T. Rex played the first headline slot at the 1970 Glastonbury Festival.
The inaugural event, then called the Pilton Festival, took place at Worthy Farm on September 19, 1970. Marc Bolan’s group T. Rex was the main musical attraction and performed on the festival’s original stage.
The bill also included Al Stewart, Quintessence, Daevid Allen’s Gong and the Stackridge Blues Band. The event was much smaller than the modern Glastonbury Festival, with around 1,500 people attending and tickets costing £1.
Later Glastonbury lineups became famous for enormous Pyramid Stage headliners, but the first edition predates that familiar structure. The original festival used a simple stage and had a strongly alternative, countercultural atmosphere rather than the vast multi-stage format seen today.