September 1970 saw two seismic events happen in the world of music. The first, on Friday the 18th, was the untimely (if not unsurprising) death of guitar impresario Jimi Hendrix. The second, just a day later, was the opening day of the very first Glastonbury festival.
Held at Worthy Farm, home to the Eavis family and where the festival continues to be held today, albeit on a slightly larger scale, tickets to the two-day event back then cost just £1 (about seven and half quid in today’s money).
For that frankly frugal sum, lucky attendees got to witness acts including Keith Christmas (who?), Stackridge (not a clue) and Marc Bolan (the bloke out of T-Rex). Not only that but the ticket price also included free milk from the farm, with an Ox roast thrown in for good measure.
From such homespun and humble beginnings, ‘Glasto’ has grown to become arguably the biggest and best-loved music festival going today, with this year’s headliners being Arctic Monkeys, Guns n Roses and some chap called Reg Dwight (AKA Sir Elton John).
Alongside it’s widely recognised name and renowned reputation, the festival is also known for championing values and principles such as sustainability, inclusivity, equality and social justice, community and collaboration, philanthropy and charity plus political and activist engagement.
Set against these attributes – and potentially at odds, some might argue – it’s fair to say that The Glastonbury Festival has become a highly commercialised brand in its own right. And given its appeal and reach, it’s easy to see why other brands would want to engage in a partnership with it.
Tapping into Glasto’s commitment to environmental sustainability, Greenpeace has long used the event as a vehicle to promote its activities and raise awareness of a range of environmental issues. In a similar way, Oxfam has used the festival as a forum to recruit volunteers and provide support for its various charitable activities, while WaterAid has also had a presence in previous years, in order to raise funds and highlight its initiatives.
But charities aren’t the only organisations getting on the Glasto bus. Maximising coverage across TV, radio and online, the BBC have long been Glastonbury’s official broadcast partner. While in 2023, the job of keeping everyone’s whistles whetted falls to Carlsberg’s Brooklyn Pilsner – the drink declared ‘Official Beer of Glastonbury’.
Of all the partnerships, the highest profile pairing at this year’s event has to be with Vodafone – Glastonbury’s new Official Connectivity Partner.
As well as creating the Official Glastonbury Festival app, Vodafone is also making sure festival goers have enough power to update their Insta, offering fully charged battery packs for use before and during the event. For every pack purchased, Vodafone pledges to donate a pre-loaded SIM card to a local charity.
This purpose-led activity offers festival-fans a way to give back to the community around Somerset and brings to life Vodafone UK’s commitment to helping 75,000 local people and businesses to cross the digital divide, delivering £4.5m of social value across the county by the end of 2025. A part of Vodafone’s ‘everyone.connected’ campaign, it aims to provide the connectivity and skills people need to participate in an increasingly digital society.
Described as a ‘landmark multi-year partnership’ the deal is seen as a win/win; adding Glastonbury’s legendary name to Vodafone’s growing partnership portfolio.
Talking in these terms, it’s clear that Glastonbury has come a very long way from those early days down on the farm. And with the festival’s reach and appeal growing with every year, we can only wonder which other brands are waiting in the wings, chequebooks in hand, ready to get in on the act.
