Michael Eavis

Michael Eavis
Corbyn and Eavis at Glastonbury in 2017
Born	Athelstan Joseph Michael Eavis 17 October 1935
founder of the Glastonbury Festival

Michael Eavis (born 17 October 1935) is an English dairy farmer and the founder of the Glastonbury Festival, a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts, which has taken place at his farm in Pilton, Somerset over the past five decades.

Labour candidate

After recovering from stomach cancer, Michael Eavis stood as a candidate for the Labour Party in the 1997 General Election in Wells, Somerset polling 10,204 votes.

In 2004, however, he suggested that disillusioned Labour voters should switch their vote to the Green Party in protest at the 2003 Iraq War, though he returned to supporting the Labour Party in the 2010 General Election.

Corbyn supporter

Michael Eavis invited Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to appear at the 2017 Glastonbury Festival, introducing Run The Jewels' set on the Pyramid Stage.

Eavis, who supports Corbyn's anti-nuclear and anti-austerity policies, told The Guardian:

"He’s got something new and precious, and people are excited about it. He really is the hero of the hour."

"Oh Jeremy Corbyn"

Speaking to one of the biggest ever festival crowds which kept chanting his name, Jeremy Corbyn tackled a number of issues: sexism, racism, homophobia and poverty:

"I want to say thank you to Michael for lending us his farm, for giving his space all those years ago for people to come here, enjoy music, enjoy good company and enjoy inspiring thought. Michael you paved the way for all of us. You brought the spirit of music, you brought the spirit of love, you brought the spirit of ideas and you brought the spirit of great messages and if you can see that far, look on the wall right over there that surrounds this wonderful festival. There’s a message on that wall for President Donald Trump. Do you know what it says? Build bridges not walls.

"We cannot go on destroying this planet through global warming, through pollution, through the destruction of habitat, through pollution of our seas and rivers. We have to live on this planet, there is only one planet. Not even Donald Trump believes there is another planet somewhere else. And so let us protect the planet that we’ve got. Use the technology that we have to manage and control the use of our natural resources so that the planet is here in future generations in better condition than it is at the present time.

Corbyn concluded by quoting Percy Byssche Shelley:

"The line I like the best is this one:

'Rise like lions after slumber, in unvanquishable number, shake your chains to earth like dew, which in sleep had fallen on you – ye are many, they are few.'

"I quote Shelley because he inspired like so many others do. I’m proud to be at Glastonbury because it inspires so many to music festivals all over the country. Let us be together and recognise another world is possible if we come together to understand that. Understand the power we’ve got to achieve that decent, better society where everyone matters and those poverty stricken people are enriched in their lives and the rest of us are made secure by their enrichment."

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References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 20 November 2017.
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