As Glastonbury Festival approaches, attendees gear up for the five-day musical marathon. For newcomers, selecting the right footwear is crucial due to the vast expanse of the festival grounds.
The scale of Glastonbury is hard to fathom, encompassing 1,500 acres, including Worthy Farm and adjacent fields. The festival grounds stretch over 1.5 miles at the widest point and are enclosed by an eight-kilometer-long “superfence”.
To aid in understanding the enormity of the site, an interactive map has been developed that compares the festival’s size to various villages, towns, and cities around the world. The Glastonbury Map Overlay offers a clear visual representation of the festival’s sheer magnitude. Users can input a location into the search bar to see how it measures up against the festival site.
READ MORE: Discovering Montacute: The Charming Somerset Village with Fascinating Attractions
READ MORE: Surveyor Condemns Modern Halloween
Yet, this visualization does not include car parks, pre-erected camping areas, and campervan fields, which significantly expand the total area of the festival.
Beyond the perimeter fence, multiple off-site camping zones exist alongside 61 distinct, color-coded car parking fields.
More than 100 stages and tents populate the festival site, along with a substantial number of facilities, including over 2,000 long drops, upwards of 1,300 compost toilets, and over 700 meters of urinals. Emily Eavis, co-organizer of the festival, discussed the purpose-built sewage system on a special episode of BBC’s Sidetracked.
In addition to the multitude of facilities, the festival also hosts over 100 bars and more than 500 food stalls. When viewed on a map, the festival’s size is akin to that of the nearby town Shepton Mallet, which had an estimated population of 10,800 in 2019.
The event draws approximately 200,000 attendees and employs thousands of individuals to construct and manage the festival site, with an official capacity of 210,000 people.
The festival site covers a similar area to its namesake, spanning approximately 3.340 km2. However, its population is significantly smaller, with a 2021 count of just 8,297 inhabitants.