Keeping in mind that weather predictions two weeks ahead of any event are too uncertain for planning and will most likely shift and change countless times
Glastonbury Festival is fast approaching and preparation is at its paramount for those lucky enough to bag the golden ticket to this year’s event.
Packing for Glastonbury is never an easy task as it is, let alone when you don’t know what the weather might bring, and although looking back at the Festival’s historical weather stats can be a lot of fun, it does not help with predicting the future highs and lows.
With it being less than two weeks until gates open on the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world – starting off with Met Office while moving on to much-loved Glasto weather reporter Gavin Partridge, and finalising this report with Accuweather – we take an initial sneak peek at the first long-range weather forecast for this year’s Festival.
A word of warning though; a weather forecast two weeks ahead of any event is too uncertain for planning and could change dramatically with every passing day. For example, for those of you who remember, 2019 looked pretty unpredictable until about a week prior to the festival with forecasts predicting “heavy thundery showers”, which by the weekend saw it change to light rain early in the week, then hot & humid later.
With Glastonbury 2023 set to kick off on Wednesday, the 21st of June, and end on Sunday, the 25th – the Met Office’s long-range weather forecast currently predicts that from mid-week (14th – 23rd June) “the most likely scenario is for low pressure to shift to the northeast of the UK, with high-pressure building from the west”.
Adding that “this would favour fine and dry weather across southern and southwestern parts of the UK, while the north, and especially northeast, remains cloudier and breezier with showers or longer spells of rain”.
However, at the end of June and early July (24th June – 8th July), “temperatures are more likely to be above average in general”, with the “warmest conditions in the west and south at first”, and a “gradual cooling trend” later “towards average values” – although briefer hot spells are possible.
Moving along, Glasto weatherman Gavin Partridge has just dropped his first weather update for Glastonbury 2023 via his YouTube channel this evening (Friday, 9th June), and while utilising the Global Forecast System (GFS) to try and predict the Glasto weather, emphasises that at this period of time, we are in what is called “the unreliable time-frame”.
Taking it from the top while looking at the weather for Tuesday (20th June) – which is one day prior to gates opening on Wednesday the 21st – Gavin says that “temperatures are looking nice and warm”, with possible “outbreaks of rain waiting in the wings”.
Partridge then points out that for Wednesday (21st June) – which is the official first day of the Festival and when the opening ceremony takes place at the Stone Circle – “temperatures are looking nice and warm” (into the low 20s Celsius), with it being predicted as a “mostly dry day” as people begin to arrive on site and pitch up their tents.
Thursday (22nd June), is once again said to be “nice and warm”, however, due to low pressure deepening in the Atlantic, showery outbreaks of rain may be moving in across the UK, and as a result temperatures are lower in the mid to upper teens.
Looking at the first day of music on the Friday of the Festival (23rd June), Partridge mentions that the temperatures are still predicted to be “relatively warm” (low 20s Celsius) with it being “a mostly dry day” with hot air gathering over France, Portugal and down into the Mediterranean – which is worth keeping an eye on, as it could make its way to the UK.
As for Saturday the 24th of June, “temperatures remain relatively warm” with a bit of unsettled weather which might bring showery outbreaks of rain pushing across the country (mostly north and west).
For the final day of Glastonbury 2023, which falls on Sunday the 25th of June this year, Gavin says the GFS module suggests that “temperatures are looking pretty dismal – only into the mid-teens”. While adding “outbreaks of heavy rain and strong winds pushing in from off the Atlantic, in what could be quite a soggy end to this year’s Glastonbury Festival” – Partridge does, however, then caveat this by saying that he would be “very surprised if it verified”.
Looking at Accuweather’s monthly forecast – the day gates are set to open for the Festival on Wednesday (21st June) is currently predicted to be “warm with clouds and sunshine” and temperatures are expected to peak at 25°C.
