If ever proof was needed that festivals have become ingrained into our national culture, it would surely be the news that the V&A are creating a permanent Glastonbury archive.
Believe it or not, Glastonbury has been going for 45 years - the 1,500 tickets issued at the first ever festival in 1970 (headliners, The Kinks) cost just £1. Which is really lovely and makes today's price of £210 a bit hard to stomach, but it does mean that there's almost half a century's worth of Glastonbury memorabilia being gathered for the archive. As director of the V&A, Martin Roth, points out 'the archive is interesting not only for its diversity but also for its fascinating witness to creative, social and political change in the UK' across the last 45 years. In other words, the archive is as much about the changing face of Britain as it is the legenday festival.
In celebration of the longest running festival in the world which currently sells a whopping 130,000 tickets annually, the Glasto archive will be filled with programmes and posters over the years, backstage passes, set lists and most enticingly, correspondence between founder Michael Eavis (and latterly his daughter, Emily) and the headlining superstars. The archive is not just historical, either; this year, Emily will be camping and scouting for pieces to feature in the archive, including flyers, political t-shirts and exceptional outfits, as well as stories and facts from the vendors and locals.
The Eavis' are unsurprisingly thrilled about the archive, with Michael calling the renowned V&A 'an inspirational place'. So if you don't get the pleasure of seeing Kanye live on stage, why not go visit this heart-warming homage, instead.
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Picture: Graham Trott/REX
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.