Sir Michael Eavis turned 90 on 17 October 2025, and Glastonbury Festival marked it by sitting the founder down at his home in Pilton for an interview. He said he felt very well, and described the birthday as the culmination of more than 50 years of work.
His favourite act of the 2025 festival was Neil Young, who played the Pyramid on the Saturday night. Eavis said Young loves performing at Worthy Farm and had turned in a great set. With a fallow year ahead he was still busy, having spent the previous week with Joe Rush and the Arcadia crew.
Asked what he would tell his 35-year-old self at the start of it all, Eavis went to the fights rather than the music. In the early days, he said, he was at war with the council, the village, the local magistrates and the police, and it came good anyway. The fight, he added, was what made it work.
The farm has not stopped being a farm. Milk from Worthy Farm goes to Wyke Farms to be turned into cheddar sold through the Co-op, a fact Eavis clearly enjoys. He described getting off a train in Glasgow, spotting a Co-op across the road, walking in to check, and finding the cheese all over the shelves.
He also pointed at the 52 social houses he built in Pilton so local people could afford to stay in the village. Gary Lineker opened them, and Eavis said his mother would have been proud of the houses. He drives that way out of the village and looks at them in the sun.
On whether the festival still stands for something, he was flat about it: there will always be a political angle, and people expect that. He put his Methodism behind it. He asked which of the past festivals was his favourite and answered himself, saying he always thinks the most recent one is the best.
For his birthday he planned a party in the village with family and local people, and to sing three songs with his band. He would not name them, though he did not argue when the interviewer guessed My Way. Glastonbury's charity payments that year reached £4.2m, and the festival has since booked 23 to 27 June 2027. More dates sit in the festival tracker and our rock hub.
The facts
- Sir Michael Eavis turned 90 on 17 October 2025
- The interview was done at his home in Pilton
- He called the birthday the culmination of more than 50 years of work
- He named Neil Young's Saturday Pyramid set his favourite of 2025
- Worthy Farm milk goes to Wyke Farms for cheddar sold in the Co-op
- He built 52 social houses in Pilton, opened by Gary Lineker
- He planned to sing three songs with his band at a village party
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