Glastonbury 50: The Official Story of Glastonbury Festival
by Emily Eavis, Michael Eavis
Narrated by Gemma Whelan, Jamael Westman, Lauren Laverne, Louise Brealey, Oliver Ford Davies
Why Listen?
Hearing the Eavis family's own voices alongside a stellar ensemble cast transforms five decades of festival history into something intimate and immediate, like getting the real story from people who actually built the thing.
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About This Audiobook
From humble beginnings as a £1 folk festival on a Somerset dairy farm in 1970, Glastonbury has evolved into the world's most celebrated music gathering. Father and daughter Michael and Emily Eavis chronicle five decades of triumphs, disasters, and transformations that shaped their festival from a modest gathering of music lovers into a cultural phenomenon attracting nearly a quarter million attendees. Through personal anecdotes and behind-the-scenes revelations, they explore the challenges of managing an event that has grown far beyond their original vision while maintaining its spirit of creativity and community in the Vale of Avalon.
The stellar ensemble cast brings remarkable depth to this oral history, with each narrator contributing distinct vocal textures that mirror the festival's diversity. Gemma Whelan, Lauren Laverne, Louise Brealey, Jamael Westman, and Oliver Ford Davies seamlessly weave together testimonies from legendary performers, festival organizers, and devoted fans. Their varied delivery styles capture both intimate family moments and grand spectacle, while the production quality evokes the atmospheric richness of Worthy Farm itself. The audio format perfectly suits this celebratory retrospective, transforming listener experience into something approaching the communal magic of the festival grounds.