Glastonbury

Complain all you like but Glastonbury has delivered the goods again

6 July 2024 9:00 am

There’s yet to be a Glastonbury line-up that hasn’t provoked a chorus of naysaying. Refrains like ‘looks rubbish. I wouldn’t…

The true valour needed to go on pilgrimage in Britain

23 March 2024 9:00 am

Oliver Smith finds sanctity in remote peninsulas and holy islands, but is less impressed by the tacky ephemera that decorate our more accessible shrines

Glastonbury has become a singalong event for OAPs

2 July 2022 9:00 am

‘Well, it’s just not Glastonbury, is it?’ said my daughter aggressively, when told that our yurt featured an actual bed,…

Long live the rock dinosaurs!

29 June 2022 1:54 am

When the Oldie changed ‘leadership’ a few years back I swooped on the new editor, young Harry Mount, like a…

Zelensky’s peculiar Glastonbury appearance

25 June 2022 1:35 am

Volodymyr Zelensky didn’t quite make it onto the Glastonbury line-up posters. Perhaps Michael Eavis, the owner of ever-so Worthy Farm,…

Old rockers with a Peter Pan syndrome

28 May 2022 9:00 am

What do the following individuals have in common: a political activist from Suffolk; a chartered psychologist from Oxfordshire, who enjoys…

Henry VIII’s windfall from the monasteries was shockingly short-term

6 November 2021 9:00 am

In 1536 there were 850 monastic houses in England and Wales; just four years later they were all gone. The…

Floods you with fascinating facts: Trees A Crowd reviewed

31 July 2021 9:00 am

Listening to Trees A Crowd, a podcast exploring the ‘56(ish) native trees of the British Isles’, solved one of childhood’s…

The festivalisation of TV

27 June 2020 9:00 am

Televising Glastonbury has changed the festival, and in turn transformed television, says Graeme Thomson

How many 999 calls are genuine emergencies?

29 June 2019 9:00 am

To debate or not to debate Is Boris Johnson wise to shun TV debates? — Prior to the 2015 Labour…

Rory’s classic mistakes

29 June 2019 9:00 am

If Rory Stewart had taken full advantage of his education at Eton and read classics at Oxford rather than PPE,…

Glastonbury Festival, where the absence of authority results in order, not anarchy

Steve Hilton's model for policy reform: Glastonbury (yes, really)

20 June 2015 9:00 am

Glastonbury is a model for radical policy reform, says Steve Hilton

Paganism is alive and well – but you won’t find it at a Goddess Temple

14 February 2015 9:00 am

The rise of modern paganism – and the persistence of the real thing

The rise of crowd culture – a generation scared to do anything alone

2 August 2014 9:00 am

Individualism is dead: we have succumbed to the lure of the crowd

A Glastonbury adventure with Led Zeppelin, Lana del Rey, drug dealers – and my son

5 July 2014 9:00 am

‘Charlie. E. Powder,’ said the friendly, helpful man working his way through the crowd during the mindblowing Friday-night headline set…

Satisfaction guaranteed: Mick Jagger

The Stones at Glastonbury: the greatest show EVER

6 July 2013 9:00 am

Yes, I’m sorry, the Stones at Glastonbury really were that good and if you weren’t there I’m afraid you seriously…