This year’s Glastonbury raised £5.9m for charitable causes. The Somerset festival donated £2m to the NHS Somerset charity and £126,000 to support NHS hospitals in Bristol and nursing staff across the country.
The music festival also continued to support its partners Oxfam, WaterAid and Greenpeace, and made additional donations to War Child, UNHCR and other charities to fund work in what a statement from the organisers called “some of the world’s most challenging places”.
Glastonbury ran an emergency crowdfunder to bring humanitarian aid to people in conflict and promised to match donations: public giving raised £639,000, meaning the festival gave more than £1.27m to organisations including the British Red Cross, Oxfam and War Child.
“Recent world events have highlighted the plight of refugees and asylum seekers both at home and overseas,” the festival said in a statement. “We’re proud to have been able to support charities working with these groups.”
As well as donating to aid organisations, the festival supported the Music Venue Trust and other charities supporting access to music.
It also gave to projects in Bristol, including the Bristol Children’s Charity, Youth Moves, Young Bristol and Black2Nature.
More locally, in the village of Pilton and other nearby towns, Glastonbury supported enrichment projects for local primary schools and vegetable growing for community food banks, as well as organisations focused on caring, wildlife and the environment, and the Food Forest Project, which works with local landowners and communities to grow accessible produce.
£1.6m was paid for services including stewarding. The festival thanked the volunteers whose time supports more than 200 charities.
Tickets for Glastonbury 2025 sold out in 35 minutes in November. Rod Stewart, the only confirmed performer, will appear in next year’s legends slot on Sunday afternoon. “I’m more than able to pleasure and titillate,” he promised.
Source: theguardian.com
