In the 55 years since the first Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts in 1970, the event has grown in scale to become what the BBC has described as a “giant tented city in Somerset” – a fair comparison, given it spans 1,000 acres, with over 80 stages and approaching 4,000 performances! Long-time attendees would probably perceive Glasto more as a series of mini villages, with different ‘flavours’ of music and experiences, all overlapping and, in some cases, seamlessly (or not so seamlessly!) blending into one another – a bit like London in terms of its cheek by jowl village diversity, but also a million miles away from England’s capital city in terms of country vibes!
Given that only around 200,000 people are lucky enough to attend the near-annual event (Glasto takes a break every four years – the so-called fallow year) each time it’s held, it’s perhaps understandable that the majority of fans of the festival get their fix via the exclusive BBC broadcasts/streaming, leading to a slightly skewed view of its overall scope. Not only is it impossible to fully appreciate Glastonbury’s scale unless you’ve experienced it ‘live’ on Worthy farm, TV viewing tends to lead to a misunderstanding as to its daily focus. Glasto isn’t just about the headliners. There are dozens of stages, with myriad acts all competing for attendees’ attention, all packed with some of the best audio and video equipment available today.
That being said, the Pyramid Stage, right at the heart of the ‘city’ of Glastonbury, and still perceived by many as the ‘main’ stage (although I’d argue that Other Stage is worthy of the ‘main’ moniker also, and the festival organisers now include a further eight stages under the title ‘main stages’), is understandably one of the biggest AV-laden venues at the festival. And with acts such as Neil Young, The 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo headlining this year, it needed to deliver.
SOUND ENGINEERING
Working closely with Ben Milton, owner of Ben Milton Associates and head of sound for the Pyramid Stage, hire company RG Jones Sound Engineering supplied all of the audio equipment for the Pyramid Stage this year, and has done so since 2008 when Martin Audio debuted with a full PA system (it was previously Funktion-One, which now handles The Glade), and Milton also began his Pyramid Stage journey.
Milton became head of sound in 2013 following his involvement with the London 2012 Olympics and other “large scale” events. He works very closely – ”symbiotically” – with Emma Reynolds Taylor, production manager for the Pyramid Stage.
The Pyramid’s front-of-house (FOH) loudspeakers for Glastonbury 2025 were made up of Martin Audio’s MLA series, with four hangs for the main left and right with one MLD, a central cardioid sub-bass array of 32 MLX subs and two DD12 fills. There were also near-field, far-field and back-of-field delays, in addition to the in-fills and FOH fills – all of which were Martin cabinets.
As mentioned above, Martin Audio has been deployed as the Pyramid Stage’s loudspeaker brand of choice since 2008, and continues to deliver the goods. As Milton explains, he’s happy to work with whatever loudspeaker brand is currently flavour of the month, as long as it’s top tier: “It’s similar to being an F1 driver,” he says. “Put me in a Ferrari, a McLaren or a Williams, I’m still gonna win!”
For the front-end of the PA drive system, DirectOut PRODIGY.MP multi-function audio processors were deployed, whilst the house FOH consoles were two DiGiCo SD12-96s with an SD rack, with the monitors mixed on two DiGiCo Q326s. There was also a DiGiCo Q852 acting as the ‘media console’, utilised for the house DJ, video inputs and any spoken word links between acts – as well as producing a multitrack recording for the BBC of a ‘circus’ show on the opening night (Wednesday, June 25), the first time Glasto has opened with circus performers since 1990, when organiser Michael Eavis was forced to include French circus act Archaos in order to get his festival licence from the local council.
“The audio design remit is that we have the capacity to facilitate the sound for every act who performs on the Pyramid Stage as a headliner, so they can turn up with no equipment and we can still put on a Grade A show for them,” confirms Ben Milton. “The requirements for this year spanned from us providing everything, including engineers, to the act providing everything, with all different permutations in between.”
IMPRESSIVE STAGES
RG Jones also supplied the loudspeakers for West Holts, another big stage, plus the equally impressive IICON, the immersive audio-visual dance arena in Block9 East, and Genosys, the towering, concrete and glass dance stage behemoth in Block9 West (see below for more on the dance stages) – with Martin Audio Wavefront Precision arrays being deployed to “meet the distinct sonic and structural requirements of those environments”, according to Jack Bowcher, project manager for RG Jones.
The huge ROE Visual LED display panels either side of the Pyramid Stage, along with the eye-popping on-stage solutions deployed during the 1975’s headlining performance, were supplied by hire company iMAG and overseen by 4Wall Europe, video and lighting specialists – the latter’s first Glastonbury. The size and scope of the displays is, according to Ben Milton, always artist-driven, with the largest acts dictating what’s deployed throughout the festival. Glastonbury’s own cameras and cameramen – delivering the onscreen closeups of the acts – are provided by 4Wall, although the BBC’s camera feed is also accessed.
