Glastonbury Festival 2009
Encyclopedia
The 2009 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts
was held from 24–29 June 2009.
website or by telephone. A limited number of tickets were available by promotion through the Western Daily Press
and competitions run by Greenpeace
, eFestivals
and The Guardian
.
Ticket lines opened on the morning of 5 October 2008, and customers were able to place deposits for tickets (£50) or buy them in full (£175). Tickets required full payment by 1 February 2009.
On 22 January 2009, at Midem 2009
, Michael Eavis
announced that 90% of the event's 137,500 tickets had been sold. He also stated that although headliners had not been confirmed, he was awaiting confirmation from the acts he had approached.
stated that the Trash City arena would be expanded for the 2009 festival. On 5 December 2008, Battersea and Wandsworth TUC
announced that the Left Field tent of the site would not be a part of the 2009 event. A new area, named William's Green, occupied the same area.
The 2009 event saw expansion of the Dance Village – including a 3D
disco
– as well as the return of the G-Stage
and the Pussy Parlure. Greenpeace
used their area in the Green Fields to create an airport terminal
building and miniature replica of the village of Sipson
, which is threatened by the expansion of London Heathrow Airport
.
field where six people can accommodate one tipi for the shared price of £800.
A new hospitality area, surrounded by a 12 feet (3.7 m) wall, was created on the old cinema field between Lower Mead and Wicker Ground fields. This area included PodPad camping.
The positioning of this area restricted pedestrian access to both camping and parking sites; pathways at previous festivals have led through this area.
, Bruce Springsteen
& the E Street Band
and Blur
) were announced in March 2009, with the full line up being released on 25 May 2009.
's death
spread unconfirmed during the night of 25 June, with DJs and bars playing his tracks during the night. Various tributes were made to him by performers throughout 26 June, including Dizzee Rascal
leading a crowd rendition of Jackson's hit Thriller
, and N.E.R.D frontman Pharrell Williams
paying respects for Jackson in saying "It's the music, the music was so incredible", before adding that Jackson "changed music and the way people looked at music." Other performers to pay tribute to Jackson included The Streets
, Hugh Cornwell
, Lily Allen
, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip
and Gabriella Cilmi
. Within hours of his death, there were t-shirts for sale proclaiming "I was at Glasto 09 when Jacko died"
and shops announcing "Michael Jackson has died, 10% off everything."
were reported during the festival. Two of these were students and one a 10 year old child. The three infected festival-goers were isolated when symptoms presented and no further cases have been reported. Festival organisers had reportedly anticipated some cases of the virus with a spokesperson saying "...the figure of three in 177,000 people is regarded as very low."
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
was held from 24–29 June 2009.
Registration
In a similar way to previous festivals, tickets for the 2009 event required pre-registration (of a photograph and personal details) through the festival website. Registration opened on 1 September 2008.Sales
Tickets were able to be purchased via the See TicketsSee Tickets
See Tickets is the trading name of a British ticketing services company owned by Vivendi. See was previously owned by Parcom Capital and before that was the ticketing division of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group and the largest UK owned ticketing company.Created from the merger of the...
website or by telephone. A limited number of tickets were available by promotion through the Western Daily Press
Western Daily Press
The Western Daily Press is a regional newspaper covering parts of South West England , mainly Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset as well as the metropolitan areas of Bath and North East Somerset and the Bristol area. It is published Monday to Saturday in Bristol, UK...
and competitions run by Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
, eFestivals
EFestivals
eFestivals is a website listing music festivals; hosting information on line-ups, interviews, photographs and live reviews.- History :The website was launched in 1998 as "The Original Glastonbury Website", and was adopted by Glastonbury Festival as the official website for the 1999 event...
and The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
.
Ticket lines opened on the morning of 5 October 2008, and customers were able to place deposits for tickets (£50) or buy them in full (£175). Tickets required full payment by 1 February 2009.
On 22 January 2009, at Midem 2009
Midem
-MIDEM:Short for Marché International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale, MIDEM is the world's largest music industry trade fair, which has been held annually at and around the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, since 1967...
, Michael Eavis
Michael Eavis
Athelstan Joseph Michael Eavis, CBE , is an English dairy farmer and the founder of the Glastonbury Festival, which takes place on his farm.-Personal life:...
announced that 90% of the event's 137,500 tickets had been sold. He also stated that although headliners had not been confirmed, he was awaiting confirmation from the acts he had approached.
Re-sale
Reserved tickets which did not have their remaining balance paid by the deadline were put back on sale on 2 February 2009 and it was announced the next day that the event had sold out, with the majority of reservations being balanced by the 1 February deadline. A re-sale of cancelled tickets was held on 5 April 2009 at 9:00 am. These tickets sold out by 10:15 am.Arenas
In a December 2008 interview, co-organiser Emily EavisEmily Eavis
Emily Eavis is co-organiser of the annual Glastonbury Festival. She is the youngest daughter of the festival's founder and organiser Michael Eavis and his second wife Jean....
stated that the Trash City arena would be expanded for the 2009 festival. On 5 December 2008, Battersea and Wandsworth TUC
Battersea and Wandsworth TUC
Battersea and Wandsworth TUC is a Trades Union Council covering the London Borough of Wandsworth in South West London...
announced that the Left Field tent of the site would not be a part of the 2009 event. A new area, named William's Green, occupied the same area.
