The Glastonbury festival has undergone a series of metamorphoses in the 31 years since I first attended as a 15-year-old fence hopper (as, indeed, have I, thank heavens). One of the most significant changes, to pillage Gil Scott-Heron’s famous prophecy, is that the evolution has been televised. Back in 1989, if your boots weren’t on the ground — often a quagmire, though not that year — you missed out on all the fun.
This has not been the case for aeons. Television coverage of Glastonbury began on Channel 4 in 1994, switching to the BBC three years later. In recent times, the Beeb has sent its staff in numbers comparable only to its coverage of the Olympics and World Cup, causing perennial hand-wringing in certain quarters over whether the trip to Somerset denotes a justifiable deployment of resources or a mass staff jolly.
Last year the station devoted more than 30 hours of screen time to the festival, across BBC1, 2 and Four. More than 100 performances from the main stages were available via iPlayer and red button. This year, despite Glastonbury’s 50th anniversary shindig falling foul of the Covid-19 pandemic, the schedulers have hardly broken stride. Perhaps a fallow year on all fronts would have sharpened our appreciation — but no. In TV terms, the 2020 festival is still on, even though it’s off. A habitual armchair attendee might struggle to notice much difference.
This weekend the BBC is running the ‘Glastonbury Experience’ across all platforms, even launching a dedicated pop-up iPlayer channel, as part of a digital strip-mining of past festivals. Most years there are only three headliners. In 2020 you can take your pick. Historic sets by David Bowie, Beyoncé, Coldplay, the Cure, Adele and Jay-Z will be shown in full, alongside hundreds of selected highlights from other years, other stages.
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