Glastonbury 2024: Rain or shine – inside the preparations for the festival’s theatre programme

He’s known Eavis, the festival’s co-founder, for more than 30 years: “Not many people can say they’ve worked with him so closely,” he says. But, Glastonbury has a deeper personal significance for McLeod, too – it was here that he met his wife, Arabella Churchill, the founder of Glastonbury’s theatre and circus fields and the granddaughter of Winston Churchill.

Churchill was a close friend of Eavis: she helped set up the children’s field in 1979 and then turned her focus to theatre and circus. McLeod married Churchill in 1988 and the pair stayed together until her death in December 2007.
The theatre and circus fields live on in her memory. Today, the programme is broad, with this year’s artists including Sarah-Louise Young, bringing her award-winning An Evening Without Kate Bush, the Mark Bruce Dance Company, performance collective the Cocoa Butter Club and poet John Cooper Clarke, as well as comedians James Acaster, Mawaan Rizwan and Nish Kumar.

‘We plan for rain and hope for sun. In a wet year, I’ll be in the campsites and the carparks, making sure we keep on moving’ Haggis McLeod, theatre and comedy area organiser

McLeod’s year is very much centred on preparations for the festival, which is always held at the end of June. “If we’re lucky, all the paperwork for the year is tied up by August – but it hardly ever is,” says McLeod. September and October are his months of downtime – and then, it is very much on to the next. Throughout the year, he puts together a hefty programme of theatre and circus for the weekend by reading written proposals, going off recommendations and inviting people who have made shows he’s already seen.

“By December, I’m answering emails regularly and working every day,” he says. “When you start planning, it feels like falling from a great height: at the beginning the ground seems a very long way away, but as time goes on, it seems to get closer faster, and the last few hundred feet go by in a heartbeat.”

It is a much bigger assignment than in years gone by. “Bella and I used to be able to go away for a couple of months,” McLeod reflects. Today, he works constantly from January onwards and by June 1, he is on the site every day preparing for the arrival of the masses. Luckily, he has a big team: 4,500 people including performers, crew, volunteers and stewards bring the theatre and circus programme to life. “Obviously, it would be totally impossible without them,” he says.

One of those people is David Kreps, the accreditation manager for theatre and circus. “I basically give people permission to come in and out of the area during the show,” Kreps explains. Like McLeod, he has had a long history with Glastonbury – this year will be his 27th year at Worthy Farm. “It feels like a big family,” he says.

Kreps got to know Churchill and McLeod, first, as neighbours – he lived in Glastonbury, too – and then started working as a stage manager for one of the theatre tents in 1992. In 2000, Churchill asked him to take over as the lead pass checker. “When Bella asked you to do something, you just would,” he says.
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The hard work starts for Kreps in the months leading up to Glastonbury. “Once you get into May you’re organising something every day, easily,” he says. But, the week before the festival is when everything cranks up a notch – Kreps arrives at Worthy Farm in a caravan and gets straight to making an hourly plan for his team.

His three main areas of control are the porter cabin, the marquee where the passes are given out and an information desk for performers. “The three desks have to be manned at all times, they can’t be left unattended,” he says. He organises his team into groups of two and puts them on a rotation. “There’ll be about three or four shifts on each of the desks each day,” he says. Their responsibilities include putting on wristbands, directing artists to the campsites and generally making sure the right people are in the right place at the right time.

It sounds like quite the mission – Kreps works 12-hour days for the festival’s full length. “We are essentially looking after all the performers who make the theatre and circus area,” he says.

But something must be working – people are desperate to come back year on year. Ken Farquhar, who has been performing at Glastonbury for 20 years, certainly has the bug. “It is one of the highlights of my year, of course,” he says. For the 2024 festival, Farquhar has designed a science-inspired walkabout show especially for Glastonbury.

‘Once you get into May you’re organising something every day, easily’ David Kreps, accreditation manager for theatre and circus

Walkabouts – essentially street performances that take place outside rather than in a tent – are something Glastonbury is famed for. On a walk through the theatre and circus fields you are likely to meet giant-sized magpies, mesmerising magicians and stilt walkers. “There’s always something to look at,” says McLeod. “They’re highly visual and all about the interaction,” adds Farquhar.

Farquhar hopes his interactive show will attract the crowds away from the music. “People are spoilt for choice, so it is great when they stop and look curious,” he says. The big days in theatre and circus are Wednesday and Thursday as there are no planned music headliners during these times. “We call it the pre-festival,” explains Farquhar, “people have to walk through our fields to get to their campsites, so it’s great, they stop and watch, there is no competition and you get some very appreciative audiences.”

McLeod has little time to venture out of the theatre and circus fields during the festival days: “It is all hands on deck,” he says. “Once the production starts, ideally I shouldn’t be dealing with anything other than a major incident,” he says. Instead, he spends his time watching shows, observing the vision he’s created “and thinking about what can be improved upon for next year”.
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Of course, this is all weather dependent. “We plan for rain and hope for sun,” says McLeod. But, a bad forecast certainly makes everything a lot more difficult. “In a wet year, I’ll be in the campsites and the carparks, making sure we keep on moving,” he says. For the performers, rain has an impact, too.

“I have wellies, I work in whatever weather,” adds Farquhar. “But mud makes the whole festival slow down, it takes audiences a long time to get anywhere.”

There is so much going on at Glastonbury that you can never hope to see it all in one visit. But the festival has transformed since its early years “in almost every facet”, McLeod says. Year on year, Glastonbury grows and slowly has attracted even more punters – the capacity these days is getting on for a quarter of a million people. “The number of acts in theatre and circus has of course gone up too,” McLeod adds. “But the heart of the area remains the same.”

“Essentially, I get to spend a week in a field with people I’ve known for 30 years,” says Kreps. “There is a real sadness when it is over.” And, Churchill’s memory is still front and centre. “She’s everywhere,” says Kreps.

McCloud talks fondly of the memorial they held for his wife in 2008, the year after she died: “That was pretty special.” But his favourite year ever? That’s still to come. “It’ll be next year,” he says, smiling. “Always next year. Planning new things and watching them happen is the most thrilling feeling.”

Glastonbury Festival runs until June 30. More details are available at: glastonburyfestivals.co.uk