Pilton Festival - Glastonbury .

September 19th -20th 1970.

    The first festival at Glastonbury was not free and was decidedly overshadowed by the 1971 event, probably for good reasons . This festival was very sparsely attended , despite having Marc Bolan , Ian Anderson, Keith Christmas , Quintessence , Stackridge , Al Stewart, Amazing Blondel and Sam Apple Pie on the bill- hmmmm, perhaps thats why so few people showed up. Not exactly household names - even in 1970 - although all very respectable acts in their own right .

    Badly advertised, poor organisation , not exactly an auspicious start to one of the longest running rock festivals of all time. But it was a nice site and the precedent was set as regards having a festival in the area.

    Apparently government health inspectors visited the site as part of a report they were compiling about health standards at rock festivals. Interestingly, after all these years of warnings about the health hazards of food /sanitary conditions at festivals, I have yet to hear of a severe outbreak of food poisoning occurring .