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Glastonbury Festival and the First Pyramid Stage

Glastonbury ley lines for iconic pyramid stage to heighten a festival-goer’s experience

News 1971 5 mins Not rated

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Logo for South West Film and Television Archive

Overview

TV reporter John Doyle joins the beginnings of the Glastonbury Fayre which is in its second year and very much rooted in the hippie culture of peace and love. It is the vision of Michael Eavis who owns Worthy Farm in Pilton and who was inspired by a Led Zeppelin concert he saw in Bath in 1969. Glastonbury is near Stonehenge and steeped in myth and legend and the festival changes days to join with the pagan summer solstice of June 20 in an attempt to harness positive energy.

Andrew Kerr and Arabella Churchill plan this original festival envisaged as a freer and less traditional gathering. Theatre designer Bill Harkin designs the very first pyramid stage and builds it above the Glastonbury Abbey and Stonehenge ley line, believed by some to give the whole festival a positive energy or vibe. The Pyramid Stage is a scaled down version of one of the giant pyramids at Giza in Egypt. Every decade the now iconic Pyramid Stage is revamped into a larger more powerful structure with an ever-increasing eclectic mix of music groups and stars that have performed on it. One thing is for sure, when you make it there on the Pyramid Stage, you have reached a career capstone!