Director, 主播大秀 Music Bob Shennan, outlines the 主播大秀鈥檚 plans to provide coverage of .
It started as the Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, officially it鈥檚 now the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, to many it鈥檚 simply The Best Festival in the World.
As I write, 900 acres of farmland in the Vale of Avalon is being transformed into a magical playground, with over 1,200 acts set to perform across 100 stages. It鈥檚 an impossibly diverse mix of music, comedy, theatre, circus and art. On the iconic Pyramid Stage alone you鈥檒l be able to see everything from Dolly Parton and Kasabian to Robert Plant and the English National Ballet.
Across the 主播大秀, our key aim for 2014 is to bring you more of the music you love 鈥� offering those of you who can鈥檛 be there the next best thing: a chance to tailor-make your own Glastonbury experience.
Last year saw a step-change in our approach to covering the festival, with live and on-demand streaming from 6 different stages, involving over 120 artists across the three days. 19 million of you 鈥� around a third of all adults in the UK 鈥� watched some of the TV coverage; with record numbers accessing our online and interactive services. We hope to repeat that success this year, with a similar offering that makes it simple for you to enjoy the event whenever you want, wherever you are.
Metallica, who鈥檒l be at the festival for the first time to headline on Saturday night, are renowned for their incredibly powerful, pyrotechnical performances, the likes of which Glastonbury has probably never seen before, and I hope we鈥檒l be able to fully do that justice.聽
If metal isn鈥檛 your cup of tea however, there will be plenty of alternatives just a few clicks away on your tablets or interactive TVs 鈥� and I would encourage everyone to check out the full range of coverage 主播大秀 Music will be bringing you across our TV, radio and interactive options.
We鈥檒l be broadcasting over 50 hours of radio across Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2 and 6 Music; with around 30 hours of TV coverage on 主播大秀 Two, Three and Four. I鈥檓 also delighted to say The One Show will be returning to Glastonbury, with a special hour long show on Friday 27th June on 主播大秀 One giving viewers an insight into the festival鈥檚 history and heritage, as well as roaming the site to capture some of its more extraordinary happenings.聽
Broadcasting this amount of live programming from a field in Somerset is obviously demanding, so I鈥檓 grateful to the team of cameramen, vision mixers, directors, vision control engineers, producers and website techs - around 300 主播大秀 staff and freelancers in total 鈥� who will be working on site across the weekend to deliver this coverage. We鈥檙e sending the same number of people as last year and, whilst some will inevitably still argue this is too many, I can assure you that every member of staff onsite has a clear and accountable role, working long hours to offer unparalleled coverage for our audiences. We have also worked hard over recent years to identify areas where resources can be shared or tasks more easily undertaken off-site.
To put that number in perspective, I was reading on Glastonbury鈥檚 website about the plans this year for Shangri-la - a unique area of the festival which really comes alive after dark. Ten months in the planning and taking a month to build, they鈥檙e promising an 鈥渋mmersive installation, a vast interactive fictional world brought to life by a creative team of over 1,500 crew performers and artists鈥�.聽
It鈥檚 this kind of ambition that ensures Glastonbury continues to be way more than just a music festival. It is a wonderfully unique British experience, which I hope we can bring you a small flavour of, at the end of the month.
Bob Shennan is Director, 主播大秀 Music
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