How BBC ‘wants to give you best seat’ for Glastonbury 2025

Emma HallettBBC Information, Glastonbury FestivalBBCJonathan Rothery, Alison Howe, Emily Eavis, Zoe Ball and Lorna Clarke (L-R) are all instrumental in bringing the pageant expertise into folks’s homesMore than 90 hours of reside streamed performances with protection throughout TV, radio, iPlayer, on-line and social media… all from a dairy farm in Somerset. It may possibly solely be the BBC at Glastonbury Competition.”All we’re ever attempting to do is simply supply the most effective seat in the home.”Alison Howe is government producer at BBC Studios for Glastonbury on TV and can oversee the BBC tv protection of one of many world’s most anticipated festivals.This yr’s occasion returns with headliners together with The 1975, Neil Younger and Olivia Rodrigo, alongside a listing of much-loved names corresponding to Charli XCX, Alanis Morissette, Rod Stewart, and lots of extra.”It is such a wonderful mixture of various kinds of artists which I believe may solely genuinely exist in BBC protection,” Alison stated.”It is kind of in our DNA because it have been, as public service broadcasters. “The BBC desires to supply the large moments for everybody to observe, however equally it is an enormous supporter of all kinds of reside music, model new artists, artists of all genres, world artists, and that is what Glastonbury does brilliantly.”Alison Howe stated the BBC was doing greater than ever earlier than to carry the pageant to its viewers this yearCoverage of Glastonbury is among the largest jewels within the BBC’s pop crown, and a record-breaking 23.1 million folks watched the pageant on TV in 2023.This yr, the BBC stated it might make it simpler than ever for followers to entry the occasion’s standout moments.Jonathan Rothery, head of BBC Common Music TV, stated Glastonbury “is the gold commonplace of pop, corresponding to what Wimbledon is to tennis, and the World Cup is to soccer”.Alison and her group are very conscious of the significance of their position and what it means to the thousands and thousands of individuals watching at residence.”It is extremely necessary to place reside music centre stage,” she stated.”It is a lot part of folks’s lives today, music and the way they use it for well-being and good recollections,” she added.BBC presenter Huw Stephens talks BBC protection of GlastonburyAlison stated one of many “nice joys” of with the ability to cowl the pageant was “placing an artist who would by no means usually be on TV within the early night to discover a new viewers”.”It is simply such a easy however very candy results of what we do.”For us to have the ability to share so many sensible artists, in such a novel place… it provides that sense of just about escapism for just a few days, and we do our greatest to convey each little bit of that magic,” she stated.Alison first labored for the BBC at Glastonbury in 1992, when the pageant was solely coated on radio.A few years later, Channel 4 supplied tv protection, earlier than the BBC introduced in its cameras in 1997.”The pageant has grown yearly and the BBC protection has grown yearly, so it has been a wonderful kind of synchronised collective journey,” Alison stated.There are a number of exterior broadcast autos on web site, from which the 5 totally different phases will probably be broadcastOver the previous 30 years, Alison stated the largest change – maybe clearly – has been expertise, however it’s this which has remodeled the protection the BBC can ship.”Once we return to 1997 and that iconic efficiency by Radiohead, that wasn’t the reside streamed factor that we consider because the norm right this moment,” she stated.”The TV protection got here to it kind of midway by means of the set, and all of the protection was very a lot a late evening factor.”And then you definately get into the 2000s and the digital TV channels come on board and all of a sudden there’s extra alternative to broaden the protection out and enchantment to totally different audiences and have totally different tones of presentation.”Now we have the iPlayer and streaming and the prospect for folks to compensate for content material, so the way in which persons are watching and listening has modified, and the protection has tailored to go well with that.”However broadcasting such a spectacle isn’t just a case of turning up weeks earlier than the pageant, particularly when you find yourself coping with among the largest artists on the planet.Peter Taylor, head of operations for BBC Studios, co-ordinates the technical amenities for the TV broadcasts and reside stage protection.He stated a whole lot of planning went into ensuring the group knew what the goal was for the programme, in addition to discussions with artists’ manufacturing groups to know what may seem on stage.”I then work with our digital camera, sound and imaginative and prescient groups to make sure we have now the correct equipment and connectivity to have the ability to seize the spectacle,” he stated.The bodily aspect of broadcasting such an enormous operation begins two weeks earlier than the primary artists take to the stage.The foundations are a brief trackway, energy distribution, workplace cabins and different fundamental amenities. The expertise arriving will get extra sophisticated as the times go by, with the large exterior broadcast vans arriving on the Tuesday of pageant week.”We actually solely have two days to rig all of the cameras, sound feeds, sign distribution and radio digital camera equipment earlier than we’re on air on Thursday evening,” Peter stated.Peter Taylor additionally labored on protection of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the King’s Coronation and the eightieth anniversary commemorations of D-Day and VE Day”It’s an intense interval of labor and is over far too rapidly because the pageant whizzes by,” he added.However Peter stated the largest problem was “the size of the positioning in addition to the size of the protection we attempt to ship”.Whereas there are greater occasions broadcast by the BBC – such because the Olympics – Peter stated the Glastonbury group delivered “the same variety of hours of advanced broadcasts, and have the added problem of attempting to match the artistic ambition of the artists on stage, all doubtlessly whereas carrying wellies”.He stated the group had constructed up a powerful relationship of belief with the pageant’s manufacturing workers on web site, whereas Alison put year-round relationships with high performers central to delivering a spectacular present.”In case you’ve labored with specific artists by means of Later with Jools Holland or BBC Radio reveals… then after they come to have an enormous second at Glastonbury, that relationship is there, that belief is there, as a result of finally they put their present in our palms,” she stated.There are eight TV exterior broadcast galleries backstage of the Pyramid, in addition to extra vans to combine the sound of the performancesThis is helped by the BBC’s line-up of presenters, with this yr’s protection seeing the likes of Jo Whiley, Zoe Ball, Lauren Laverne, Nick Grimshaw, Clara Amfo, Greg James, and lots of extra internet hosting.BBC iPlayer is being touted as “the last word place to observe Glastonbury”, bringing viewers greater than 90 hours of performances with its reside streams of the 5 principal phases – Pyramid, Different, West Holts, Woodsies and The Park.The Glastonbury Hits Channel has been reside since early June, whereas The Glastonbury Channel returns in a while Friday.On TV, there will probably be in depth protection on BBC One, Two and 4, whereas radio groups from six BBC radio networks will probably be offering hours of reside protection with extra obtainable on BBC Sounds.’A novel island’This yr the BBC can be introducing audio description for protection on BBC One, whereas Jonathan stated they have been additionally “actually proud that Pyramid Stage units will probably be streamed reside in British Signal Language for the third yr”. And doing all of that from a subject in Somerset provides one other degree of experience.”It is that lovely mixture of feeling such as you’ve simply been transported to this kind of distinctive island, this Isle of Avalon, with all these totally different treats, after which there’s the group spirit of tenting and the climate – good or unhealthy – all that provides to the adventures that it brings,” Alison stated.The pageant is on the cusp of a fallow yr – when the fields are given the prospect to recuperate. So for all these working for the BBC, Alison says there’s “a slight degree of wanting to ensure it is the most effective it will possibly probably be”.”As a result of when it is not on, it is really missed,” she stated.Conserving Glastonbury on air: Broadcast engineer Julian Butcher has labored on BBC protection of Glastonbury since 1998