by Amira Colter

Created on: April 07, 2010

With tickets selling out a mere 24 hours after its offering a good six months prior to this year's event, The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts known simply as Glastonbury Festival or Glasto, is the hottest performance and musical event of the year.

Glastonbury Festival is held every year (with a fallow year every five years) in June at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, England. Headlined with performances by famous singers and acts that included the likes of David Bowie, The Cure, Oasis, and R.E.M. just to name a few, festival goers can also look forward to lots of music, dances, theater, comedy, cabaret, circus shows and other activities that's sure to cater to everyone's idea of what a fun festival ought to be like.  

From the festival's humble beginnings in the 1970s, The Glastonbury Festival has become a legend all its own and continues to set the standards for later musical festivals. It is well known for musical performances and has been using most of the festival proceeds to support charities and causes with Oxfam, WaterAid and Greenpeace receiving the most aid. They in exchange provide volunteers who help organize and run the festival.

Most concerts are held in the Pyramid stage and The Park, while other areas in the farm each have their own distinct attractions. If you love to dance, head on to the Dance village for the latest music to shake your booty to all day long until the wee hours of the morning. See how a paradise-pleasure city of enforced utopia looks like in the Shangri-la. Get lost in the mingling of creativity and talent in The Glade, where jazz, techno and other forms of underground music fuse and enthrall. Greenfields is the go-to place for people interested in traditional crafts and sustainable living. The Healing Field is within the Greenfield as well and as its name suggests, it's a place to relax and experience ways of caring for the mind-body connection. Politics and debate have their special berth in the Leftfield, where people and artists come together to talk about the issues and use their art to inform and inspire. Theatre and Circus is where you go for your fill of performance entertainment. Children can have a field day in the Kidz Place – gyroscopes, mini Ferris wheel, trampolines and outside interactive games.  This isn’t by any means a complete list but merely shows the diversity of offerings one can expect from Glasto.

Glastonbury has always had strong connections with the Green movement and has been encouraging the crowds who descend on the festival to minimize their carbon imprint by taking public transport. Buses are the organizer's favored mode of transport and they began to offer tickets that combined Coach and Festival pass. Coach service by National Express in the UK brings festival goers from across the country right at the festival grounds.

Check out the official website of the festival at glastonburyfestivals.co.uk for more detailed information.

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