'Perfect chaos' - Stourbridge-born director behind the opening ceremony at the 2025 Glastonbury Festival shares her stories from the greatest show on earth
The 2025 opening ceremony at the legendary Glastonbury Festival attracted an estimated audience of 75,000 spectators to the Pyramid Stage - and a Black Country director made it all happen.
'Glasto' is mainly known for it's history as the biggest music festival in the world, with around 200,000 attendees every year and thousands of hopefuls left ticketless.
For Stourbridge's Emma Bate however the attraction was never there, certainly not as a festival goer, until an off-the-cuff conversation with a colleague in 2022 opened the door to what many consider the greatest show on earth.
"Steve and Courtney came as a dad and daughter team to work in production with me, and Courtney told me all about the work they do at Glastonbury, so I asked if I could come as her assistant," Emma said. "Courtney told me: 'absolutely not, there is no chance - it's absolute gold dust and there's no chance of you being able to go to Glastonbury,' so I offered to go as a runner.
"It was never a dream to work at Glastonbury, I just thought it looked fun and I wanted to go.
