A pilot has captured incredible photographs of Glastonbury Festival from 4,000 feet up that show the iconic event looking like a new “city” of lights beaming out from the Somerset countryside. Tim Dews, who runs the firm Airborne Pyrotechnics with his son Tom, said he took a friend up in his Grob 109b motor glider around 10.30pm on Friday to witness the spectacle of the festival lit up below.
At the time they were in the air the Arctic Monkeys would have been wowing the crowd with their set on the Pyramid Stage.
And as these pictures show the lights from Worthy Farm could easily be confused for a new large town or city that has just sprung up for three days.
More than 200,000 revellers attended the iconic music event which culminated with a show-stopping performance from legend Sir Elton John.
Tim said: “We stayed at 4,000 feet and we could see it all from there. We were in one of the two night pyrotechnic planes that we use, we do night pyrotechnic displays.
“I was just flying a friend around who wanted to see it from the air, she hadn’t seen it before so I just took her along for a flight. It’s literally five minutes from the airstrip here in Wiltshire just south of Warminster.
“It’s like a small city from the air, it is quite large. My son Tom was there actually, he’s been there the last three days for the festival. He’ll be back today sometime, being really smelly I should imagine.
“We couldn’t hear anything because we have noise-cancelling headsets on, but we could see it all from the air.”
Tim’s firm carry out bespoke spectacular smoke and LED light displays of aerial pyrotechnics for weddings and other large events.
Thousands of revellers are making their way home from Glastonbury today as festival organisers urged campers to leave no trace. The clean-up operation is already under way, with tonnes of rubbish expected to be collected.
The festival implored music fans to take everything home with them, writing on Twitter: “When you’re packing up your tent, please put your rubbish in the bin bags provided by campsite stewards and take home all of your belongings to use again next time! Thank you. Love the farm, leave no trace!”
Drivers were encouraged to leave the site before 7am on Monday morning to avoid queues and were urged to have food, drink and supplies in their car in the event of long waits.
Advice for those with cars said: “From 8am until 5pm on Monday there are likely to be queues as our stewards work hard to help all the cars which arrived over three days to leave in one day.
“None of the staff can go home until you have, so please be calm, respectful and understanding.”
