Glastonbury revenues rise

The Glastonbury Festival, which sold out next year's event in a record time of one hour and 40 minutes, yesterday underlined what a cash cow it is.

Newly published accounts for Glastonbury Festival 2011 Ltd showed revenues of £32.2m, up 5.2 per cent on a year earlier.

Despite the recession and tough times for many other music festivals, turnover has grown steadily in the past four years from £23.6m in 2008, an increase of 36 per cent.

Its founder Michael Eavis and his daughter Emily, who are both directors, are known for running their five-day festival at only a small profit and eschewing most commercial sponsorship.

But gross profits still rose to £22.5m in 2011 against £21.7m a year earlier. Pre-tax profit slipped to £1.8m from £2.6m after expenses.

The highest-paid director earned only £60,000. Mr Eavis also receives £500,000 for renting his farm in Somerset for the festival because of "loss of earnings".