The Glastonbury Festival’s move into the mainstream has continued after the BBC announced blanket coverage of this year’s event including slots on Songs Of Praise and The One Show.
Michael Eavis, who founded the event which was once associated with hippies and hedonism, will be interviewed on the long-running religious affairs show about his Methodist faith.
More than 120 performances from this year’s festival will be broadcast on TV, radio and online with acts shown in live streams from six different stages and performances available on catch-up for 30 days.
The BBC’s controller of popular music, Bob Shennan, said he expected to see an audience of more than 20 million tune in at some point over the weekend of the festival at the end of June.
He said the BBC would take 296 staff to work on the event, up from the 263 that worked at the 2011 festival which was covered in much less detail.
He said: “There will be more people required on site, but there will be no more people than is absolutely necessary to do what is a phenomenally difficult job.”
He added: “Glastonbury is one of the greatest pop music events in the world and we want to make this year’s coverage the next best thing for everyone who can’t make it in person to Worthy Farm. We aim to broadcast more of the festival than ever before, and reinvent music coverage as only the BBC can for music fans at home and on the move.”
Archive performances from previous festivals will be shown on BBC Four.
Mr Eavis, said: “The BBC have stuck with us through thick and thin since 1997 and they’ve earned their stripes the hard way. It’s been quite a journey since ’97 and to have a complete record of what we’ve been up to over the years is music history gold dust.”