Solent's Glastonbury History
“The best work experience in the world!”
While Glastonbury festival celebrated its 40th birthday this year, Southampton Solent University and its students celebrated their 7th year working at the festival.
1993 - 2003
It all started at an onsite cafe in 1993, ran by Solent’s music technician Dave Poulton.
Dave took a small group of Solent (then called Southampton Institute) students to the festival to help him run a voluntary food kitchen. The kitchen ran until 2000.
His contact and friendship with people at the festival led to a blossoming relationship between the University and Michael Eavis’ festival baby.
In 2001, Dave arranged for students to film aspects of the festival for the first time. The students made their own way to the festival and worked extremely hard to build equipment, put together sets and film the Avalon Stage and surrounding areas using handheld cameras as well as professional filming equipment.
Media Resources technicians Steve Mercer and Mark Mccubbin produced a behind the scenes style documentary about the students’ time at Glastonbury. Talking about their experiences on the documentary, Mark said;
“Glastonbury was awesome this year, everyone did a fantastic job and we were all slick and professional.”
Organiser Dave Poulton was also filmed for the documentary saying; “Glastonbury was a great success for the people that went. Media Resources did a key job in what they were doing at the very unsociable 
hours that they had to do it. It was fantastic and the feedback I’ve had from the people at the Avalon field is just brilliant.”
2005
In 2005, BA (Hons) Film and Television Studies| students filmed the East Side and West Side dance areas, producing live output which was displayed on large screens behind the performers. Nine BA (Hons) Performance| students were lucky enough to go to the festival to perform street theatre, sketches and poetry within the Tea Tent in Greenfields.
Students had a much more prominent role at Glastonbury ’05 and under the guidance of lecturers, they were able to use outside broadcasting equipment which originally belonged to ITV Meridian. They also took with them, an ancient van and transformed it into an Outside Broadcast truck. 
2007
In 2007, Southampton Solent took 26 of its students. The crew ran and maintained the outside broadcast units at the East and West stages within the Dance Village. BA (Hons) Performance| students were also on hand to perform street theatre.
Solent students arrived at the festival a few days before it officially began. The students spent hours constructing LED screens behind the stages in the dance tents as well as cabling and setting up cameras.
BA (Hons) Popular Music and Record Production| graduates Chris Stemp and Dave Rowett were lucky enough to bag interviews with Fat Boy Slim and his wife Zoe Ball as well as Mark Ronson, Klaxons and Suggs of iconic band, Madness.
“Working at Glastonbury with Solent was one of the best experiences I had at University. I originally went as a researcher, however also took on the role of interviewing the bands and DJs that we had filmed live. It helped me gain experience working in the music industry at a high profile event whilst also giving me the privileged opportunity of meeting some of my idols,” said Chris.
2008
2008’S Glastonbury festival boasted a line up of Kings of Leon, The Verve and the controversial headliner, Jay-Z, with special guests such as Amy Winehouse and Peter Doherty.
Of course, Solent students were there to capture all of the performances. Once again, organised by Dave Poulton, he took with him students from BSc (Hons) Media Technology| and BA (Hons) Television and Video Production| to record and produce footage for the Dance East stage.
The festival commissioned six documentaries which were filmed and directed by the students. As usual, the University’s Outside Broadcast truck was on site. The students filmed festival news packages for major news agencies such as Reuters.
2009
As Glastonbury rolled into 2009, 36 staff and students from Southampton Solent University took themselves and their Outside Broadcast Truck to the prestigious festival to carry on the blossoming relationship between Solent and Glastonbury.
Students provided live footage for the festival’s Dance East stage as well as filming documentaries around the Glastonbury festival site, which were commissioned by Glastonbury TV, about eco issues and the setting up of the festival. The students used the University’s high definition multi-camera rig, recording equipment and digital network.
2010
2010 was by far, the biggest and best year for Solent students and staff. As well as creating and editing onsite footage for Glastonbury TV, students were also creating documentaries about the festival as well as filming live performances on the Dance East and Leftfield stages. The students live footage was used by Glastonbury TV, the BBC and Channel 4 for television broadcasts.
2010 was also the first year that Solent bands and artists performed at the festival, on the Glade stage, with sound engineering and filming duties being taken on by students and staff.
BA (Hons) Popular Music Performance| lecturer Peter Wilson commented on the music students collaboration with the festival, saying; "It was a fantastic first for Popular Music Performance and SSU: to take bands to Glastonbury. The University has had a connection with the event in a technical capacity for some years, but to have Solent performers play at the world's most famous festival was a significant step forward. Alongside the Abbey Road recording competition, it's been quite a year for music, and proof that Solent offers some unique opportunities to students on all the Popular Music courses."
There were more students and staff working at the festival than ever before, producing and creating work that will cement Solent’s relationship with Glastonbury into a yearly tradition.
Dave Poulton is Solent’s very own Glastonbury festival veteran and it is through Dave’s never ending enthusiasm and hard work that so many of Solent’s students have gained the work experience of a lifetime. Talking about the first year that Solent got involved, Dave said: “It was a huge responsibility and I really wanted to make it work.”
And work, it did. Hundreds of students over the past seven years have had work experience that they will never forget. Many students who took on Glastonbury have gone on to work in their chosen industries, including broadcast, TV and even MTV.
In the next five years, Dave’s personal aim is to get the students taught by professionals. The students have already begun to provide footage to the BBC and Channel 4 so to have professionals guiding them while working on site, would no doubt land more students with their dream jobs.