Michael Eavis: “Best Glastonbury Ever”

Written by Sam Borrett (Editor) Sunday, 28 June 2009 11:30

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Michael Eavis: “Best Glastonbury Ever”

It’s official, 2009 is the best ever according to one of the music industry’s most influential figures, Michael Eavis, host of Glastonbury Festival.

We spoke to the man himself today, and Eavis said that even next year’s 40th anniversary would not top this event and highlighted the performances of Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Dizzie Rascal as fantastic, even going so far as to put Dizzie alongside last year’s headline act Jay-Z. 

Bruce Springsteen’s show was ‘the best he’s ever done’ according to Michael who praised the energy of The Boss and told us how he would be picking up the £3000 fine for breaking the curfew on behalf of the singer. “I gave him ten minutes – he took nine”.  When asked about the fine he explained, “It’s not a lot of money for all that, the last nine minutes was spectacular”.

Michael was looking a little worse for wear after admitting only a few hours sleep due to some late night partying at Shangri-La.  He explained he had wanted to check out the night life at his festival, having not done so before.

There was genuine enthusiasm from Eavis about the vibe of this year’s event and he spoke about the connection with festival goers and the younger audience at this year’s event, attributing it to Jay-Z’s appearance last year.  “There’s a real sense of joy, and that’s what makes it work”.

He paid tribute to the 25,000 workers employed to ensure the smooth-running of the event and spoke about his regular job as a farmer and explained it “kept him going” throughout the year as the festival is a “huge risk” financially.  He then went on to confirm they didn’t sell out last year and that they raised very little money for charity, although this year was making up for it.

It has not always been easy to attract headline acts according to Michael who said that this year they were much easier to arrange.  Although did give some indication to next year’s headliners, “there’s some bands that haven’t played for a while.”