For many revellers, Glastonbury is all about watching their favourite artists perform, spending the weekend in a sweltering tent with friends, and drinking warm cider. And although these activities are pretty much Great British festival traditions, others go to Glastonbury for completely different reasons.
Glastonbury goers arguably have to expect the unexpected when exploring the 900 acres of Somerset countryside, which becomes a small city one weekend every year. With food stalls and stages deemed to be the main attraction, some visitors may miss out on an ethereal corner of the festival: the Healing Field.
Next to Croissant Neuf, the Craft Field, and Green Futures, the Healing Field is so very Glastonbury. With some revellers finding it hard to take care of themselves at the Festival due to the lack of showers, many descend upon the Healing Field for a slice of holistic healing heaven.
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So far removed from the mosh pits and late night DJ sets you come across at Glastonbury, the Healing Field and its surrounding areas offer a tranquil break from the rest of the Festival. Ambling around the field, expect to find plenty of therapists offering all sorts of massages: Indian head massages, Thai massages, Swedish massages, pregnancy massages. As well as some more unconventional practices.
Glastonbury can be an expensive ordeal, with visitors often dropping hundreds of pounds on food, drinks and merchandise at the festival. Selflessly, a large majority of the healers and therapists who work in the field provide their services for free, with punters encouraged to pay as much or as little as they can afford, if they wish.
If you decide to take a barefoot breeze around the Healing Field, prepare to be surprised by some of the therapies, workshops and treatments on offer. From laughter yoga, which sees participants force a laugh until they are genuinely left laughing, to cacao ceremonies, which are said to open the heart through the use of cacao, there is plenty for visitors to marvel at and have a go at themselves, if they wish to.
But sometimes, for those who are not invested in the world of spirituality and self-healing, the Healing Field can be a little daunting, says Emma, who works with fellow volunteer, Jak, at the Hands on Healing Workshop Dome. The pair are volunteers, and have vouched for the lasting impact learning healing methods can have on those who enter the tent on a whim.
Emma explained: “It’s a taster experience, many people here may have never tried something like this before. Some people, having been to one of our workshops here, have then gone on to train in the therapy they experienced for the first time here. Other people have learnt to teach through teaching at the workshop.
“Most people come out grinning all over their faces; they also make new friends in the workshop because it’s quite an intimate thing, practising treatments on each other. So although it’s just a little dome, it has a big impact.”
Healers from throughout the Field sit down in the dome to share their expertise with all kinds of willing participants, who are keen to learn something new. According to Emma, everyone from absolute beginners to therapists looking to build on their existing skills attend workshops.
Speaking about the importance of the dome, Jak, who helps manage the dome alongside Emma, said: “What happens in there is a joyous exchange - it’s so open-hearted.
“People go in a bit nervous, but there’s a transformation which happens inside and they come out completely open, and that’s what the healing fields are all about. We’ve got the four elements: the fire, the earth, the water, and the air.
“We have an opening ceremony at the beginning of the Festival and they bring it all together in the Heart Space, which is this central circle space. And this, for us, is the heart of the Festival, because it’s all about love.”
Elsewhere in this south east section of the world famous Festival, campaigners are educating keen passersby on the climate crisis and other environmental and political issues in the Green Futures area. Cotham resident Stephanie is one of many campaigners present at Glastonbury, providing people with information about the disarmament of nuclear weapons on behalf of CND, which she volunteers for.
Stephanie said: “The first Glastonbury festival was called the CND Festival at Glastonbury, and Michael Eavis is a big fan of CND and what we do. We’ve been here every year since, campaigning; I’ve been coming here for the last five years.”
The Green Futures field, Glastonbury Festival says, is where the ‘most inspiring green ideas are on show’. Not only are there stalls that revolve around nature and the environment to explore, but festivalgoers can also soak up some of the green energy that radiates from artists and performers in the zone.
Although nuclear weapons may seem like an issue of the past, Stephanie says that more people have approached CND since Russia invaded Ukraine, due to heightened fear. She explained: “People are really scared, actually.
“We’ve had a few people, especially men, come up to us kind of quietly in the corner. They’ve been having sleepless nights with everything that’s going on and they’re really worried that the war is going to spread; that they’re going to get called up. All these things that we’ve never witnessed in our lifetime as Millenials and Gen Z, we’ve heard about it but we don’t really know what it’s like.
“And you hear some of the older people that come and chat to us and lived through this in the 80s and some even the 60s, and it’s like history repeating itself. People are responding really well, so many people are signing a petition and becoming members, and generally just getting involved.”
Also found in this corner of the Worthy Farm grounds are the Craft Field, Sacred Space, and Croissant Neuf. The Craft Field allows punters to do things they perhaps have never had the opportunity, or skills, to do before, including crafting wooden spoons and glassblowing.
Meanwhile, the stone circle at Worthy Farm’s Sacred Space is a popular hangout spot for attendees of the Festival to watch the sunset or sunrise from. Croissant Neuf, on the other hand, uses the medium of environmental displays, eco-friendly chats, workshops, and ‘oodles of Solar Powered music’ in its big top and on the bandstand.
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