)
The total cost of putting on the 2023 Glastonbury Festival was approximately £62 million, paid across 922 organisations providing services to the festival. Included in this are the materials and infrastructure that bring the fields to life; all the crew creating the build and managing the stages; and costs for the staff that work for the festival throughout the year.
Of this £62 million spent by the festival, just under £12 million was paid to 258 companies in Somerset.
Glastonbury Festival draws its audience from all over the UK and around the world. In 2023, Festivalgoers were estimated to have spent £1.6 million in the wider Somerset community: a quarter of this went to businesses providing food and drink, while 50 percent of it was spent in local shops and supermarkets for provisions and supplies for the festival.
The sheer size, breadth and temporary nature of Glastonbury means it is reliant on an array of professionals to bring it to fruition. It directly and indirectly sustains a broad range of jobs and industries, including IT services and plumbing, signwriting and caravan rentals, security and catering, among many others. In 2023, Glastonbury Festival sustained over 1,100 UK jobs in total, 325 of which were based in Somerset.
Of these, the Festival directly paid for work itself equivalent to around 255 full time jobs. Around 80 people worked for the festival office in planning and administration (the equivalent of 55 full time jobs), most of whom live locally to the Festival.
In total, an additional 1,750 people worked directly for Glastonbury Festival in 2023, over shorter periods of time. These roles made up the equivalent of 200 full time jobs. Those who are self-employed estimated that on average, Glastonbury Festival accounted for 16% of their annual earnings. However, some obtain a much larger part of their annual earnings from the Festival.
An incredible bank of volunteers donate their time while providing essential services to Glastonbury Festival: from stewarding and loo clean-up teams to property lock-ups and campsite crew. These volunteers raised much needed funds for organisations including Friends of the Earth, Samaritans, Diverse UK, Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity, Cancer Research UK as well as many local schools, community organisations, hospices, carnival clubs, sports clubs and other groups.
In 2023, there were more than 10,000 volunteers at Glastonbury Festival – giving around 240,000 hours of their time for over 200 not-for-profit groups. Of these, 3,511 stewards raised £700,000 in total for their chosen organisations. Oxfam and Water Aid provided 2,500 and 700 volunteers on similar terms.
Over 30 percent of those volunteering at Glastonbury Festival raised funds for organisations within the area.
In 2023, Glastonbury Festival was thrilled to have made payments of over £3.7m to a range of incredible charitable causes and campaigns. It is thanks to those who support the festival that we have been able to make these donations to help those facing challenges both in the UK and across the world. In addition to this £3.7m, the festival’s raffle of Glastonbury tickets for Oxfam’s Crowdfunder DEC Appeal raised over £1m towards the Syria-Turkey Earthquake response, while an online auction of tickets raised £116,000 for the Trussell Trust.