The Coachella Festival started in 1999 and is held annually at the Empire Polo Club site in Indio, California. The estimated size of the festival, which has played home to Beyonce, Foo Fighters, Ye and many more, is around 642 acres - around 258 acres short of Glastonbury’s purported 900 acres.The Coachella Festival started in 1999 and is held annually at the Empire Polo Club site in Indio, California. The estimated size of the festival, which has played home to Beyonce, Foo Fighters, Ye and many more, is around 642 acres - around 258 acres short of Glastonbury’s purported 900 acres.
The Coachella Festival started in 1999 and is held annually at the Empire Polo Club site in Indio, California. The estimated size of the festival, which has played home to Beyonce, Foo Fighters, Ye and many more, is around 642 acres - around 258 acres short of Glastonbury’s purported 900 acres. | Geoffrey Prytherch

Glastonbury Festival 2024: Is Glasto bigger than Coachella or Vatican City? We compare

Benjamin Jackson
By Benjamin Jackson

Music and tickets writer

Published 24th Jun 2024, 10:28 GMT

Is the site for this week’s huge summer festival bigger than some small countries?

  • Revellers are gearing up for Glastonbury Festival, as gates open to Worthy Farm this week.
  • This year’s headliners include SZA, Coldplay and Dua Lipa, with Shania Twain performing in the “Legends” slot
  • There is still rampant speculation about who could be the secret band performing at Woodsies stage on Saturday evening.
  • But with how big the festival is, is it officially bigger than Coachella - or even Vatican City?

It’s two sleeps until the gates open to Worthy Farm as Glastonbury Festival 2024 at 9am on June 26 2024 - headlined this year by Dua Lipa, SZA and Coldplay. 

The sprawling festival site, estimated to be 900 acres, annually sees nearly 500,000 revellers call Worthy Farm their home for a few days, as the area once again becomes a miniature city with activities available outside of merely seeing your favourite band. 

This had us thinking - is Glastonbury bigger than, say, Coachella Festival, its North American counterpart that also has earned a reputation for being “the” festival du jour in North America where many celebrities have been spotted throughout its glow-up in recent years? 

Well, we were in luck, as you will be too if you’ve ever asked yourself just how big Glastonbury Festival is compared to other festivals. Geoffrey Prytherch developed the Glastonbury Map overlay, which allows users to enter a location and see just how much land mass Glastonbury covers compared to Leeds, Reading or in our cases below smaller countries. 

So to settle the debate - is the Glastonbury Festival bigger than Coachella?

The smallest country in the world, Vatican City has a land mass size expected to be 49 hectares - 7.3 times smaller than the site of Glastonbury. To put that into perspective, the Glastonbury Festival site could encompass Vatican City around 7 times over.

9. Vatican City

The smallest country in the world, Vatican City has a land mass size expected to be 49 hectares - 7.3 times smaller than the site of Glastonbury. To put that into perspective, the Glastonbury Festival site could encompass Vatican City around 7 times over. | Geoffrey Prytherch

Located northeast of Australia, Nauru is one of the smallest countries in the world both in terms of population and land area. Nauru is about 5.8 times larger than the Glastonbury Festival site. You could fit the entire Glastonbury Festival site into Nauru almost six times.

10. Nauru

Located northeast of Australia, Nauru is one of the smallest countries in the world both in terms of population and land area. Nauru is about 5.8 times larger than the Glastonbury Festival site. You could fit the entire Glastonbury Festival site into Nauru almost six times. | Geoffrey Prytherch

Previous
3 / 3
Next Page
Related topics:GlastonburyMusic FestivalsWorthy FarmLeedsReading
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice