Open-air ambient stage ready to take flight at Glastonbury 2024
This year marks the 37th edition of Glastonbury Festival, but it’s the first time punters will be able to enjoy an open-air stage dedicated solely to ambient music.
Located in the Woodsies Area between the Pyramid and Silver Hayes, the brand-new Tree Stage is set to play host to a gaggle of ambient royalty, with the likes of The Orb’s Alex Paterson, Jon Hopkins, Max Cooper, Youth and Ana Roxanne all performing on the stellar five-day programme.
What’s more, the stage features the festival’s first-ever quadraphonic ambient sound system, giving audiences an immersive, 360-degree listening experience designed by esteemed sound engineer Jamie Harley.
“Usually a system is stereo and you stand in front of a pair of speakers,” explains Harley, who has been Aphex Twin’s longtime live engineer. “With quadraphonic, the music surrounds you, you are immersed in a bubble of sound. Anywhere within the circle will be an interesting area to be – you can move around, and get a different sensation wherever you are.
“For me, there has always been a slightly cosmic element to Glastonbury,” continues Harley. “It has always been a festival for free thinkers and explorers, and the Tree Stage is definitely a continuation of that. I think it’s quite ‘old-school Glastonbury’ in a way. It’s a big, warm, beautiful thing that surrounds you with gentle weirdness, essentially.”
With a full programme planned for Wednesday and Thursday, The Tree Stage will be open until 3am on Friday and Saturday, and 2:30am on Sunday, making it an ideal chill-out space once the lights go out on the main stages.
And if you get lost, keep your eyes peeled for a 300-year-old oak tree, which serves as a “symbolic totem to the area’s connection with nature”.
Glastonbury runs between 26-30 June
