Featuring strong signs of “high-pressure strengthening across the UK” with temperatures largely remaining “above average towards the end of the month”
It has now been exactly one week since we posted our first (long-range) weather forecast, and only 5 days away from the gates opening on the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world for Glastonbury 2023.
Following up on our previous forecast summary, and with the entire Festival time frame now fitting within the GFS (Global Forecast System) models, we can finally take a closer look at a more medium-range forecast.
That said, let us once again point out that these long to medium models are still quite imprecise with regard to the end of the Festival and will, therefore, at this point in time, obtain only general trends.
We generally like to start off our weather forecast summary with the Met Office long-range forecast, while moving on to Glasto weather reporter Gavin Partridge, and then finalising out with Accuweather.
That said, as always, a word of warning; a weather forecast one week ahead of any event is still quite uncertain for planning and could change dramatically with every passing day. As previously mentioned, for example, 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 and 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 has now been updated and currently predicts that weather from mid-week (20th – 29th June) could see “settled conditions return heading towards the end of June” which could potentially lead to “a general reduction in rainfall, though northwestern areas may see some further rain at times” with temperatures largely remaining “above average towards the end of the month”.
Moving along, Glasto weatherman Gavin Partridge published his fourth weather update for Glastonbury 2023 via YouTube yesterday evening (Thursday, 15th June), while starting off by taking a look at the weather for Tuesday the 20th of June – which is one a day prior to gates opening and when a lot of people start making their way to the Festival site.
Looking at the Tuesday weather model charts, Partridge points out some possible showers (particularly in the northern part of the country), while mentioning that “Glastonbury looks relatively dry” and “pleasantly warm”, with temperatures around 20°C to 21°C.
Wednesday (21st of June), which is the official first day of the Festival and when most of the people arrive on-site to pitch up their tents and soak up the atmosphere is said to have “further showers across the country” – although this is not to be taken too literally as its too far away to be accurate. The temperatures on this day “aren’t quite as warm”, and look to be peaking in the “upper teens” (17°C – 19°C).
However, Thursday (22nd June), is said to be “turning mostly dry” as more people are set to continue to arrive on site – with “showers being restricted to the northern half of the country” and temperatures lifting up to around 22°C / 23°C.
According to Gavin, Friday (23rd June), which is the first day of the main music schedule, will be “mostly dry” and see “high-pressure strengthening across the country” with the “upper air temperatures becoming hotter” and boasting “bags of sunshine. Temperatures are “very warm” for this day – around 22°C to 24°C.
Day two of the main music bill (on Saturday the 24th of June) is predicted to continue on that warm trend, with high-pressure strengthening further and the weather staying mostly dry – as showers remain more towards the northern half of the country and temperatures getting “even hotter” into the “mid to upper 20’s celsius” (which in reality could be “knocking on the door of 30°C under clear blue skies”).
Similar to Saturday, Sunday (25th June), which is the final day of the Festival is also kept “mostly dry with lots of sunshine”, with “hot temperatures into the upper 20’s celsius – which again, in reality, could be close to 30°C”.
Next, we take a look at Accuweather’s monthly forecast and start off once again with Teasuday (20th June), which is currently forecasted as being “cloudy with a couple of showers”, while the first day of Glasto (Wednesday, 21st June) is said to be a mix of “clouds and sunshine with a couple of showers, mainly later”. Peaking temperatures for this day are looking to be 22°C, with lows of 22°C at night.
Thursday (22nd June) sees the “sunshine return” after a cloudy start, with highs of 22°C and lows of 12°C at night. This warming trend then continues into Friday (23rd June), with temperatures rising to 24°C, while “some sunshine could give way to clouds” and “a little rain in the afternoon”.
According to Accuweather, Saturday (24th June) appears to be “mostly cloudy and warm, with a little rain in the afternoon” and could see temperatures of around 24°C by day and 15°C lows at night.
“Warm with periods of clouds and sunshine” is forecasted for the final day of the Festival when Elton John takes to the iconic Pyramid Stage on Sunday (25th June), with temperatures rising to around 25°C by day, and dropping to lows of 16°C at night.
That sums up our ‘mid-range’ weather forecast for now, but watch this space, as we’ll be back in a few days’ time with our final (short-range) forecast for Glastonbury 2023.
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 the 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, 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 last month (Thursday, 11th May), which features a number of changes and adjustments across the Worthy Farm site.
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).
- An addition of a new Levels Stage in Silver Hayes (which will be replacing Sonic).
- 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.
Yesterday (15th June), it was revealed via the BBC webcam that this year’s Pyramid Stage ornament will be a CND peace symbol, similar to the one of last year, albeit painted in green – as shown in the image below.
This year’s Pyramid Stage ornament is now in place and looking mighty fine!… 😍 It will probably look even better tomorrow morning when the sun comes out… ☀️☮️ pic.twitter.com/yek7sBZV2k
— Glasto Fest Feed (@GlastoFestFeed) June 15, 2023
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.
OTHER GLASTO NEWS
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.
Meanwhile, 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.
