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Athelstan Joseph Michael Eavis (17 October 1935) is an English farmer, co-creator of the Glastonbury Festival, which takes place at his farm in Pilton, Somerset.
Eavis was born in Pilton, Somerset on 17 October 1935, and grew up at Worthy Farm in the village. His father was a Methodist local preacher, and his mother a school teacher. Eavis was educated at Wells Cathedral School, followed by the Thames Nautical Training College in Greenhithe, Kent, after which he joined the Union-Castle Line, part of the British Merchant Navy, as a trainee midshipman. His plan was to spend twenty years at sea, and return with a pension to help subsidise the income from the family farm.
After his father died when Eavis was 19, he inherited the family farm of 150 acres and 60 cows. He worked at Mendip Colliery at Nettlebridge or New Rock colliery at Stratton-on-the-Fosse on the Somerset Coalfield for a couple of years to help supplement the income from the farm.
Eavis and his first wife Ruth had three children, Juliet, Rebecca and Jane, but divorced in 1964. He next married Jean Hayball, with whom he had a son, Patrick, and a daughter, Emily. Jean died of cancer in 1999, and Eavis has since married his third wife, Liz.
In common with his parents and second wife, Eavis remains a practising Methodist, although he has also stated that he is not really bothered about the existence of God. He is a teetotaler and does not smoke.
In 1969, Eavis and his second wife Jean visited the Bath Festival of Blues. Inspired by seeing the performance of Led Zeppelin, Eavis hosted the Pilton Pop Folk & Blues Festival in 1970.
The following year a free festival, Glastonbury Fayre, was organised by Andrew Kerr and associates. It later developed into Glastonbury Festival.
In 2010, the festival's 40th year, he appeared on the main stage at the festival with headline artist Stevie Wonder, to sing the chorus of the latter's Happy Birthday.
Eavis has credited a number of influences for his political views, including traditions of nonconformity in his family, as well as his time as a miner, during which he was a member of the National Union of Mineworkers. During the early 1980s he was involved in establishing a local branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and subsequently agreed to make the Glastonbury Festival a fundraiser for CND, as it was from 1981 to 1987.
Eavis has apportioned profits from his Glastonbury Festival to support charitable causes, including local projects such as the restoration of the Tithe Barn, Pilton.
In November 2008, during an appearance on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs, Eavis stated that the Festival could never lose its licence due to the contribution it makes to the local economy.
In 2009, Eavis starred in a short film to promote Somerset, commissioned by Inward Investment Agency Into Somerset.
Eavis holds honorary degrees from the University of Bath (Doctor of Arts honoris causa, 2004) and the University of Bristol (Master of Arts honoris causa, 2006).
In the 2007, Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music. He was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to music and charity.
In 2009, Eavis was nominated by Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world.
In 2012, he was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University for the Creative Arts.
In 2015, train operator First Great Western named High Speed Train powercar 43026 Michael Eavis. After this was withdrawn, 802013 was named after him in April 2019.
Eavis was awarded the Freedom of the Town of Glastonbury on 3 May 2022.
In early 2024, Eavis was knighted at Windsor Castle, by the Princess Royal, for services to music and charity.
More information: Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival, formally the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto, is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most summers.
In addition to contemporary music, the festival hosts dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret, and other arts. Leading pop and rock artists have headlined, alongside thousands of others appearing on smaller stages and performance areas. Films and albums have been recorded at the festival, and it receives extensive television and newspaper coverage.
Glastonbury takes place on 1500 acres of farmland and is attended by around 200,000 people, requiring extensive security, transport, water, and electricity-supply infrastructure. While the number of attendees is sometimes swollen by gatecrashers, a record of 300,000 people was set at the 1994 festival, headlined by the Levellers, who performed on the Pyramid Stage. Most festival staff are unpaid volunteers, helping the festival to raise millions of pounds for charity organisations.
Regarded as a major event in contemporary British culture, the festival is inspired by the ethos of the hippie, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the free festival movement. Vestiges of these traditions are retained in the Green Fields area, which includes sections known as the Green Futures, the Stone Circle and Healing Field.
Michael Eavis hosted the first festival, then called the Pilton Festival, after seeing an open-air Led Zeppelin concert in 1970 at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music.
The festival was held intermittently from 1970 until 1981 and has been held most years since, except for fallow years taken mostly at five-year intervals, intended to give the land, local population, and organisers a break. 2018 was a fallow year, and the 2019 festival took place from 26 to 30 June.
There were then two consecutive fallow years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival returned for 22-26 June 2022 with the headliners Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar. The next festival took place between 21 and 25 June 2023, headlined by Arctic Monkeys, Guns N' Roses and Elton John in his final UK performance.
The first festival at Worthy Farm was the Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, hosted by Michael Eavis on Saturday 19 September 1970, and attended by 1,500 people.
There had been a commercial UK festival tradition which included the National Jazz and Blues Festival and the Isle of Wight Festival. Eavis decided to host the first festival after seeing an open-air concert headlined by Led Zeppelin at the 1970 Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music at the nearby Bath and West Showground in 1970.
The original headline acts were The Kinks and Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders but these acts were replaced at short notice by Tyrannosaurus Rex, later known as T. Rex. Tickets were £1 (equivalent to £20 in 2023). Other billed acts of note were Steamhammer, Quintessence, Stackridge, Al Stewart, Pink Fairies and Keith Christmas.
More information: The Telegraph
in all 46 years, it hasn't been as bad as this.
Michael Eavis
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