A virtual Glastonbury has had to mark the cancelled 50th anniversary gig of what started as a ‘hippie fete’ in Somerset on 19th September 1970 with 1500 revellers and Marc Bolan topping the bill, and went on to become the greatest music festival in the world, attended annually by over 200,000 people.
It was the vision of farmer Michael Eavis on whose land it takes place and is now run by his daughter Emily. The company that runs the festival reported revenues of £44 million over the year to 31 March 2018, and after administrative costs the profits go to charity. After the 2017 bash, Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid received £2.35 million and £750,000 was distributed between hundreds of smaller worthy causes.
The opening one-day gig kicked off around mid day when there was a powerful Sun Pluto conjunction in Virgo in place which was trine/sextile Saturn Moon in Taurus opposition Neptune in Scorpio; with Mars Mercury also in Virgo in the 10th sextile Jupiter Venus in money-oriented Scorpio. It’s a power-packed chart – enduring, workmanlike, intense with a musical Pisces North Node – and suitably earthy for a festival that is often a sea of mud.
Michael Eavis, whose madcap vision it was, born 17 October 1935, is a Sun Libra in a determined, controlling square to Pluto and sextile a colourful Mars in Sagittarius; with his Pluto in a confident trine to Jupiter in Scorpio and his Mars in a showbizzy square to Neptune.
The festival will be under pressure until tr Pluto clears the sextile to Neptune in 2023 and 2021 looks edgy with the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the Neptune. The organisers have said if another year is cancelled they could go bankrupt. Tr Neptune will also undermine the Glastonbury Sun Pluto in opposition in 2023/24. But it’s impossible (sad) to believe the muddy five day feste of fun and love won’t go on and on.
For example, I would love to take a tour of the ruins of the historic Glastonbury Abbey, the Hospital of St Mary Magdalene, and the George Hotel and Pilgrims’ Inn.
The more I think about it, I think I would like to engage in some of the New Age activities since the town is considered a pilgrimage site for New Agers…and I do identify as such.
I’ve always wanted to visit Glastonbury….not so much for the festivities….more to see the historic architecture.
Thanks Marjorie. I wonder how the combination of transiting Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus might bring limitations or reinventions to the festival’s future? Uranus opposes the musical, moneyspinning Venus in Scorpio at the moment. Michael Eavis has recently had his Uranus return too. It does seem unthinkable that this could be the end. Britain’s numerous summer festivals of every kind have been a happy development – there’s one for almost everyone nowadays. Hopefully, most of them will return.