Emily Eavis interview in The Observer

[budvar]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/01/emily-eavis-this-much-i-know

My mum was the backbone of Glastonbury. Through the rocky days, to what it became later on, she was like the mother of the festival. When she died in 1999, I wanted to come home from London and support my dad – to try to fill a tiny bit of the hole she left behind.

Bob Dylan is my musical foundation. I grew up listening to him. He was on in the car, he was on in the house, he was everywhere. Although I'm a massive fan of his music, I don't like reading anything about him. I don't want to know. I don't want Bob the person to cloud my view of his music.

It's much cooler not to be cool. I've always been wary of things that try to be. My school motto was: "Be what you are." Everything we do should be instinctive instead of conforming to what's "hip".

I'll always be asked for free tickets. Everyone tends to come out of the woodwork – I've had emails from people I haven't seen in 15 years just "dropping me a line" to see how I am. I prefer it when people come right out and ask instead of pussyfooting around it. I still can't help though.

There's a lull in our collective sense of protest right now. Cuts in welfare and the arts make me feel we need to have a political voice again like we did in the 80s and 90s. People are pissed off. We've got to do something.

Our family roots run deep at Worthy Farm. We have been here for six generations, so there's a real feeling among us that it's our ancestral home.

I was very attached to a cardboard box at three. I loved it. I remember my sister pushing me up a hill with all the festival chaos going on around us. It was a lot more edgy back then: there were no fences and lots of drug dealers. I saw a lot from the safety of that box.

Both my babies have been born just before the festival. I'm convinced they don't want to miss the action. Our second son was born three weeks ago, so at the moment I either have a baby flopped on my knee or I'm breastfeeding during meetings.

I've always taken great comfort in nature. I'd struggle to live somewhere where it's sunny every day. Being surrounded by trees and the valley and the changing of the seasons is something I appreciate and need.

I spend a lot of time saying no to people. No to corporate sponsorship, no to brands or things that aren't in keeping with our ethos. If I see things that have got through, where people are taking the piss, then I flip.

I love the mud. It's hard work when it's wet, but there's something so British – and life-affirming – seeing people determined to have a brilliant time in those conditions. Imagine it were LA – they'd be like: "Hail me a cab!"

As ever, it feels like the festival is in safe hands. Though it does rather feel like she's inviting the rain...

[JBarbour]

Find it interested about the corporate sponsorship.

Considering everything everywhere will have a few "venues" and they did some marketing around offering 4g at glasto.

Then there is a app that should be available soon from EE

[russycarps]

Find it interested about the corporate sponsorship.

Considering everything everywhere will have a few "venues" and they did some marketing around offering 4g at glasto.

Then there is a app that should be available soon from EE

Edited June 3, 2013 by russycarps

[JBarbour]

I imagine it's either that, or have next to no mobile phone coverage at the festival.

Personally I could do without it, but I guess it makes life a lot easier for everyone - the punters and the logistics people - to have mobile phone coverage, and the price to pay for that is having some advertising

remember how bad a reception you used to get at glastonbury? You'd get home on the monday and a hundred texts would come through at once

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

I do think the mobile coverage is a good thing and benefits some people while at the festival but was there any need for EE to market that fact they are offering 4g at Glasto to the world?

Edited June 3, 2013 by RobertProsineckisLighter

[fatyeti24]

I do think the mobile coverage is a good thing and benefits some people while at the festival but was there any need for EE to market that fact they are offering 4g at Glasto to the world?

[redmosquito]

Whilst I'm bot a massive fan of the chill and charge tent I do think its actually a lot better than it could be. Ok it's massive but in the past its just been one tent that's easy to avoid having to go in it. It's not like there's been loads of orange posters everywhere etc. and it's all really obtrusive. As far as corporate presence at festivals go then at least it's relatively minimal.

[JBarbour]

I'm all for some corporate sponsorship, it keeps the price of the ticket reasonable and they can still donate to charity. As long as it doesn't go ott like the tesco smart price pyramid stage!

But is it not a little hypocritical of Emily to mention it when a phone company is taking up more space than ever before, they are marketing on the back of glasto, and no doubt be trying to sell products on the app.

I think it was a leeds fest app that could be downloaded last year, you could only use all the features if you went to the merchandise stand and scanned a bar code.

[CaledonianGonzo]

A visit to other festivals - V or T in the Park, say, with their Bacardi B-Bars and Strongbow Stages and Pizza Hut vans - shows how bad it really could be.

[ErnestWorthing]

Pizza Hut vans - shows how bad it really could be.

[Zoo Music Girl]

I'm far more concerned about her pro-mud comments....

NFR NFC

[whisty]

I'm far more concerned about her pro-mud comments....

NFR NFC

[CaledonianGonzo]

Sounds good to me!

[Wooderson]

I've had some seriously fucking ropey 'pizza' at Glasters over the years.

[Somersetsun]

EE's PR will have, I suspect, chomped at the bit to release that story, hassled Glastonbury communication teams to death to get the go ahead, threatened to release it without go ahead, everything has compressed and the story and maps v1's gone without the sign off it should have had which is why v2 changed to remove the branding.

Judging by that interview, I'm gonna guess EE is what she's talking about there. Suspect the communications team got a battering for it too but it's what happens all to frequently, I imagine, when big corps get involved, and if you're not used to the hard ball they play...

I imagine.

[frostypaw]

The whole mobile sponsorship/EE thing it's a royal fuckaroo for Glastonbury. People demand good coverage, they demand to use their phones and would complain in droves as they already do that it's still slow and busy. That means they need to charge those phones...

Getting in a sms cell is hugely expensive for just five days and punters hugely at risk of a poor deal - I imagine their only option is a deal with one devil or another

[grumpyhack]

Compared to many festivals where a main sponsor is a brewery or an eaterie, at Glasto you can still take in your own food and drink.

Lots of fests insist you can't take in any drink and have to buy their sponsor's offerings.

No too bad at Wychwood, which I've just got back from, where, so my beer drinking friends tell me, the Hobgoblin was quite passable.

But imagine a fest where the choice is Carling, Carling or Carling.

[efcfanwirral]

I imagine it's either that, or have next to no mobile phone coverage at the festival.

Personally I could do without it, but I guess it makes life a lot easier for everyone - the punters and the logistics people - to have mobile phone coverage, and the price to pay for that is having some advertising

remember how bad a reception you used to get at glastonbury? You'd get home on the monday and a hundred texts would come through at once