Glastonbury Festival Is Bigger Than These 2 Countries Combined, And I Am In Shock

In what is set to be a brilliant week for ravers and rockers alike, Glastonbury Festival kicks back off in just over a week. 

The festival is a highlight in the UK calendar, with over 200,000 people flocking there and, last year, more than 3,000 artists performed over 62 stages. 

It’s the UK’s largest festival, both in terms of how many people attend and how physically large the campsites and arena are, combined. 

In fact, the Glastonbury Festival site is a mammoth size. According to The Independent, it’s between 900 and 1000 acres, or, in simpler terms: about the size of 500 football pitches.

Cool, cool, cool.

In fact, Glastonbury Festival is larger than two countries

Yes, that’s right, this trendy music festival is bigger in terms of acres than the country of Monaco, which is half the size of the festival and bigger than The Vatican, which is a tiny 109 acres.

Personally, this is quite unfathomable.

If you are also struggling to visualise this, there’s actually a website dedicated to figuring out just how big the festival is compared to specific areas called Glastonbury Map Overlay. Enjoy losing your afternoon to it, like I did.

Understandably, this takes some time to set up and according to The Independent: “It takes over six weeks for teams to construct Glastonbury ahead of the gates opening.

“That includes the stages, toilets and camping areas. The catering crew arrive on the Tuesday of the week of the festival to set up.

Of course, Glastonbury Festival wasn’t always quite so huge. The first iteration of the festival only had 12,000 attendees and they paid, uh, nothing to be there. Of course, the festival has grown in popularity over the decades.

The gates to Glastonbury Festival 2024 will open at around 8am Wednesday 26 June, with the event running until Sunday 30 June. Some performances will also be featured on BBC iPlayer.