Glastonbury Free Press

[dan05delaney]

A new update from the festival... the Daily Newspaper this year....

Introducing our new local newspaper for the Festival, The Glastonbury Free Press, which will be printed on site using vintage letterpress technology.

We're importing a five ton 1954 Original Heidelberg cylinder press which will print all night to produce your daily morning paper. These historic machines dominated the printing industry for most of the 20th Century – Their makers Schnellpressenfabrik Heidelberg invented the mechanism for an automated sheet fed press – before these arrived in the 1930's, every sheet of paper had to be fed by hand.

The text will be set using lincasting 'hot metal' technology, a method invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1884 which revolutionised newspaper production and became the industry standard for nearly 100 years. The Intertype machine mechanically casts metal ingots into lines of letterpress type by combining a series of facinating automated mechanical processes in a structure that dwarfs its operator. The machinery moves with such steampunk drama it has been labelled 'the pinnacle of Victorian engineering' and 'the eighth wonder of the world'. You'll be able to see this in action all day as we prepare the type, or place a small ad with us and see your words cast in metal to be printed in the next edition.

All our vintage machinery will be on show as it operates, so drop by and see the press in action. We think we can print roughly 1,500 newspapers an hour with this, so we'll need to run the press from about 10pm – 10am to fill our print run. Early editions of the papers to be available from the early hours each day, and should be distributed site-wide in time for you to read over your breakfast.

More news on the Free Press soon...

[liz lemon]

Really liking the sound of this.

[nowyouregideon]

Would it be funny to post a small ad about Daft Punk to mess with people or would that be cruel?

[Wickedfaerie]

I'm looking forward to this! I was really disappointed with last year's paper. It's been a long time since the first thing we did every morning was rush to get a paper before they ran out. We used to love reading all the festival gossip whilst waiting for bands to come on.

[Rodbull]

Love getting the paper in the morn and sitting down with a cider and havin a good nose!

[rexclark]

Hopefully it'll be better than the effort from the last festival which I found quite poor. This sounds interesting though.

[dan05delaney]

Would it be funny to post a small ad about Daft Punk to mess with people or would that be cruel?

[dan05delaney]

Hopefully it'll be better than the effort from the last festival which I found quite poor. This sounds interesting though.

[neil_d]

That sounds amazing.

[Sketchead]

Can't even remember seeing one last time, where can you get them from? I seem to remember every other person walking around with a Guardian bag...

[dan05delaney]

Can't even remember seeing one last time, where can you get them from? I seem to remember every other person walking around with a Guardian bag...

[dan05delaney]

just out of interest anyone got any ideas where the printing place could be if we're going to be able to look at it?

[LondonTom]

just out of interest anyone got any ideas where the printing place could be if we're going to be able to look at it?

[ghandi]

I hope the guardian are doing those bags again, very handy indeed to carry stuff around in.

[5co77ie]

I'm really looking forward to seeing a Heidelberg, the first piece of work i ever had published was on the last run of the Heidelberg in Falmouth.

[fatyeti24]

I hope the guardian are doing those bags again, very handy indeed to carry stuff around in.

[Pinhead]

This sounds absolutely fascinating! Like a working Heath Robinson contraption. Excellent idea.

[Boss84]

I used to love reading the Q Daily, hopefully this will be good. Being a graphic designer, I love the fact that they are using a letterpress.

[ninetyeightytwo]

The potential for mischief through misinformation is endless and irresistable.

[lucyginger]

I'm really looking forward to seeing a Heidelberg, the first piece of work i ever had published was on the last run of the Heidelberg in Falmouth.