In terms of instruments, touring bands tend to bring everything – including their on-stage monitors – but some acts, a good example being Burning Spear this year, step off their planes with nothing, in which case Milton and his team supply what’s required, including mics, instruments and monitors. But, whoever the act, whatever their status, Milton and the Pyramid Stage team ensure that everyone get the same five-star treatment – everyone is given “a great show, equally as good”, says Milton.
The Other Stage is arguably on a par with the Pyramid Stage in terms of the size of the acts that perform on it, and this year was no different, with Charli xcx, The Prodigy and Loyle Carner headlining.
The stage’s sound system, supplied by Entec Live, centres on d&b audiotechnik loudspeakers, with the main rig comprising 36 GSLs for the main hangs (18 for each side), 32 GSLs as side hangs (16 per side), 24 V-Series cabinets for the out-hangs (12 a side), eight V-Series for the centre cluster, 22 SL-SUB LF boxes on the ground, 16 SL- SUBs flown eight per side, eight Y10Ps and two V7Ps as front fills – with everything powered by d&b D80 amps. FOH mixing was handled by two DiGiCo SD10 consoles, with a small format desk for the changeovers, supported by two SD racks (56-in, 40-out, 16-AES). Monitor desks were two SD12-96s, again with two SD racks.
SWG Events supplied the audio equipment for Woodsies (until 2023 the John Peel Stage and before that the New Bands Tent), Left Field, The Park Stage and BBC Introducing.
The main rig for Woodsies was a Martin WPL, with 12 cabinets a side in two-box resolution, plus 12 SXH218 subs in bridged mode and eight WPC front fills. The Park Stage boasted a Martin W8LC system featuring an updated control set-up based on new DX4.0 DSPs. Left Field featured six WPS boxes per side, SX218 subs and Blackline X12 front fills. BBC Introducing utilised four WPCs, six SX218s and X12 front fills. Media consoles on Woodsies and Park were DiGiCo, with Allen & Heath and/or Yamaha desks for Left Field and BBC Introducing.
DEEP BASS
Over at the Glade Stage, very much a deep bass dance music venue which hosts both live bands and DJ sets, a Funktion-One Vero VX line array system, supplied by rental firm Audio Plus, delivered the FOH audio. This comprised seven VX90s on each side and four VX90s per side as out-fills, plus five VX90s a side for delays. The main bass stack consisted of 18 Funktion-One F124s in a cardioid configuration, plus four F132 subs (described by Funktion-One founder and director of R&D Tony Andrews as “improved”) together near the main hang PA, four F124s as bass fills and three F124s a side as bass delays.
“We’ve sorted out the resonance and given it more control,” explains Andrews, discussing the F132 subs – essential for the Glade’s deep bass requirements. He has been involved with audio at Glastonbury since its early days, and uses the festival as a development lab for new loudspeaker systems.
The Glade is just one of many stages and areas catering for dance or electronic music. These include the festival’s south east corner – comprising The Common, Block9 (where the IIcon stage is situated) and Shangi-La – and Silver Hayes, which includes The Levels and Lonely Hearts Club.
Five of The Common’s stages – The Temple, the Rum Shack, Mez Yard, Kinetic and Temple Uprising – feature Danley Sound Labs point source rig sound systems, supplied by Manchester hire company Neuron AV. Jonny Wharton, director of event production for Neuron, explains that the Danley rigs continue the “cultural identity” of the 80s and 90s rave scene.
The Temple includes a four-point in-the-round system of four Danley Jericho J3-94s, which are among the larger boxes in the manufacturer’s Synergy Horn range. There are also Danley SH96HOs on the ground as large-format front fills, with the smaller SH95HO for balcony fills. The DJ booth boasts a Dante-controlled Allen & Heath SQ-7 console, running in a “back-of-house” position.
ARCADIA SPECTACULAR
Arguably the most impactful dance area at Glastonbury is Arcadia, run by Arcadia Spectacular, a performance art collective that repurpose ex-military machinery, and other industrial components, into large scale high-capacity performance installations and dance music venues. Up until last year, the centrepiece was The Spider, a 360 degree structure built from recycled materials including helicopter tails and jet engine blades. In 2024, this was superseded by The Dragonfly.
Built out of an old Royal Navy helicopter with insect-like mechanical additions, and augmented by 360-degree lighting distributed across ten towers, a six-point immersive sound system based on L-Acoustics L and K Series loudspeakers, plus lasers (for the wings), projection mapping (the body), and LED panels (the eyes), The Dragonfly is intended to be “a celebration of hope, transforming the machinery of destruction into unifying art to explore the relationship between technology and human intent”. Mainly, for fans of dance music, however, it’s an amazing place to lose oneself.
Arcadia is the most AV venue at Glastonbury, with a plethora of audio, video and lighting experts working together to deliver a one-of-a-kind experience to festival goers – whether they’re into dance music or not. As such, the next edition of Installation (available from September 5th) will feature a full report on what is surely one of the AV wonders of the world.