The Thursday (22nd June) looks to remain “warm with variable cloudiness”, while the Friday (23rd June) – which is when the main music schedule kicks off – is currently looking to have “a passing shower in the morning” but otherwise, “partly sunny”, with temperatures peaking at 18°C.
However, the Saturday of the Festival (24th June) is said to feature “considerable clouds” with “a little rain in the morning followed by areas of drizzle in the afternoon”, and highs of 19°C.
And finally, Sunday (25th June), which is the last day of music that closes out the Festival is predicted to see the “sunshine return” after “a cloudy start” to the day – with temperatures as high as 20°C and low as 12°C at night.
That sums up our ‘long-range’ weather forecast for now, but watch this space, as we’ll be back in a few days’ time with the mid-range forecast.
Meanwhile, the official Glastonbury Festival app from Vodafone finally went live on iOS and Android earlier today and features a customisable line-up, map, A-Z search, as well as access to the Festival’s on-site radio station Worthy FM.
OTHER LINE-UP NEWS
Glastonbury organisers announced the full Glastonbury 2023 line-up including set times last month (Tuesday, 30th of May), allowing ticket-holders to diligently plan their gig-going across the vast site, and those at home to plan their watching and listening schedule via the BBC coverage.
The event – which runs next month, from the 21st to the 25th of June at Worthy Farm, Pilton – will be headlined by Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses, and Elton John, along with Sunday afternoon Legends Slot performer Yusuf / Cat Stevens – all of which had already been confirmed prior to today’s full line-up announcement.
Along with the full line-up revelation, Glastonbury 2023, has recently already confirmed a host of line-up posters for its individual areas and stages – including the bills for West Holts, Silver Hayes, Field of Avalon, Croissant Neuf, Left Field, Theatre & Circus Fields, The Common, Shangri-La, Woodsies, Arcadia, Unfairground, Glasto Latino, The Park, Kidzfield, Glade, Pilton Palais, Acoustic Stage, and Strummerville and Block9.
New Pyramid stage additions to the bill which were revealed with the full line-up include Rick Astley, who will be opening the bill on Saturday and playing the Festival for the first time, along with pop singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and Queens of the Stone Age – who teased a possible performance at Worthy Farm only a day prior to the full line-up being revealed this June, and have now been officially confirmed and will headline the Other stage on Sunday night.
Meanwhile, Among the known set times, the full breakdown also featured multiple TBA (To Be Announced) slots – leaving us guessing as to who may fill the coveted slits, with one of the main hot topics surrounding the extensive schedule being a slot occupied by an unknown act, who simply appears on the bill as ‘The Churnups‘ – who are currently strongly rumoured as being the Foo Fighters after the band recently published a ‘thank you’ letter which included the peculiar words “churning up”.
The mysterious “Churnups” band – who have no online footprint when searching the internet and are presumably a high-profile secret act – are scheduled to perform on the Pyramid Stage on the opening day of music (Friday, 23rd June) for an hour and a quarter (6:15 PM – 7:30 PM) ahead of Royal Blood (8:15 PM – 9:15 PM) and headliners Arctic Monkeys (10:15 PM -11:45 PM).
MAP NEWS & UPDATES
Glastonbury officials released the first public version of the Glastonbury 2023 map ahead of this year’s anticipated festival earlier this month (Thursday, 11th May), which features a number of changes and adjustments across the Worthy Farm site – which you can read all about here.
Some other key updates and changes that have been confirmed for this year’s Festival Include:
- Vodafone announcing a multi-year partnership with Glastonbury while replacing EE as the ‘Festival’s Official Connectivity Partner‘ – which up until 2022 was Glastonbury‘s technology partner for the seventh year running.
- Emily Eavis confirming the renaming of the John Peel Stage to Woodsies, as well as adding a new family-orientated area of the same name which will feature a campfire.
- Children not being allowed in the notorious after-hours south-east corner (also known as the ‘naughty corner’) after 10pm, while encouraged to seek out child-friendly areas across the site (such as the Theatre & Circus Fields, and the campfire in the new Woodsies area).
