Glastonbury revellers have been pictured inhaling balloons of laughing gas as they prepare to bask in a 91F heatwave as this year’s festival gets underway.
Thousands of music lovers arrived at the Somerset farm yesterday before watching fireworks to celebrate the opening night.
The five-day event, which is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world, will be headlined by Stormzy, The Killers and The Cure. Standard tickets for Glastonbury 2019 sold out in just 36 minutes.
Glastonbury revellers have been pictured inhaling balloons of laughing gas as they prepare to bask in a 91F heatwave as this year’s festival gets underway
Last night revellers got the party started with ‘hippy crack’, as several were pictured inhaling balloons of laughing gas
It is also set to be the hottest ever Glastonbury, with a heatwave sweeping in that could bring temperatures of up to 91F
The five-day event, which is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world, will be headlined by Stormzy, The Killers and The Cure. Standard tickets for Glastonbury 2019 sold out in just 36 minutes
It is also set to be the hottest ever Glastonbury, with a heatwave sweeping in.
Despite arriving to sodden mud underfoot yesterday, fans will soon be watching their favourite bands while temperatures of up to 86F (30C) beat down on them.
Experts at the Met Office have predicted temperatures could hit record highs for June in the south of the UK – beating the previous record of 96F (35.6C) recorded in Southampton in 1976.
A Met Office forecaster added: ‘It’s possible we could see that beaten this weekend.’
And last night revellers got the party started with ‘hippy crack’, as several were pictured inhaling balloons of laughing gas.
The gates to Glastonbury Festival opened this morning as festival goers transformed the Somerset farm into a city of more than 200,000 people as revellers prepare to bask in a 91F (33C) heatwave
Thousands of music lovers arrived at the Somerset farm yesterday before watching fireworks to celebrate the opening night
This year’s revellers are big fans of interesting headgear – one girl donned a purple and yellow head scarf (left) while sipping on a drink from a disco ball glass, while another opted for a very yellow flower crown
Despite arriving to sodden mud underfoot, fans will soon be watching their favourite bands while temperatures of up to 86F (30C) beat down on them
Glastonbury is back after two years and ticket-holders could not hide the smiles from their faces as they settled into their tents at the campsite today, pictured
Thousands of tents have covered the lush green fields of Worthy Farm, pictured, leaving very little grass left to be seen
One happy camper brought an airbed with him into the camp today – which conveniently doubled up as a protector from the sun
Festival stalwart Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, has played at Glastonbury since 1996 and will be performing three DJ sets this year.
‘Glastonbury is a town the size of Colchester, populated by a bunch of lunatics escaping from reality and escaping from convention,’ he said. ‘For four days we get to live a fantasy, Utopian existence.’
As he opened the gates, festival founder and dairy farmer Michael Eavis told those waiting: ‘It has never been better. It has never been as good as this one. The weather looks great – marvellous. Thank you for coming. Welcome to Worthy Farm.’
Glastonbury Festival was founded by farmer Mr Eavis, 83, and his late wife Jean in 1970, after they were inspired by the Bath Festival of Blues.
Marc Bolan played the first event, which had an entry charge of £1 with free milk included.
Tickets for this year’s festival, which were priced at £248, sold out in 36 minutes.
Juliana, a 25-year-old from Canada, was heading to the site from London’s Paddington Station on Wednesday morning.
‘We literally had our tickets within the first two minutes of them going on sale. I don’t know how, but some miracle happened, no bloody idea!’
The festival, which donates £3million to charities Oxfam, Greenpeace and Water Aid, has banned the sale of single use plastic bottles this year, helping reduce the environmental impact of building a temporary city in the English countryside.
Emily Eavis, who organises the festival with her father, said the ban would stop more than one million plastic bottles being used.
‘I really hope that everyone from a ticket-holder to a headliner will leave Worthy Farm this year knowing that even small, everyday changes can make a real difference,’ she said.
‘It’s now or never.’
Organisers have urged those attending to bring their own reusable water bottles to the 900-acre site, as 2019 marks the first year that single-use plastic bottles have been banned.
Thousands of ticket-holders began their journey to the site in Pilton on Tuesday, with many choosing to sleep in their cars overnight to be among the first inside.
Campers were greeted by cloudy and slightly damp weather when the gates opened at 8am, though sunshine and temperatures of up to 73.4F (23C) were expected by mid-afternoon. And later in the week temperatures are set to reach as high as 86F (30C).