The 2009 event saw expansion of the Dance Village – including a 3D
Anaglyph image
Anaglyph images are used to provide a stereoscopic 3D effect, when viewed with glasses where the two lenses are different colors, such as red and cyan. Images are made up of two color layers, superimposed, but offset with respect to each other to produce a depth effect...
disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
– as well as the return of the G-Stage
The Glade
Glade Festival is an electronic dance music festival which originally started out as a stage at Glastonbury Festival. The annual festival takes place in England for three days in the summer and attracted around 16,500 people in 2007. The festival's home for the first five years was the Wasing...
and the Pussy Parlure. Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
used their area in the Green Fields to create an airport terminal
Airport terminal
An airport terminal is a building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from aircraft....
building and miniature replica of the village of Sipson
Sipson
Sipson is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon, in west London, England. It is situated west of Charing Cross and near the northern perimeter of London Heathrow Airport.-Toponymy:...
, which is threatened by the expansion of London Heathrow Airport
Expansion of London Heathrow Airport
The expansion of London Heathrow Airport involved the proposal by BAA Limited to build a third runway and a sixth terminal at Heathrow. The plan was supported by businesses, the aviation industry, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry, the Trades Union Congress and...
.
Camping
As with previous events, the festival had a tipiTipi
A tipi is a Lakota name for a conical tent traditionally made of animal skins and wooden poles used by the nomadic tribes and sedentary tribal dwellers of the Great Plains...
field where six people can accommodate one tipi for the shared price of £800.
A new hospitality area, surrounded by a 12 feet (3.7 m) wall, was created on the old cinema field between Lower Mead and Wicker Ground fields. This area included PodPad camping.
The positioning of this area restricted pedestrian access to both camping and parking sites; pathways at previous festivals have led through this area.
Line up
The three main headline acts (Neil YoungNeil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
& the E Street Band
E Street Band
The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...
and Blur
Blur (band)
Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...
) were announced in March 2009, with the full line up being released on 25 May 2009.
Impact of Michael Jackson's death
The news of Michael JacksonMichael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's death
Death of Michael Jackson
On June 25, 2009, American singer Michael Jackson died of acute propofol intoxication after he suffered a respiratory arrest at his home in the Holmby Hills neighborhood in Los Angeles. His personal physician, Conrad Murray, said he found Jackson in his room, not breathing, but with a faint pulse,...
spread unconfirmed during the night of 25 June, with DJs and bars playing his tracks during the night. Various tributes were made to him by performers throughout 26 June, including Dizzee Rascal
Dizzee Rascal
Dylan Kwabena Mills , better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a Ghanaian British rapper, songwriter and record producer. His music is a blend of garage, hip hop, grime, ragga, pop and electronic music, with eclectic samples and more exotic styles...
leading a crowd rendition of Jackson's hit Thriller
Thriller (song)
"Thriller" is a song recorded by American recording artist Michael Jackson, composed by Rod Temperton, and produced by Quincy Jones. It is the seventh and final single from his sixth studio album Thriller. It was released on January 23, 1984 by Epic Records...
, and N.E.R.D frontman Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams , commonly known simply as Pharrell, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, composer, and fashion designer. Williams and Chad Hugo make up the record production duo The Neptunes, producing hip hop and R&B music...
paying respects for Jackson in saying "It's the music, the music was so incredible", before adding that Jackson "changed music and the way people looked at music." Other performers to pay tribute to Jackson included The Streets
The Streets
The Streets were a British rap/garage project from Birmingham, United Kingdom, led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner and has included a myriad of other contributors most notably drummer Johnny Drum Machine, vocalist Kevin Mark Trail and the Italian-American beatmaker Leroy.The...
, Hugh Cornwell
Hugh Cornwell
Hugh Alan Cornwell is an English musician and songwriter, best known for being the vocalist and guitarist for the punk/new wave group, The Stranglers, from 1974 to 1990.-Career:...
, Lily Allen
Lily Allen
Lily Rose Beatrice Cooper , better known as Lily Allen, is an English recording artist and fashion designer. She is the daughter of actor and musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. In her teenage years, her musical tastes evolved from glam rock to alternative...
, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip
Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip
dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip are a hip-hop duo, combining electronic beats with sung, spoken, and rapped lyrics. The pair are Daniel Stephens , and David Peter Meads...
and Gabriella Cilmi
Gabriella Cilmi
Gabriella Lucia Cilmi is an Australian singer-songwriter. In 2008, Cilmi was awarded six ARIA awards including Single of the Year and Best Female Artist....
. Within hours of his death, there were t-shirts for sale proclaiming "I was at Glasto 09 when Jacko died"
and shops announcing "Michael Jackson has died, 10% off everything."
Swine flu at Glastonbury 2009
Several cases of swine flu2009 flu pandemic
The 2009 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus , albeit in a new version...
were reported during the festival. Two of these were students and one a 10 year old child. The three infected festival-goers were isolated when symptoms presented and no further cases have been reported. Festival organisers had reportedly anticipated some cases of the virus with a spokesperson saying "...the figure of three in 177,000 people is regarded as very low."