This essay endeavors to understand the negative impacts that the Glastonbury Festival has on a multitude of areas within British society by focusing on four main areas: economic; environment; politics and society. Through critical evaluation of the festival, recommendations can be made in order to reduce its effect on its stakeholders. There is an understanding that Glastonbury Festival has had a negative impact on more than the four topics discussed below, such as the tourism industry around the festival site, the IHRCS (2010) report on music tourism at Glastonbury Festival can be used for further training on this topic. However, this essay will focus on the four impacts with the most coverage by the media and academic staff. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Glastonbury festival began on 19 September 1970, with 1,500 people in attendance, the two-day festival starring T-Rex cost £1 with each attendee receiving a bottle of milk on arrival. In 2017 the festival became a five-day event with 175,000 people attending, tickets costing up to £238, numerous performances and appearances by major celebrities and political figures (Glastonbury Festivals History, 2018). Tickets sold out online in less than an hour before the musical performances were announced, Glastonbury Festival is the largest festival in the UK and one of the best in the world (Hawkes, 2016). In 2015 Glastonbury grossed £25.9 million, after costs and large donations to charities the festival rakes in on average £86,000 in profits (ITV, 2015). Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis earns a modest salary of £60,000 and is a strong advocate of charitable giving as such, the festival offers some of the largest annual donations to charities such as Oxfam and Green Peace (Ellis et al , 2017). Festivals have a negative impact on the area they are in and the people who attend, McDonnell et al (1990) stated that the impact of the festival depends on its size, the bigger the festival the greater the impact and the more people there are. hits. Possible impacts can also be assessed through three main themes. The holiday season [winter; summer; Night; day], the location of the event [Internal; outdoor] and the theme of the event [passive; music; political]. All of this alters what the impacts will be and how severely they will affect the stakeholders of that event (Jago and McArdle, 1999). Applying these techniques to identify the negative impacts of festivals at Glastonbury will allow solutions to be easily created. The economic impacts of Glastonbury are mainly positive, bringing £1 million a year into local villages and the tourist economy and Eavis' large donations to charity both examples of this, however, the economic impacts of Glastonbury are not all positive . Firstly, Glastonbury has a long history of severe price inflation of both tickets sold and stalls inside. From opening in 1970 until 2016, the ticket price alone has increased by 22,700% from £1 and a bottle of milk to £238+, this is a huge difference compared to inflation rates in the rest of the economy, which increased by an average of 3% per year (Simpson, 2016). This is common for festivals and therefore a solution would be difficult to find, the price has increased so drastically due to the growing popularity of the festival. If the inflation rate could be reduced,this would benefit festival goers, but as long as they are willing to pay, the price will continue to rise. The second issue relating to the economic impact of Glastonbury festivals is the exploitation of workers. After the last Glastonbury (2017), following Jeremy Corbyn's speeches on the importance of workers' rights, organizers sacked almost 700 workers, all on zero-hours contracts, with little to no notice after just two days of work. These people had been offered over three weeks' work to clean up the site, many were left stranded in and around the site with no money and no home as many were migrant workers (O'Connor, 2017). This total exploitation of workers' rights and zero hours contracts cost many of those workers a lot as they were unable to eat the money they needed. Zero hours contracts as a whole are exploitative and run a great risk of being misused by businesses as employees have little power and often do not receive the same rights, pay or benefits as those on more extensive contracts ( Sutherland and Canwell, 2004). To try to resolve this issue and ensure that Glastonbury cannot and will not exploit workers again in the future, it is recommended that all workers are issued with fixed-term contact details stating the length of time they will be working for and the jobs they will be expected to do . Do. This type of contract is established in advance and guarantees employees the same treatment as those on full-time contracts, thus limiting the possibility of exploiting workers (gov.uk, 2018). This would protect both the employees and the festival who are legally obliged to respect the established contract. Glastonbury also has a substantial impact on the environment, the festival's motto is “Love Worthy farm; leave no trace", the festival claims