Glastonbury Synopsis & Summary

In 1970, a music aficionado and entrepreneur named Michael Eavis staged a "pop, folk, and blues" festival on a dairy farm in the English community of Glastonbury, not far from Stonehenge. 1,500 attended the "Glastonbury Fayre," and a second festival followed in 1971. By 2005, The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts had grown into the biggest pop music festival in the world, playing host to the biggest names in rock, reggae, electronic, blues, and world music for a crowd of up to 150,000 people over the course of a three-day weekend in June. Filmmaker Julien Temple offers a backstage look at the history of this event, as well as a cross section of the memorable performances which have taken place on the festival's stage in the documentary Glastonbury. Performers featured in archival footage include R.E.M., David Bowie, New Order, Radiohead, Coldplay, the Velvet Underground, Nick Cave, Oasis, Blur, Björk, and many more. - Mark Deming, All Movie Guide