Held as close as possible to the summer solstice, Glastonbury Festival has always aligned itself with a connection to the outdoors and to nature.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of The Green Fields; an area known as 'the beating heart of Glastonbury Festival'. Made up of Green Futures, the Greencrafts Village, Healing Fields, Green Kids, Croissant Neuf stage and The Peace Garden.
From its inception, The Green Fields have placed ecological awareness at its centre. On a wander through these spaces in the southeast of the festival site, you can attend talks about the climate emergency, try your hand at jewellery making, pottery, yoga, meditation and rural crafts. Spiritual festival goers will be drawn to this part of the site to visit the Swan Stone Circle in the Kings Meadow to watch the sunrise and the sunset.
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In amongst the revellers, you’ll find The Peace Garden. A haven away from the hustle and bustle, garden spaces have featured at Glastonbury for many years. In the early 1990s, Beth Llewellyn decided to create a garden as part of a healing area at the festival she was working on.
“I didn’t realise that Michael [Eavis] was watching what I was doing,” she says. “At the end of the festival as I was leaving, he asked me if I would like to do the same the following year with a budget. I became a grower, transporter and designer all in one leap. We added seating and the design was different each year - soon we could be found at different locations across the site, and I also created chill out gardens in backstage areas.”
"I became a grower, transporter and designer all in one leap."
Beth Llewellyn, The Peace Garden
In 2015, Beth and her team created The Peace Garden and hosted the Dalai Lama – the following year they were given their site in the Kings Meadow to put down roots.
“The first year we started with just two raised beds, built in pouring rain just before the festival. Then I started to get the feel of the land and would send Michael little water colours of ideas - the first being the Bridge Bed. Permanent planting hasn't always been successful as the garden is left to elements for most of the year.”
During the year the team hosts maintenance weekends, and volunteers can work for their tickets and a nice spot to camp. “We have become quite a family,” says Beth.
Rachael Mowatt and her partner Sam, who grow a lot of the plants for The Peace Garden at their home in East Sussex, are very much a part of that family.
“We have been growing plants for Glastonbury for over 10 years now and because of this I found my love for plants early on and became a gardener and grower,” says Rachael.
The Peace Garden not only encourages festival-goers to appreciate gardens, but it even provides a spring-board for volunteers to get into horticulture. “I came along in 2013 as Sam’s girlfriend not knowing anything about plants! That year Sam and I decided to start growing plants for the garden and today we are the main growers of flowers for the garden.”
“Growing plants to flower at the festival date can be quite a challenge with the British weather!” explains Rachael. “We grow a lot of annuals including sunflowers, calendula, marigolds, cosmos, nicotiana and cerinthe, plus summer bulbs such as lilies, dahlias, chrysanthemums, petunias and lobelias. We also have a selection of perennials and shrubs we take care of all year. We try and bring a few specimen plants over the years to spice things up from olive trees to agave and this year we're bringing a tree fern.”
“We do this for the love and passion of growing plants and to get to grow them for Glastonbury Festival is an honour," Rachael says.
"We do this for the love and passion of growing plants and to get to grow them for Glastonbury Festival is an honour."
Rachael Mowatt, The Peace Garden
Another space to connect with the land at Glastonbury is The Permaculture Garden. Showcasing permaculture design techniques, on a site that was formerly the car park for the Green Fields, The Permaculture Garden has become a staple of the festival.
“Over the last 26 years, and with hundreds of volunteers, the core group have developed a forest garden, 22 raised allotment beds, an edible flower garden, a memorial garden and a roundhouse with an edible roof,” says Project Manager Tammi Dallaston.
“Much of this was under the tutelage of permaculture teacher and Bristol legend Mike Feingold. All the plants on site have some edible or medicinal or building use, and the majority have been either sown from seed, been donated, or propagated from plants that I grow in my own home garden,” she adds.
The development of the permaculture areas now includes wildlife mapping. In 2023, the team charted 23 bird species on the site in two weeks. This included the spotted flycatcher - a bird on the red endangered list. Tawny owls also nest on the site every year and are regular visitors to the gardens.
"Permaculture has been described as a practical solution to the climate crisis."
Tammi Dallaston, The Permaculture Garden
“Permaculture has been described as a practical solution to the climate crisis. It is a set of design tools, grounded in twelve principles and the three ethics of fair shares, people care and earth care. It is a practical method for learning from the landscape in the way our ancestors would, and some of the tools have been adopted from indigenous methodologies from all over the globe,” says Tammi, who studied the practice in 1999 and teaches others about it at the festival and in courses at Shift Bristol.
The 1.5-acre area is one of the shadiest parts of the festival, featuring lots of mature trees, and is also home to a vegan café that uses produce from the gardens. “It is always teeming with people seeking shade and sustenance,” says Tammi.
With around 200,000 people descending on Worthy Farm for the festival weekend, it’s safe to say that Glastonbury can be overwhelming. In this environment, gardens in which to seek some calm and tranquillity are a welcome sight.
"It’s reassuring to sit amongst the flowers when all around you is so busy."
Beth Llewellyn, The Peace Garden
“The festival is a very busy place and obviously noisy,” says Beth.
“In The Peace Garden we offer a chance to ground out and get back to nature in peace. Hopefully with bees to watch amongst the flowers and bats circling at night. It’s reassuring to sit amongst the flowers when all around you is so busy. It’s healing in itself.”
Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts runs from 26 – 30 June 2024, for more information on the festival head to glastonburyfestivals.co.uk
