The long wait is over and Glastonbury 2024 is finally here with this year's line-up one of the most diverse in years with more than 100 stages and over 2,000 acts performing live including, Coldplay (the first act to headline Glastonbury 5 times!), Dua Lipa, Disclosure, SZA, Shania Twain, Paloma Faith, Keane, Cyndi Lauper, Dexys (Midnight Runners), Squeeze, Sugababes, The Skatalites plus many many more....
24 years ago, The Glastonbury Millennium Festival 2000 also had a top line up with headline acts David Bowie, The Chemical Brothers, Moby, Travis, Leftfield, The Pet Shop Boys, Basement Jaxx, The Wailers and lots of others. The licensed attendance was 100,000 revellers, including the then editor of The Spectator magazine – Boris Johnson. Some say there were more like 200,000 there that year.
Festival organiser Michael Eavis with Billy Bragg and Boris Johnson, Glastonbury 2000 (picture credit: Somerset Live)
Glastonbury 2000 celebrated the millennium in style and saw the return of the pyramid stage (the 3rd pyramid stage), 100 feet high clad in dazzling silver. There was more camping space with the introduction of a special family campsite. A new outdoor dance venue among trees, christened the glade, was introduced which proved a great success. Once again Greenpeace, Oxfam and Water Aid were the major beneficiaries. There was a large influx of gate crashers, but even so the infrastructure stood up and people were treated to a weekend of diverse fun entertainment and some decent weather.
There's nothing quite like being there, this year I will have to watch it on TV or listen on radio, but it was great to be given the opportunity to play some fun DJ sets at Glastonbury for 3 years back in 1999, 2000, 2002. When I did my first disco back in the 1970's at Saint Andrews Church Hall (affectionally known locally back then as the 'Tin Tabernacle') in Doxey, Stafford, I never thought that one day I would be asked to play at one of the greatest festivals in the world!
There's more info about this years Glastonbury Festival on their official website here,
Glastonbury Festival | The Official Glastonbury Festival Website (glastonburyfestivals.co.uk)
