Fact #140140
When:
Short story:
The three-day-long Glastonbury Festival attracts 70,000 fans who each pay £49 to see Carter USM, Shakespeare's Sister, Primal Scream, Tom Jones, P J Harvey, Saw Doctors and The Levellers. The souvenir programme costs £4.
Feeling that people's concerns have shifted away from the possibility of nuclear war towards environmental concerns, Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis decides to change the charitable objectives of the event, with the result that £250,000 is raised for Greenpeace, Oxfam and other local charities.
Full article:
Emily Eavis (daughter of Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis) : Dad used to always listen to Radio One when he was milking the cows. That’s how he discovered Primal Scream. When they played Move It On Up, he jumped up onto a cow’s back to reach over and turn the radio up.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Music Week, March 12, 2007)
Arabella Churchill (Circus and Theatre Field organiser) : The big fire shows are always exciting. The Dogs of Heaven performers in 1992 were an amazing group. There were about fifty or sixty of them - dancers, high tightrope walkers, people inside huge plastic balls, and they built this giant Wica Man, made of wood, sixty feet high, and we were going to burn it as the climax of the show on the Saturday night. It was a real act of faith on our part - it was a completely new and one-off show, and we really didn't know for certain whether it was going to work. It was all a bit unnerving, because we had received phone messages saying, "The Wica Man is a pagan symbol... "And if it's burned, I am going to incarcerate myself in it!" So I'm up by the performance site with some of my workers, next to the pigtail security barrier, ready to rugby tackle anybody who runs towards the Wica Man. We really thought somebody might do it - we checked the Man several times to make sure there was nobody in there, and were ready to deal with a runner from the crowd. The show had gone really well on the Saturday night - word had really got out about this show, so there was a huge crowd and a lot of expectation. We were on the verge of burning the Wica Man as the climax to the show, but then the wind blew up, and my husband Haggis thought it was a bit strong, so I asked the firemen what they thought, and they said, "Go with it, Bella!" So we set the first fireworks off, and they started landing on the roof of the Cabaret Tent in the next-door field, and Mike Hearst the tent's owner was in tears, and Haggis said I had to stop it. So I went back to the firemen and said, "Are you sure it's safe to go ahead?" And they said, "Yes, Bella, go, go, go!" (Firemen like a good blaze!) But my husband Haggis rang Michael and he said we should stop for that night - and maybe he was right - it would have been awful to burn down Mike's lovely new tent. So it was now about midnight on the Saturday night, and we had an enormous crowd all wanting to see the Wica Man. I get on the microphone and say, "Sorry - the wind's too strong - we can't do it tonight - we'll do the show again tomorrow night and burn it then."
But nobody moved, and they all stood there shouting, "Burn it, burn it, burn it". Then they started shouting, "Burn the farmhouse!" Then some bright wag shouted, "Burn Bella!" and that was taken up by the crowd. That was fun! So I had to remain by the Wica Man all night, patrolling it (the security men wouldn't do it), otherwise someone was going to set it off for sure, and I was determined that would not happen. I wanted to have something to burn the next night.
The Man survived the night and on Sunday night we did the whole performance again and burnt the Wica Man, and it was fantastic. Word had got round even more about the show by then, and that night we probably had an audience of at least 5,000. It was great!
Alex Patterson (The Orb) : I got spiked and had to leave the stage. Didn’t know where I was for quite a while. I did vocals on No Fun with Primal Scream, sat under the drum riser. That was probably the best place for me.
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(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Music Week, March 12, 2007)
Arabella Churchill (Circus and Theatre Field organiser) : The big fire shows are always exciting. The Dogs of Heaven performers in 1992 were an amazing group. There were about fifty or sixty of them - dancers, high tightrope walkers, people inside huge plastic balls, and they built this giant Wica Man, made of wood, sixty feet high, and we were going to burn it as the climax of the show on the Saturday night. It was a real act of faith on our part - it was a completely new and one-off show, and we really didn't know for certain whether it was going to work. It was all a bit unnerving, because we had received phone messages saying, "The Wica Man is a pagan symbol... "And if it's burned, I am going to incarcerate myself in it!" So I'm up by the performance site with some of my workers, next to the pigtail security barrier, ready to rugby tackle anybody who runs towards the Wica Man. We really thought somebody might do it - we checked the Man several times to make sure there was nobody in there, and were ready to deal with a runner from the crowd. The show had gone really well on the Saturday night - word had really got out about this show, so there was a huge crowd and a lot of expectation. We were on the verge of burning the Wica Man as the climax to the show, but then the wind blew up, and my husband Haggis thought it was a bit strong, so I asked the firemen what they thought, and they said, "Go with it, Bella!" So we set the first fireworks off, and they started landing on the roof of the Cabaret Tent in the next-door field, and Mike Hearst the tent's owner was in tears, and Haggis said I had to stop it. So I went back to the firemen and said, "Are you sure it's safe to go ahead?" And they said, "Yes, Bella, go, go, go!" (Firemen like a good blaze!) But my husband Haggis rang Michael and he said we should stop for that night - and maybe he was right - it would have been awful to burn down Mike's lovely new tent. So it was now about midnight on the Saturday night, and we had an enormous crowd all wanting to see the Wica Man. I get on the microphone and say, "Sorry - the wind's too strong - we can't do it tonight - we'll do the show again tomorrow night and burn it then."
But nobody moved, and they all stood there shouting, "Burn it, burn it, burn it". Then they started shouting, "Burn the farmhouse!" Then some bright wag shouted, "Burn Bella!" and that was taken up by the crowd. That was fun! So I had to remain by the Wica Man all night, patrolling it (the security men wouldn't do it), otherwise someone was going to set it off for sure, and I was determined that would not happen. I wanted to have something to burn the next night.
The Man survived the night and on Sunday night we did the whole performance again and burnt the Wica Man, and it was fantastic. Word had got round even more about the show by then, and that night we probably had an audience of at least 5,000. It was great!
Alex Patterson (The Orb) : I got spiked and had to leave the stage. Didn’t know where I was for quite a while. I did vocals on No Fun with Primal Scream, sat under the drum riser. That was probably the best place for me.