Glastonbury Festival 2025: what really happens in the town when the world’s biggest music event arrives
As 200,000 people flock to Worthy Farm for Glastonbury Festival, the town that gives the event its name is left quiet, its streets empty and its traders grappling with a unique paradox — global fame but dwindling footfall.
While the festival itself unfolds seven miles up the road in Pilton, its impact is felt far beyond the site. In Glastonbury town, the biggest music festival on earth reshapes daily life — bringing traffic chaos, deserted High Streets and tough decisions for businesses, even as the world shines its spotlight on this quiet corner of Somerset.
Traffic chaos across Somerset
Each June, tens of thousands of people descend on Pilton for the five‑day spectacle, causing long tailbacks across Somerset. The A361, A37 and A39 bear the brunt, while rural lanes quickly fill with campervans and cars. To keep traffic moving, Somerset Council brings in one‑way systems, temporary closures and special measures — and even the bins have to adapt.
In the run‑up to the festival, recycling and waste collections across the area start an hour earlier, from 6am, to beat the traffic. From Tuesday 24 to Friday 27 June, residents in the former Mendip area are asked to put bins out the night before or by 6am, allowing crews to work before the busiest traffic arrives. The A361 between Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet will be especially busy from Monday 23 to Monday 30 June, and locals without tickets are urged to avoid the area if possible.
High Street goes quiet
While Worthy Farm is packed with music fans, Glastonbury High Street becomes a ghost town. The usual summer visitors stay away, assuming the town will be too crowded, when in reality it's almost eerily quiet.
"Trade usually dies a death during this event," said Fiona Brogan, owner of Wyrdraven. "I remain open in the vain hope that a passing tourist, unawares of the festival, may pop in. But there's no point planning anything special — no one comes to town. People don't realise how far away the site is. You can count the tumbleweeds rolling down the street. It really does have a negative effect on trade."
Another local shop owner added: "We usually find the week before and the Mon–Wed of the festival week are fairly busy, but during the Thursday–Sunday it's quiet. With so many people choosing not to camp and instead booking into hotels and Airbnbs in town, the regular tourists can't stay here."
Restaurateur Mark Tobin, a veteran of trading through the festival across Street and Wells, explained: "The festival has a mixed effect on the local economy. There's a small uplift pre‑ and post‑festival as crews frequent local pubs and restaurants. But during the festival itself, the impact is significantly negative. So much so that I now close my business for the week — it's simply not worth trying to trade. Street and Glastonbury are like ghost towns. We lose less money by closing than by staying open.
"There are many factors leading to the lack of footfall. Many local residents actually attend the festival. Those that don't tend not to go out throughout the period. There's no tourism in the area over the festival week as every piece of bed space within driving distance is booked out to guests inside the site, who only come out to go back to bed, then return to the site."
"One sector that does benefit is hotels and B&Bs, which are almost guaranteed 100 per cent occupancy, with some pre‑ and post‑festival benefits too. But for the rest of the local food, beverage and retail sector, it's evident the festival has a significantly negative economic impact.
"Once on site, most festivalgoers don't leave until late Sunday or early Monday. There's so much on offer within the festival itself that there's no longer a necessity to leave for supplies or shopping.
"One thing the festival does do is help Glastonbury retain its international stardom. There are few people in the world who have never heard of Glastonbury and Glastonbury Festival."
Schools adjust their schedules
Local schools have learned to work around the disruption, scheduling inset days to coincide with the busiest days of the festival. This spares staff and families the struggle of getting to school through clogged traffic and allows those working or volunteering at the festival to do so more easily.
Emergency services and waste crews adapt
With the festival providing its own medical staff and facilities, the pressure on Glastonbury town's GP surgeries and pharmacies is relatively low, although the town's two pharmacies still see long queues in the days leading up to the event.
Police maintain a highly visible presence across the area in the days leading up to the festival. However, once the gates open, festival-goers are more likely to see an officer than locals, with approximately 1,380 officers deployed across the site.
Policing the festival doesn't come cheap — estimates put the cost at roughly £1.3 million for the 2023 event, up from £1.22 million in 2011 and £1.25 million in 2013.
These are classed as 'Special Police Services' and are paid for by the festival organisers, although Avon and Somerset Police now withhold precise recent figures, citing commercial sensitivity.
Local tickets: a controversial scheme
Each year, a batch of tickets is set aside for residents living within a defined area. In 2025, tickets sold out within minutes. The sale was divided into three phases: 'inner zone' tickets were gone by 9.27am, 'inner and outer zone' tickets disappeared by 10.22am, and Sunday tickets for Mendip and central Somerset were snapped up by 11.26am.
It has led to rising tensions. Locals have long accused outsiders of 'squatting' on Somerset addresses to grab tickets, making it harder for genuine residents. Organisers have tightened their checks as a result, verifying that the person buying the tickets really lives where they claim.
Giving back: millions for the area
While tensions arise, the festival gives back to its host county in a big way. An economic report into Glastonbury Festival found it generated roughly £168 million for UK businesses in 2023, including £32 million for Somerset firms. The cost of putting on the 210,000‑capacity event was roughly £62 million, with almost £12 million paid to 258 Somerset businesses.
Last year, festivalgoers spent roughly £1.6 million across the wider Somerset area, with a quarter going to businesses providing food and drink, and roughly half spent in local shops and supermarkets for festival supplies. Site crews added another £900,000 to the local spend, while volunteers contributed roughly £500,000.
The event also sustained over 1,100 jobs across the UK — including 325 in Somerset. Around 80 staff work year‑round for the festival office, creating roughly 55 full‑time roles. Another 1,750 people worked directly for the festival site in 2023, creating the equivalent of roughly 200 full‑time jobs. For many self‑employed contractors, Glastonbury accounted for roughly 16 per cent of their annual earnings, with some relying on it for an even larger proportion.
Meanwhile, roughly 900 festivalgoers stayed in local hotels and B&Bs, spending roughly £450,000, and an estimated 4,000 people opted for off‑site camping, generating roughly £6.5 million for the area. The site featured 918 trading stalls in 2023, staffed by roughly 9,500 people working approximately 314,000 hours — the equivalent of roughly 170 full‑time jobs.
Good causes and community benefits
In 2023, the festival hosted more than 10,000 volunteers, including 3,511 stewards who raised £700,000 for their charities, alongside volunteers from organisations such as Oxfam and WaterAid. The festival itself donated over £3.7 million to charities and supported Oxfam's Crowdfunder DEC Appeal for the Syria–Turkey earthquake, raising more than £1 million, while an online auction of tickets added a further £116,000 for the Trussell Trust.
Closer to home, the festival has invested heavily in its host village of Pilton, funding the construction of 52 social housing units and upgrading the village playing fields with a new pavilion, clubhouse, skate park and tennis courts. It has also supported the rebuilding of the Pilton Club and the restoration of the historic Tithe Barn.
In Pilton and nearby communities, the festival supports enrichment programmes for local primary schools and vegetable‑growing projects for community food banks. This year it has also donated to the Somerset Carers' Network and supported organisations such as the Food Forest Project and the Somerset Wildlife Trust, which work to protect the area's natural habitats, raise awareness of climate change and promote biodiversity across the county.
A quiet town, a global brand
For five days every June, Glastonbury town embraces its role as the quiet host for the biggest music festival in the world. The streets empty, the High Street falls silent, and many businesses make the hard call to close their doors.
But for better or worse, it's part of the town's identity. As Mark Tobin put it: "One thing the festival does do is help Glastonbury retain its international stardom. There are few people around the world who have never heard of Glastonbury and Glastonbury Festival."
For locals, it's a week like no other — a time to adapt, make the best of it, and watch as the world arrives, talks about 'Glastonbury', then disappears again, having barely set foot in the town itself.
Share:
