Glastonbury Festival 2008

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts was held on the weekend of 27th, 28th and 29th June 2008; gates opened to the public on the 25th. [ [http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/ Glastonbury Festivals] ]

New Features

* The John Peel stage doubled in size and had a screen outside it to watch bands. [ [http://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/080220b.shtml eFestivals.co.uk - John Peel Stage to double in size - and get more intergrated into the festival] ]

* There was a new 'Shangri-La' area that replaced Lost Vagueness. The area contained 12 stages. [ [http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/news.aspx?id=1949 Glastonbury Festivals - Glastonbury Festival discovers its Shangri-La] ]

* Festival-goers were provided with ten free biodegradable tent pegs, to prevent injury to cows. [ [http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/news.aspx?id=1991 Glastonbury Festivals - Festival Launches First Biodegradable Tent Pegs] ]

* The festival site expanded by roughly 40-50 acres. [ [http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/news.aspx?id=2055 Glastonbury Festivals - A catch-up with Michael Eavis] ]

Weather

Rain fell during the Thursday night, with some more rain falling during the Friday. The rest of the weekend remained relatively dry and bright - a vast improvement on the previous year. [cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7476701.stm | title= Soggy Glastonbury starts rocking | accessdate=2008-06-26 | publisher=BBC News | date=2008-06-27] . Despite this the weather took an odd turn on the Saturday morning when flyers for the Wiltshire music festival Moonfest were fired from a corner of the festival around Shangri-La.

Ticket Sales

The ticket registration system that was established in 2007 continued in 2008 having won numerous awards, including Best Innovation at the 2007 UK Festival Awards. [ [http://www.festivalawards.com/ UK Festival Awards (2007)] ] Registration was available throughout February, online and from Millets camping stores. It closed on 14th March, [ [http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/ Glastonbury Festivals] ] however due to tickets not selling out, registration for the festival was "re-opened" at 4pm on Tuesday April 8th allowing those who hadn't previously registered to purchase tickets. [ [http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i86d84cb514d0b969ff917105a0545017 Billboard.biz - Glastonbury Re-Opens Ticket Registrations] ]

In July 2007 site owner and organiser Michael Eavis stated that 40 percent of tickets for the upcoming festival would be sold by telephone in order to attract more teenagers to the event. Eavis was quoted as saying that most sales being on-line during 2007 resulted in most festival-goers being "too middle aged and respectable". [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/12/nglastonbury112.xml Daily Telegraph - 'Middle-aged rockers dilute Glastonbury spirit'] ] The logic of this reasoning seems questionable, however, as internet use is traditionally associated with youths, certainly more so than ownership of a phone line.

Sale of tickets did not occur as fast as has been the case in recent years. [ [http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCAN1230803120080412 Reuters - 'Ticket Sales Soggy for UK's Glastonbury Festival.'] ] After tickets went public on April 6, only around 100,000 were purchased, prompting Eavis to re-open registration two days later. By contrast, 2007 saw the then entire allocation of 137,500 tickets sell out in around two hours. There are a number of theories as to why the 2008 lapse in ticket sales has occurred, with one popular theory being that would-be patrons have been put off due to the inclusion of Hip Hop artist Jay-Z. Michael Eavis disputes this, [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_7335000/7335958.stm BBC News - 'Glastonbury Ticket Deadline Extended'] ] claiming that the lapse is due to a long run of poor weather conditions during previous years of the festival. The global economic downturn may be another explanation for would-be festival goers deciding instead to hold on to their money.

Jay-Z Controversy

It was controversially announced on February 2, 2008 that Jay-Z would headline Glastonbury Festival in 2008, becoming the first major hip-hop artist to headline the British festival.cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7223232.stm|title=Jay-Z confirmed for Glastonbury|accessdate=2008-02-01|date=2008-02-01|publisher=BBC News] [ [http://www.nme.com/news/glastonbury/34049 Jay-Z confirmed to headline Glastonbury 2008 | News | "NME".COM ] ] He was blamed by some for relatively slow ticket sales for the festival [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20080411_glasto.shtml BBC - 6 Music -Glasto tix still left ] ] , although a more likely cause is the preceding run of terrible weather and flooding that in 2007 made life at the festival very difficult [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_7333000/7333920.stm BBC - Newsbeat - Music - Glastonbury tickets 'available' ] ] One of the more outspoken critics of his selection was Noel Gallagher of Oasis fame. In response to Gallagher's criticism, Jay-Z opened his Glastonbury set with a tongue-in-cheek cover of Oasis's iconic song Wonderwall. [ [http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/showbiz/showbiznews/2008/06/29/jay-z-s-glastonbury-wonderwall-dig-at-noel-gallagher-98487-20625795/ Jay-Z's Glastonbury Wonderwall dig at Noel Gallagher] ] His Glastonbury performance was heralded as a successful response to pre-festival criticism. [ [http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hxVV-7FKB6uR5m8-tlLVFPsBUoQw Jay-Z answers critics in Glastonbury performance] ]

Artists

These are the performers which have been confirmed by the official Glastonbury Festival website:

Pyramid Stage

John Peel stage

Other major performers on small stages

*Avalon Stage: The Wurzels, Will Young, The Proclaimers, Katie Melua
*Leftfield Stage: The Levellers, Kate Nash, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Reverend And The Makers, The Bluetones
*Queen's Head: One Night Only, Kate Nash, Pigeon Detectives, Elbow, Santogold,Glasvegas

*Dance West Stage: Fatboy Slim, Róisín Murphy, Sneaky Sound System
*Guardian Stage: Estelle, Newton Faulkner, The Wombats

Notes

External links