Originally launched in 2013, the first issue of this year’s Glastonbury Free Press was published and began distribution at the famous Somerset festival on Thursday (22 June).
It featured articles about DJ Eliza Rose, a Q&A with fitness expert Joe Wicks, and tips for first-time festivalgoers.
The publication is printed on-site at Worthy Farm on a vintage 1957 Heidelberg OHZ-S cylinder letterpress, which uses hot metal typesetting and was also installed in 2013.
The newspaper features content from a range of writers, copywriters, and illustrators, while the printing tent also offers music fans the chance to see how printing by hand is done.
Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis told the BBC: “We like the idea of providing a newspaper. It’s quite old school now, many people don’t read newspapers anymore, but we produce this paper which is just entirely for the world that we’re in for these five days.”
Two editions – the second published on the Sunday of the festival – are produced every year, and up to 30,000 copies are distributed across the site.
It was printed on Stora Enso Ensocreamy 70gsm 2.0 bulk, supplied by Denmaur.
Ahead of Glastonbury 2019, Grafitec installed a Stahl T52-4X folder on-site to assist with the production of the Glastonbury Free Press.
Chris Salmon, who has written for each issue of the publication since it launched, told the BBC: “You see people coming down who used to work in Fleet Street 50 years ago, who are just so excited to see a Heidelberg – and you get five and six-year-olds whose minds are being blown that this thing is kind of spewing out tens of thousands of copies of a newspaper.”
More than 200,000 people had been expected to attend Glastonbury this year, which also saw headline sets from Arctic Monkeys and Guns N’ Roses, as well as much talked-about performances from Lewis Capaldi, Lizzo, Rick Astley and Lana Del Rey, among others.
