Glastonbury 2022: Beaming Festival-Goers Celebrate As Festival Finally Reopens Its Gates

The moment music fans have been waiting almost three years for has finally arrived – Glastonbury has officially reopened its doors.

For obvious reasons, the annual music festival was unable to go ahead in both 2020 and 2021, but the first campers for this year’s event began arriving at Worthy Farm on Wednesday.

The gates to the festival were opened by its long-running organiser Michael Eavis, who assured attendees: “This is going to be the best show in town. Wait and see. You better believe it.”

Footage posted on Glastonbury’s official social media accounts shows hoards of ticketholders arriving at the site in glorious sunshine first thing on Wednesday morning, where they were greeted by the 86-year-old.

Photos taken on the first day also show beaming guests setting up camp at Worthy Farm, with the first of Glastonbury’s A-list acts set to take to the iconic Pyramid Stage from Friday onwards.

Michael Eavis’ daughter Emily, who also organises the festival each year, told BBC 6Music: “The build-up has just been so long. We’ve never had a build-up as long as this, obviously.

“We’ve never all collectively been through such an extreme time together, so it’s, like, to actually be able to see people there and welcome them in and just watch them streaming in and just running to pitch their tents up and fill the fields – it’s just an amazing feeling.”

Emily added that it had been a “very emotional” morning, admitting: “I had to step away because it was, like… not only is it the actual getting people in here, but also the patience. People have really stuck by us, hardly any refunds, people just kept their tickets.

“They rolled them over, they rolled them over, it’s been like this never-ending journey to actually get here. I was, like, I need to step away now, this is just… it’s just the moment we’ve all been waiting for.”

This year’s headliners are Sir Paul McCartney, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar, with Diana Ross in the Sunday afternoon “legends” slot.

Other major acts on the line-up include Foals, Megan Thee Stallion, Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, Little Simz, Pet Shop Boys, Charli XCX and Sam Fender.

A host of Ukrainian acts have also been in added to the bill in recent weeks, including Eurovision favourites Go_A, Jamala and reigning champions Kalush Orchestra.

Anyone with Glasto FOMO can watch highlights from the event on the BBC in the coming days.