10 things you didn't know about Glastonbury festival founder Michael Eavis

17 October 2025, 13:14

The man who founded Glastonbury festival back in 1970 celebrates a landmark birthday on 17th October. Here are some highlights from a colourful and memorable life.

1. His full name is Sir Athelstan Joseph Michael Eavis.

   Athelstan was the name of a King who ruled the Anglo-Saxons between 924 to 927 AD! Michael was born on 17th October 1935 in Pilton, Somerset.

   

2. When Eavis was 15 he left school to join the Merchant Navy

   The future Glastonbury founder hoped that he'd spend his next twenty years or so at sea. He spent four years on the ships, sailing between Britain, Kenya and South Africa.

   

3. Eavis inherited his farm when he was just 19.

   His father died of cancer, so young Michael took over the family concern, which at that point consisted of 150 acres of land and 60 cows.

   

4. Eavis stood as a candidate for the Labour Party in the 1997 General Election

   The Glastonbury man found time that year to run for offic in the local constituency of Wells - and received 10,204 votes.

   

5. Eavis likes a bit of The Smiths and The Stone Roses

   Michael Eavis' Desert Island Discs selections in November 2008 included T.Rex (Children Of The Revolution), The Smiths (Stop Me If YOu Think You've Heard This One Before), Coldplay (The Scientist), The Stone Roses (Waterfall) and Elvis Presley (How Great Thou Art).

   

6. Eavis has TWO honorary degrees

   He became a Doctor Of Arts at the University of Bath in 2004 and a Master Of Arts at the University of Bristol in 2006.

   

7. We have Led Zeppelin to thank for Glastonbury Festival

   Eavis and wife Jean saw the classic rock band performing at the Bath Blues Festival in June 1970 and were inspired to hold their own festival at Worthy Farm later the same year. Michael continues to hold an open invitation for the band to play Glastonbury should the opportunity ever arise. He said in 2014: "That will happen one day – I'm sure of it."

   

8. Michael has been married three times and has five children

   Eavis married his first wife Ruth in the mid-1950s and they had three daughters together: Juliet, Rebecca and Jane. They divorced in 1964, with Ruth dying in March 2025. He met Jean Hayball a few years later and the couple had two children: Patrick and Emily.

   

   Michael and Jean masterminded the growth of the festival until she died of cancer in 1999, with the festival burning a ceremonial wicker sculpture in her honour. Eavis met his third wife Liz in 2000 at a "medieval fancy dress party".

   

9. A pair of wellies belonging to Michael are in the Museum Of English Rural Life in Reading.

   Michael Eavis puts on a good @GlastoFest so we asked him for his muddy wellies and he said yes pic.twitter.com/6BA1VDrP8w

   — The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) April 12, 2018

10. Michael Eavis has had not one but TWO trains named after him

    In April 2015, Great Western Railway announcd that Power Car No 43026 was to be called the “Michael Eavis”, running from Paddington in London to the South West of England and South Wales, serving Glastonbury's nearest station Castle Cary. When this train came out of service on the line, train number 802013 was named "Michael Eavis" in his honour.

    

    GWR, Class 802, 802013 'Michael Eavis' #gwr #iet #class802 #railway #train #trainspotting #trains