World famous Glastonbury Festival to have Krishna Tent
By ANISunday, February 13, 2011
NEVADA - There will be a Krishna Tent at the famed Glastonbury Festival in England, said to be the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world, to be held from June 22-26, according to reports.
Situated in Holts camping field, near Oxylers Bridge, “Krishnas offer food and some simple welfare”, Festival website says. Some other Hindu groups will also be at the Healing Fields “to offer a safe space”. Krishna Tent will provide free vegetarian food, prasadam, play kirtan, offer blankets and provide a spiritual oasis to the festival goers, reports suggest.
American pop star Beyonce Knowles is one of the confirmed headline acts for this year’s festival and she will reportedly perform at its Pyramid Stage on the last day of the event. Other line-up is yet to be announced. Last year Stevie Wonder, Kylie Minogue, and Gorillaz performed.
Notable Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, applauded the Festival and Krishna Tent organizers for the provision of sacred space in the Festival, where one could revel in Lord Krishna’s chants. Availability of satvik food and other services at the Tent were also a wonderful gesture by Krishna devotees.
Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that as Lord Krishna told us in Bhagavad-Gita-I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings-so listening to Krishna’s kirtan could prove very fulfilling.
Ticket per person for the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts reportedly costs 204.95 pounds (Rupees 15,000), but all the tickets were sold out in the first four hours when sale opened on October three, 2010. Car parking is another 20 pounds. Tipis, complete with groundsheet and raincatcher, along with free use of the solar showers and discounted access to the yurt sauna, can also be hired at the Festival site for lodging for additional cost. Last year a tipi, which can house up to six adults, cost 820 pounds to hire. Organizers warn that tipi dwelling is an elemental and “not a luxury” experience.
Festival will be held at a 1,100-acre site at Worthy Farm on the edge of Pilton village, about six miles east of Glastonbury in South West England (United Kingdom). It’s a hilly dairy farm with rough tracks and uneven walkways which can be difficult to get about on. First Festival was held on September 19, 1970, on the day after American guitarist Jimi Hendrix died, over a two-day period, attended by about 1,500 and the cost per person was pounds1, including free milk from the farm.
“It’s like going to another country, a hip and thrilling Brigadoon… you enter a huge tented city, a mini-state under canvas. British law still applies, but the rules of society are a bit different, a little bit freer. Everyone is here to have a wild time in their own way”, Festival website says.
Organized by local farmer Michael Eavis and his daughter Emily Eavis, Festival is mainly run by volunteers. The festival reportedly has 137,500 public tickets and a site capacity of 177,500. (ANI)
