Going to Glastonbury is one of those bucket list things that everyone should do before they die. Known as the Uk’s largest and most desirable festival, tickets are incredibly sought after, often selling out instantaneously.
I had never been. That is until last month when I was commissioned to photograph the organisers Michael and his daughter Emily Eavis. I’m guessing this probably doesn’t count as a tick on my own list as the festival wasn’t on, however I did get to go right up to the front of the Pyramid Stage (in skeleton form) and I’m guessing not everyone can say that.
Since I got my car I’m super paranoid about traffic and being late, so I always leave stupidly early and henceforth generally arrive a billion hours too early to every shoot. However in this case I was able to make myself at home in the office as all the staff were wonderfully hospitable. Considering it is such a massive festival, I was impressed to discover that the team behind it are all laid back, super friendly and welcoming. Whilst waiting for the reccie to start we were shown various maps of the site and amazing aerial photography from the previous festival. It was amazing to imagine all the thousands of people filling up the fields which didn’t look as vast as I had thought in person.
Whilst on the reccie, we bumped into Michael who greeted us with a friendly handshake, again completely relaxed and informal, so I was hopeful it was going to be a fun shoot.
Although we had been suffering with snow in the lead up to it, the day was beautifully sunny so I got the chance to shoot outside in the fields along with being permitted to do a set-up in Emily’s own kitchen. They obviously have a really great relationship which I think shows through in the images I took.
I didn’t have long with them, about 30 mins in total to do both locations, but they were very charismatic and would do everything I asked of them which is a dream for photographers not having to waste precious time in persuasion.
The hospitality didn’t end there, after the shoot I was invited to go to a leisurely lunch with the press team to a gorgeous pub by the river.
I think this enforced to me that no matter how successful a business is, you can still keep it familial and friendly with hippy roots at it’s heart.