and Coldplay. But she says the festival will plan to have a fallow year in 2026.
“The fallow year is important because it gives the land a rest, and it gives the cows a chance to stay out for longer and reclaim their land,” she said.