to be committed to recycling and the environment, encouraging festival goers to take their waste home. They have also installed solar panels to power the stage, have over 1,300 volunteers who recycle and are the largest donor in the world to Greenpeace (Glastonbury Festivals Green Policies, 2018). Despite these initiatives to become a more environmentally friendly festival, Glastonbury still has a long way to go, in 2011 the waste left at the festival consisted of 400 gazebos; roller mats; 6,500 sleeping bags and 3,500 inflatable mattresses (Gray, 2013) Things don't get better as the years go by, in 2014 11.2 tons of waste were collected and in 2017 1,650 tons of waste were collected. including 5,000 tents, some of this waste is recycled but the vast majority is sent to landfill due to the plastic used to create these products is not designed to be single-use and recyclable (Vonow, 2017). Disposal of all this waste cost the festival £780,000 and required 1,300 volunteers in 2017, this may not seem like a lot of money due to the £20m extra profit Glastonbury makes each year, however it is the impact that it has on the environment. In 2014 the UK alone produced 202.8 million tonnes of waste, of which only 44% could be recycled and 7.7 million was biodegradable producing high levels of methane which adds to the high levels of carbon in our atmosphere ( Government Statistical Service, 2016). In 2010, Glastonbury emitted 42,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the environment year-round, contributing to the global warming crisis (Edwards, 2010). Glastonbury is trying to reduce its waste, the festival has brightly painted bins across the site, signs askingfestival goers to take their landfill with them and have a team of 1,300 dedicated to cleaning up the site after the festival (Glastonbury Festival Green Policy, 2018). With this in mind, it is recommended that instead of a waste disposal solution, it would be beneficial to increase waste recycling capabilities. So the proposal is for Glastonbury to use its influence and ask retailers to produce fully recyclable festival equipment, from tents to chairs to rolled-up mats. Once this is implemented, the festival will be able to begin allowing only festival goers to bring these items onto the site, thus removing landfill. waste. This solution would take 5-10 years, but it would be a way to make the festival more sustainable and to educate festival goers about the importance of recycling. Glastonbury has high levels of pollution, while the festival uses solar panels to power the stages and in 2016 banned the use of diesel generators on site for all vendors (Glastonbury Festival Green Policies, 2018). The biggest polluter within the festival is the river, in 2014 Glastonbury was fined £31,000 for allowing waste water to flow into the River Whit-lake, this incident occurred after one too many tanks burst full. The festival did not report the incident to environmental agencies, but it was recorded by external monitoring of the river during the festival, the festival was taken to court where it was discovered that a similar incident had happened in 2010 and had resulted in a such a high fine (Environment Agency, 2016). The spill caused the death of the trout population in the river and 42 other breeds of fish, as when human urine decomposes it releases ammonia. Ammonia causes stress to fish resulting in cessation of eating, mutations in larvae and fry and ultimately death if a water source is exposed to consistently high levels of ammonia it can make the environment toxic killing all marine life (Eddy , 2005). It is vital that this issue is resolved, to do this the festival must invest in more robust wastewater storage throughout the festival and large overflow tanks, it must also monitor river ammonia levels and report all findings to environmental agencies . Lawbreaking at festivals has become commonplace, more explicitly drug use, the rise of drug culture since the 1960s means users have gone from smoking weed to taking 'drugs dance” like ketamine and ecstasy. This is due to the rise of festival culture and the underlying theme of festivals being a safe place for illegal recreational drug use. Although in the 1980s these types of drugs were mainly used by people on the fringes of society, their user base has changed to ordinary young people taking a break from their 9-5 lives (Parker et al, 1998). Glastonbury has a strict anti-drug policy on its website which states that all attendees will be searched on arrival and those selling and consuming illegal drugs will be arrested (Glastonbury Festival Drug Use, 2018). However, whilst this is not 'condoned' by the festival, it has become part of the deeply ingrained culture of Glastonbury, with websites such as The Tab and Vice documenting the types and even order of drugs to be taken during the festival, it has become a cliché (L'Independent, 2017). This is a big problem for the festival and has a negative impact on the people who attend the festival, impacting not only their mental health and wellbeing, but also their lives outside of the festival. The National, 2018)