- Revellers are gearing up for Glastonbury Festival, as gates open to Worthy Farm this week.
- This year’s headliners include SZA, Coldplay and Dua Lipa, with Shania Twain performing in the “Legends” slot
- There is still rampant speculation about who could be the secret band performing at Woodsies stage on Saturday evening.
- But with how big the festival is, is it officially bigger than Coachella - or even Vatican City?
It’s two sleeps until the gates open to Worthy Farm as Glastonbury Festival 2024 at 9am on June 26 2024 - headlined this year by Dua Lipa, SZA and Coldplay.
The sprawling festival site, estimated to be 900 acres, annually sees nearly 500,000 revellers call Worthy Farm their home for a few days, as the area once again becomes a miniature city with activities available outside of merely seeing your favourite band.
This had us thinking - is Glastonbury bigger than, say, Coachella Festival, its North American counterpart that also has earned a reputation for being “the” festival du jour in North America where many celebrities have been spotted throughout its glow-up in recent years?
Well, we were in luck, as you will be too if you’ve ever asked yourself just how big Glastonbury Festival is compared to other festivals. Geoffrey Prytherch developed the Glastonbury Map overlay, which allows users to enter a location and see just how much land mass Glastonbury covers compared to Leeds, Reading or in our cases below smaller countries.
So to settle the debate - is the Glastonbury Festival bigger than Coachella?
1. Coachella
The Coachella Festival started in 1999 and is held annually at the Empire Polo Club site in Indio, California. The estimated size of the festival, which has played home to Beyonce, Foo Fighters, Ye and many more, is around 642 acres - around 258 acres short of Glastonbury’s purported 900 acres. | Geoffrey Prytherch
2. Leeds Festival
Leeds Festival, which moved to Brahmham Park after rioting took place at Temple Newsam during the 2002 edition of the event, is estimated to be 600 acres in size. This year the festival is headlined by Liam Gallagher, Blink 182 and Fred Again and while the festival site seems sprawling, it’s 300 acres less than what Worthy Farm is estimated to be in terms of land mass. | Geoffrey Prytherch
3. Reading Festival
Meanwhile Reading Festival, held at Little John’s Farm, has an estimated land mass area of 100 acres - six times smaller than it’s northern counterpart which started shortly after Reading Festival became “the” music festival du jour and apparently nine times smaller than the Glastonbury site. | Geoffrey Prytherch
4. Isle of Wight Festival
This makes the size of the Reading Festival site even more unusual when you take into account that the estimated size of the Isle of Wight Festival at Seaclose Park, Newport is said to be 120 acres; twenty more acres than Little John’s Farm. This year’s Isle of Wight Festival was headlined by The Prodigy, Pet Shop Boys and Green Day. | Geoffrey Prytherch
5. Download Festival
Download Festival was a continuation of the iconic “Monsters of Rock” festival which regularly took residency at the Donington Park Race Track. Headlined this year by Queens of the Stone Age, Fall Out Boy and Avenged Sevenfold, the location that has played home to Metallica, Slipknot and Sepultura in the past has a land mass estimated to be 300 acres - a third the size of Glastonbury’s reported size | Geoffrey Prytherch
6. TRNSMT Festival
TRNSMT Festival, scheduled to take place this year from July 12 to July 14, is estimated to take up around 65 acres of Glasgow Green and surrounding areas. That means that this year’s performers including Liam Gallagher, Sugababes and Garbage will be performing on a site 825 acres smaller than Glastonbury. | Geoffrey Prytherch