Celebrating its 40^th year, Glastonbury festival has been at the heart of British summer for generations and provided many iconic moments in music history. Here’s our list of 10 Things You Need To Know about Michael Eavis’ back garden:

1.       Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis was inspired to create the festival after seeing an open air Led Zeppelin concert at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music in 1970. 

2.       The first festival took place that very summer, well September, and saw 1500 people descend upon Worthy farm  and pay the princely sum of £1  - the price include some free milk and a headline set from an up and coming Marc Bolan.

3.       Glastonbury has grown from those humble beginnings to become the world’s biggest open-air arts festival, covering some 900 acres of farmland.

4.        Through the 70s the event was known as the Glastonbury Fayre, but in 1981 the name was changed to the Glastonbury Festival and the decision was taken to build a permanent main stage which could double as a cowshed and animal feed store during the winter months.

5.       The festival is notorious for its torrential rain and after three 'washout' years in 1997, 1998 and 2005, the 2006 festival was cancelled in order to build a £750,000 flood defence system.

6.       U2 and The Rolling Stones are the two acts who Michael Eavis has always claimed to want to headline the festival. He looked set to get one of his targets this year until U2 had to pull out in May due to singer Bono requiring emergency spinal surgery.

7.        Every year more than a quarter of the people on site are staff - working either as volunteers, security, press, crew, or of course performers. Over 1000 litter pickers are required to sort out all the mess afterwards, but they do get a free ticket thrown in with the bargain.

8.        On the way to Glastonbury Festival in 2005 The Killers left their guitarist Dave Keuning at a motor service station and he almost missed their set on the Pyramid Stage.

9.        Jay-Z caused controversy with his set in 2006 being the first hip-hop headline performance in Glastonbury history. Noel Gallagher infamously claimed that hip-hop was ‘wrong’ for the festival, but Jay-Z promptly blew the crowd and any doubters away with a performance to rank alongside the finest in Glastonbury history.

10.    Although there have been many legendary performances down the years, from The Cure through Primal Scream  to Blur’s triumphant reunion last year, Radiohead’s headline set on the Pyramid stage in 1997 is widely regarded by fans to be the most spectacular Glastonbury performance of all time.

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