Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis is to be knighted by the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle for services to music and charity.
Former England cricketers Stuart Broad and Lydia Greenway will also be recognised by Anne during Tuesday’s investiture ceremony.
Dairy farmer Mr Eavis, 88, hosted the first festival on Worthy Farm, Somerset, in 1970 and the event is still held there today.
It is the largest greenfield festival in the world, drawing around 200,000 people each year, the biggest musical talent and a raft of celebrity guests.
In an interview with the official Glastonbury website, Sir Michael said his daughter Emily, with whom he runs the festival, had brought him the official letter about his knighthood, adding: “I was really surprised to see it, actually. Why did they choose me, I wonder?
“What can I say, really? I’ve done quite a lot of stuff in my life and I’ve always been fairly sure that I was doing the right thing.”
Greenpeace, Oxfam and WaterAid all receive donations from the festival and the event aims to raise around £2 million per year, which also helps hundreds of local causes.
In 2023, the festival donated more than £3.7 million to a range of charitable causes and campaigns including homelessness organisation Centrepoint, food redistributors Fareshare, several refugee charities and mental health charity Mind.
Broad, the second-highest England Test wicket-taker, will be made a CBE for services to cricket.
He announced he was retiring from the sport during the fifth Ashes Test last summer and bowed out in spectacular fashion.
The 37-year-old hit a six off his final ball and took the final wicket as England won the match to level the series, although Australia retained the urn.
Broad was second in the public vote for the BBC’s 2023 Sports Personality of the Year in December and has been focusing on fatherhood and television punditry since retiring from the game.
Greenway, who won 225 caps across three formats for England before retiring in 2016, will be made an OBE for services to cricket.
After retiring, she founded the Cricket for Girls academy, which works with schools and clubs to provide training for coaches and teachers and to inspire young female players.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel