How to Get to the Glastonbury Festival

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts has been around since 1970, so it has established an excellent reputation in the world of summer music festivals. Tens of thousands of people from all over the world make their way to southwest England each year for the festival, and thankfully this one isn’t as difficult to reach as some of the music festivals that are located in more remote areas.

Although it’s called the Glastonbury Festival, the festival site is about six miles from the town of Glastonbury. It takes place at Worthy Farm – which is an actual a dairy farm for the rest of the year, when there isn’t a huge music festival going on – located between two other villages (Pilton and Pylle).

As mentioned, the Glastonbury Festival farm is reasonably easy to get to, especially as compared to some other summer music festival, but there are a few options to get to the festival itself. So in this article, we’ll go over the different ways you can get from where you are to the Glastonbury Festival farm.

>> There is no festival in 2012. The Glastonbury Festival opens June 26, 2013

Flying to the Glastonbury Festival

Anyone who’s planning a trip to the Glastonbury Festival from well outside England is likely to fly into England first (even if they turn it into a road trip for the last bit of the journey). There are small airports in cities throughout England, so it may be worth looking at several to hunt for the best airfare, but the closest airport to the festival site is Bristol International Airport (BRS).

If you’re not coming from too far away you can find cheap flights to Bristol on budget airlines like easyJet and Ryanair. Other airlines that fly into Bristol include KLM, British European, Go, and even Continental Airlines, which offers flights from Newark Airport.

Driving from the Bristol Airport to the Glastonbury Festival site takes between 45-60 minutes, depending on the route you take (and traffic, of course). For those of you who aren’t driving, there’s a regular bus that runs between Bristol’s airport and the city’s train station. It’s called the Bristol International Flyer, and from the train station you then need to hop on one of the festival buses to get to the festival itself.

Taking the Bus to the Glastonbury Festival

Even the Glastonbury Festival site says that the bus is the best way to get to the festival, primarily because it helps alleviate overcrowding at the car parks on site.

Taking the bus to Glastonbury is pretty inexpensive, but there are combination bus-and-festival tickets you can get that will give you two things you need with one purchase.

In addition to the combination tickets, you can also book your coach or bus travel to the Glastonbury Festival separately from your festival ticket.

National Express runs coaches from both the Bristol Airport and London Heathrow to the festival site, as well as from different cities around the country.

You must book the tickets from the airports in advance online, and it’s a very good idea to book your coach ticket early regardless of where you’re coming from (you can book National Express shuttle tickets to the Glastonbury Festival online by clicking on the banner to the right).

Seetickets is another company that runs buses from various points around England to the Glastonbury Festival site.

If you’re coming from Brighton, there’s a specific coach service run by the Brighton Peace & Environment Centre connecting Brighton and the festival.

Driving to the Glastonbury Festival

Can’t bear the thought of getting to the Glastonbury Festival without your own set of wheels? Then you’ll need to drive to the festival. Parking at the festival will cost you £15, and you need to buy it in advance so that you can display the parking sticker on your car. If you don’t have that sticker, you won’t be able to drive onto the festival grounds – let alone park.

The festival website encourages carpooling wherever possible, for the same reason that they encourage people to take the bus instead of driving – to reduce the impact on the farm. Unlike some of the other festival websites, there isn’t a car-sharing sign-up form on the site itself – they suggest using sites like Liftshare and Freewheelers to either find people with space in their car or offer space in your car.

Driving directions on the festival website are as follows:

• From London: M3 then A303 and A37
• From the North East: A1 or M1, M25 to M3 (Junction 12), then A303 and A37
• From the Midlands: Preferably M40 and A34 to A303 and A37
• From the North West: M6, M5 to A39 (Junction 23) then A361
• From Wales: M4, M5 to A39 (as above)
• From the West Country: A37 or A361

The festival website also notes that if you’re lucky enough to be using GPS to get to the festival, you’ll need to know that the official zip code (postcode) for the farm is different depending on which direction you’re coming from. If you’re on the M5 coming from Glastonbury, the postcode for the parking areas to the west of the festival site is BA6 8NE – and if you’re on the A303/A37 the postcode to the east of the festival site is BA4 6TA.

Taking the Train to the Glastonbury Festival

As mentioned above, the closest airport to the festival is in Bristol, and one option from the Bristol Airport is to get a bus to Bristol’s train station and then another bus to the festival. From that information, you might think that getting the train to Bristol is the best option if you’re going to the festival via train. But there are train stations closer to the festival site.

The best train station to use to get to the Glastonbury Festival is at Castle Cary, according to the festival’s website, although there are official festival coaches running from both Bristol’s train station and Castle Cary’s train station. Buses run back and forth to the Castle Cary station for the duration of the festival, and you need to have a festival ticket in order to use the buses.

There are train stations in other towns around the festival as well, but there aren’t official shuttles that connect those stations to the festival site. Obviously you’re welcome to arrive at any train station you like, but if you choose one other than Bristol or Castle Cary you’ll need to figure out how to get from there to the festival on your own.

Cycling to the Glastonbury Festival

If you’d like to get away from motorized transport entirely, you can always hop on a bike and ride to the festival. The festival’s website says the site “is just a few miles south of Route 3 of the National Cycle Network, which runs between Glastonbury and Wells.” There are places to lock up your bicycle at the festival for free.

Note that not all two-wheeled transport is allowed on the festival site – motorcycles have to be parked in the area near the festival’s bus station, but aren’t allowed on the festival site itself. If you’re riding your motorbike to the festival, you don’t need to purchase the parking pass that cars need.

photo by Adam UXB Smith