Glastonbury Festival - in a field of its own

Glastonbury Festival has this week been voted the UK's best major music festival in 2011 at the UK Festival Awards which were held at the Roundhouse in London this week.

This is the eight year the Festival Awards have been staged, and the aim is to celebrate the contemporary music industry and recognise the effort that goes into producing the UK's festival scene.  This year a total of 18 awards were given out including those for best major, best medium and best small festival, best line-up, best family festival and most importantly for some best festival toilets.

Glastonbury Festival may be held in the small village of Pilton between Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet in the Mendips, yet once again it has proven itself as the biggest and best the country has to offer with over 50 stages and 24 hour entertainment.  Headline acts this year were in the shape of U2, Beyonce and Coldplay, and there was of course the anticipated mixture of rain, shine and lashings of the famous Glasto mud we have grown to expect!

The categories (apart from one festival fans' best festival category) were judged by a panel of journalists and reviewers who visited festivals and scored them on criteria set by the industry including overall festival experience, food, camping, cleanliness, facilities for disabled people, green credentials and value for money.

Next year will see a break for the festival but it will return from Wednesday 26th to Sunday 30th June 2013.  In the meantime tickets for next year's Isle of Wight Festival which for one year only has nabbed the traditional Glastonbury Festival slot of the last weekend in June , have gone on sale today with Bruce Springsteen (who played Glastonbury in 2010) headlining the Sunday evening.