The Glastonbury Festival is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. The festival is also best known for its contemporary music, but also features dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and many other arts. Glastonbury was heavily influenced by hippy ethics and the free festival movement in the 1970s, especially the Isle of Wight Festival.

The festival takes place in South West England at Worthy Farm between the small village of Pilton and Pylle, six miles east of the town of Glastonbury, overlooked by the Glastonbury Tor in the mystical “Vale of Avalon”. This makes it an important “New Age” area: many ley lines are believed to converge on the Tor. The nearest town to the festival site is Shepton Mallet, three miles north east, but there continues to be interaction between the people espousing alternative lifestyles living in Glastonbury and the festival itself.

This year’s Glastonbury festival will be the greenest ever with revellers dished up organic food, given recycled toilet roll and provided with carbon neutral showers. In an effort to help the festival reduce its carbon footprint, those attending the event in Somerset will be asked to join the I Count campaign - designed to help tackle climate change.

Everyone who signs up will be given a wristband with the I Count slogan, “We can stop climate chaos.”

As is reported on the BBC, Glastonbury guru Michael Eavis explains, “We’ve put a lot of effort into focusing Glastonbury on the environment and climate change this year. They hope to see at least 100,000 new supporters sign up to the I Count campaign. The festival takes place on June 22-24, with the official line-up announced this Friday (June 1).

Link:Ananova.