Glastonbury Festival Of Contemporary Performing Arts - Areas - Glastonbury Fair

Glastonbury 2011 will be acknowledging the importance of the 1971 Glastonbury Fair Free Festival. The Spirit of 71 stage will be sited at The Glade alongside the G Stage (formerly Glade Stage), the Glade Lounge and the Spirit of 71 cafe, and will give focus and celebration to this seminal event of 40 years ago.

The original event was orchestrated by Andrew Kerr. Andrew had been inspired by the mystic, John Michell who wrote of the importance of ley lines, the energy channels of the planet, which in ancient times was understood in a golden age where people lived in harmony with the natural order. Andrew’s vision was for a return to this state of enlightenment.

The Festival moved to the time of the Summer Solstice and was known as the "Glastonbury Fair". It was planned by Andrew Kerr and Arabella Churchill who felt all other festivals at the time were over commercialised. It was paid for by the few who supported the ideal, so the entrance was free and took a medieval tradition of music, dance, poetry, theatre, lights and spontaneous entertainment.

It was in this year that the first "pyramid" stage was constructed out of scaffolding and expanded metal covered with plastic sheeting, built on a site above the Glastonbury-Stonehenge ley line. The musicians who performed recorded a now very rare album called Revelations. The Festival was also captured "a la Woodstock" by a 1972 film crew that included Nick Roeg and David Puttnam. This film was called "Glastonbury Fayre".

The 1971 Festival gave focus to the communal feeling of the time that like minded people, whatever their background, could unite in the aim of a spiritual awakening. Glastonbury Fair 2011 will feature performances from some of the original musicians of that time playing music which is as relevant today as it was then, together with current music and performers of the same aspiration.

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