Michael Eavis
Michael Eavis CBE is a Somerset dairy farmer but is slightly more famous for founding the Glastonbury Festival, which is now in its 39th year. Michael held the first festival in 1970 on the family’s Worthy Farm and the 150-acre site is still used today for a festival that attracts hundreds of thousands people and raises approximately £2 million annually for charity.
Michael Eavis was born in Pilton, Somerset in 1935 and still lives there today, organising and hosting the annual Glastonbury Festival, one of the world’s largest festivals and famed for its ability to attract some of the biggest names in contemporary music, from Oasis and the Kings of Leon to Jay-Z and the late, great James Brown. The 2009 Festival will be held between the 24th-28th June and will see Blur and Bruce Springsteen among the headline acts.
Michael, who was awarded a CBE in 2007, uses the festival to raise huge sums of money for a variety of charities, including Greenpeace and Oxfam. Glastonbury Festival has made him something of a star in his own right and he holds two honorary degrees from the University of Bath and the University of Bristol, and also stood as a Labour Party candidate in 1997.
Michael says the festival “aims to encourage and stimulate youth culture from around the world in all its forms, including pop music, dance music, jazz, folk music, fringe theatre, drama, mime, circus, cinema, poetry and all the creative forms of art and design, including painting, sculpture and textile art…In addition to all of this, the company actively pursues the objective of making a profit. And in so doing is able not only to make improvements to the site, but also to distribute large amounts of money to Greenpeace, Oxfam, Water Aid and other humanitarian causes which enhance the fabric of our society. In the running of the event the Festival deliberately employs the services of these organisations, increasing the amounts they can raise towards their objectives.”
At this year’s Port Eliot Festival, Michael will be joining Arthur Smith and Peregrine St Germans to perform their own very special show, Groovy Old Men.
www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk
“A non-smoking, teetotal Methodist from a long line of dairy farmers, Michael Eavis may seem an unlikely pop pioneer, but since the first Glastonbury the Somerset event has given a huge boost to live music in Britain and paved the way for dozens of rival festivals.”
The Times
Links:
- Michael Eavis talks to the Guardian
- Michael Eavis’ Glastonbury Memories: Interview in the Telegraph
Video:
Michael Eavis interview with Tim Westwood at Glastonbury 2008:
