Michael Eavis pays tribute to Bill Harkin, Glastonbury’s original Pyramid Stage designer

Michael Eavis has paid tribute to the late Bill Harkin, who designed the original Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival, following the news of his death this week.

Harkin’s passing last weekend was first reported by the independent GlastoFestFeed site earlier this week.

A written tribute to Harkin by Eavis, the founder and co-organiser of Glastonbury Festival, has been published by Glastonbury today (March 10), with Eavis recalling how he first came to work with the architect.

“Bill Harkin first came to Glastonbury towards the end of 1970. He was delivering products to the health shops in the town and decided to walk up the Tor where he met Andrew Kerr [one of the co-founders of Glastonbury Fair],” Eavis recalled.

“They both became aware of very powerful feelings of spirituality and agreed the need for a new age of looking at life towards a utopian society. After more intense discussions these conversations led to the idea of a large music festival with a Pyramid as centre stage. That’s when they came to me for a suitable site!”

Eavis said that he “liked the idea but was slightly wary of the reality, although was captivated by their childlike excitement”.

“Bill was a top-flight architect working for British Leyland car launches at the time but he soon became caught up with the festival to be named Glastonbury Fair, and came up with the very first Pyramid at Worthy Farm.

“His enthusiasm and dedication led to what we have now – thank you so much Bill!”

Noting that Harkin went on to work on the design of the structures at the Eden Project, Eavis concluded his tribute by writing of Harkin: “An inspirational life well lived – and simply loved by us all.”

You can read more about Harkin’s affiliation with Glastonbury here.

Glastonbury Festival will not be going ahead in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but there are hopes that the festival will return next year.

Back in January, Eavis said that he was considering holding a smaller event in September.

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