But on a new-build street half a mile or so away from the sprawling site, a rather more low-key but nonetheless heart-warming event was taking place involving the festival’s founder, Michael Eavis, and the ex-footballer and television presenter Gary Lineker.
Lineker was wielding a spade to plant a snowberry tree – as Eavis beamed away – to mark the end of a project to build 52 rented social homes just outside the Glastonbury festival perimeter fence in the Somerset village of Pilton.
Though he will always be best known for the festival, Eavis said that, actually, his Maggie’s Farm development, conceived to ensure local people were not driven away by soaring rural property prices, was his proudest achievement.
“Pilton is really important to me,” said Eavis. “It’s where I was born, where I have lived man and boy, where I have brought up my family, and, of course, it has been home to the festival for more than 50 years now.
“With rural house prices so often out of reach for local people, these houses give villagers, most of whom are working families who live around here, the opportunity to live here for the rest of their lives at a social rent.
This story is from the June 16, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the June 16, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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