- The removal of the stage in William’s Green in order to make room for the return of Joe Rush’s Carhenge to the Festival grounds – 36 years after it first made its appearance at Glastonbury in 1987.
BUILD PROGRESS
Meanwhile, with each passing day, in preparation for this year’s highly anticipated event, Worthy Farm is getting to look more and more like the world-famous Glastonbury Festival we all know and love.
As of the time of writing, along with the Pyramid Stage, Other Stage, Long Drops and Fence, other build highlights include the construction of the West Holts Stage, the erection of the much-loved Ribbon Tower, the formation of the Co-op store, as well as placement of the first pillar of Joe Rushe’s new Carhenge.
With gates to the public on the 21st of June, and as more containers carrying equipment continue to arrive on-site intermittently, we can expect the build to grow in intensity as more iconic stages and venues come to life once again to create the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. You can now continue following the build via the BBC Glastonbury webcam, here.
TICKET OPPORTUNITIES
All tickets for this year’s Festival completely sold out when they originally went up for sale in November (last year).
Standard tickets for the 2023 Glastonbury Festival sold out in 61 minutes on the 6th of November [2022], after a swift sellout on the 3rd of November [2022] of tickets packaged with coach travel, which sold out in just 22 minutes.
There was then a resale of returned tickets packaged with coach travel last Thursday (20th April), which were all snapped up and sold out in just 10 minutes.
That was then followed by the resale of General Admission tickets which went up for grabs on Sunday morning (23rd April) and were all gone in just 6 minutes, after going on sale at 9am.
Although tickets have completely sold out, as you can see, there are plenty of other opportunities for getting to Glasto this summer – which include as well as entering competitions, also include working and volunteering at the Festival.
As of the time of writing, there is currently 1 open running competition for the chance of winning the golden ticket from Tony’s Chocolonely & Oxfam.
Read more about all the currently running competitions for the chance to win tickets to this year’s Glastonbury Festival in our updated list, here.
OTHER GLASTO NEWS
In other news, Glastonbury Festival in collaboration with Oxfam managed to raise more than £1 million for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)’s appeal to help communities impacted by the Turkey and Syria earthquakes.
The appeal, which came in the form of a raffle, gave participants the opportunity to win one of 10 pairs of tickets donated by the Festival to its sold-out 2023 event, each including a once-in-a-lifetime experience – such as the chance to watch a band from the side of the legendary Pyramid Stage or introduce an act on The Park Stage.
The appeal managed to raise more than £320,000 just 12 hours after launching on the 15th of February, rapidly increasing to £550,000 only 24 hours later and finally smashing its updated target of £1 million on Monday evening, the 6th of March.
The prize draw concluded at noon on the 8th of March raising a sum total of £1,044,130 from 46,390 supporters, with the draw set to take place on the 15th of March and winners notified by email and/or first-class post within 5 days of the draw date.
Prior to the Oxfam raffle mentioned above, the Festival also helped raise over £116,000 in aid of the Trussell Trust in a partnership auction to help support people facing hardship across the UK.
The money was put up in a series of 10 eBay auctions run by the food bank charity to raise funds for their network of over 1,300 food banks scattered across the country.
In this instance, similar to the Oxfam appeal, auctions offered 10 pairs of tickets which included once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for fans at the Festival.
The total from all ten Trussell Trust auctions amounted to £116,738 – with the “cheapest” pair of tickets selling for £10,200, which included the chance to watch a set from the Other Stage viewing platform.
DON’T BE FOOLED
Glastonbury Festival would very much like fans to be aware that there are people out there who will try and sell fake Glastonbury tickets to unsuspecting, willing and innocent potential purchasers.
Although Glasto-veterans who have been going to the Festival for quite some time may recognise these scams for what they are, newcomers might not.
Therefore, please remember that tickets are only sold on one site, which is: glastonbury.seetickets.com.
