Glastonbury Festival Worksheet

1 Do you know anything about Glastonbury Festival? Discuss with a partner. Then read this text.

Glastonbury Festival

1 (i) ______. A ‘Greenfield’ festival, it’s held in the countryside around Pilton in the west of England, in an area of rolling hills known for its links to the mythical King Arthur. 2 Tickets are precious. Despite the line-up not being confirmed and without any regard to the years of knee-deep mud, music fans still flood the telephone lines to buy tickets when the Glastonbury Ticket Line opens. (ii) ______. Sometimes the only chance of a ticket is to wait for any cancellations to be sold a month or two later. 3 The festival has a long history. The first Glastonbury was held in 1970, the day after Jimi Hendrix died. (iii) ______. The entry price back then was £1 and included free milk from the farm. At the 2009 festival Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young were the headline acts and the untimely death of Michael Jackson was commemorated. 4 (iv) ______. All the festival-goers stay in tents in the 900 acre valley. And like any big city there are a huge variety of venues to visit, depending on your taste in entertainment. There are jazz areas, acoustic tents, circus fields and kids’ areas, as well as the main stages with the headlining acts. 5 (v) ______. The event attracts people of all ages, backgrounds, nationalities, lifestyles and faiths and it’s an interesting place to observe different styles of fashion. One overriding fashion tends to be the wearing of wellies, as the weather in a UK June is often rainy.

Author: Louise Delahay Page 1 of 22 r:© Katie Pearson Jones. Education 2010 PHOTOCOPIABLE

Glastonbury Festival Worksheet

2 Put the following sentences into the gaps in the text.

a Often, within hours, the tickets are sold out b Glastonbury is like a canvas city c Glastonbury Festival is the largest of its kind in the world d The crowd are hugely diverse too e A crowd of 1,500 watched Marc Bolan and Al Stewart perform

3 Now find words in the text which have a similar meaning to the following.

a existing in stories (paragraph 1) b list of entertainers (paragraph 2) c concern (paragraph 2) d unexpectedly early (paragraph 3) e officially remembered (paragraph 3) f place where a public event happens (paragraph 4) g more important than anything else (paragraph 5) h plastic boots (paragraph 5)

4 Discuss with a partner. Would you like to go to this event? Why/Why not?