Does the Glastonbury Fest Still Rock?

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Rosie Greenway / Getty

Last year's Glastonbury crowd soaking in the sounds.

Jay-Z has had plenty of beefs in his hard-knocks life, but the hugely successful Brooklyn rapper and entrepreneur didn't expect a showdown over his plan to visit Michael Eavis's dairy farm in rural England this weekend. The farm is currently surrounded by the vast, temporary canvas city known as the Glastonbury Festival, a massive outdoor music and performing arts festival which the 72-year-old Eavis has hosted since 1970. Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, Leonard Cohen, Kings of Leon, Jimmy Cliff, Manu Chao, Fatboy Slim and hundreds of other acts will perform on over a dozen stages starting Friday.

So where's the beef? For the first time in 15 years Glastonbury did not sell out in advance and Jay-Z is being blamed. Last year 400,000 people pre-registered for 135,000 passes, which sold out in less than two hours. With a day to go, tickets were still available for this year's event, although Eavis is confident they will sell. The sluggish sales have provoked much deliberation, but some festival traditionalists attribute this to the choice of Jay-Z as the headliner. One initial comment on the nme.com Website described the decision as a "disaster," while another said, "rap is the pop music of the twenty-first century, but Glastonbury has always tried to stay away from silly mainstream garbage ... no Led Zep and a rubbish headliner instead, this is a double blow." But most posts on this and other forums have been positive, one describing it as "History in the making, Jay-Z will bring a fresh flavour." Noel Gallagher of the Manchester rock-band Oasis, always good for a comment, stirred things further when he opined to BBC News, "If it ain't broke don't fix it...I'm sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance. Glastonbury has a tradition of guitar music. I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong." Gallagher obviously missed previous years' sets from De La Soul, Cypress Hill and the Roots. And while Jay-Z plays on Saturday night, on the other stages Massive Attack, The Ethiopiques, Gilbert O' Sullivan, Simian Mobile Disco and Cansei de Ser Sexy barely wield a guitar between them.

Rap hitting rock terrain also caused a stink in the states recently. Hip-hop star Kanye West riled Bonaroo festival-goers when his 2:45 a.m. performance was delayed to 4:25 am. Kanye ragged against the criticism, writing on his blog, "This is the maddest I ever will be." Jay-Z responded in his spat in more measured terms, describing the Glastonbury controversy as "ridiculous" on BBC Radio 1's Rap Show. "It's 2008, what is that about? That's such old-school thinking," he said.

So the debate has raged among the musical tribes, but the hip-hop vs. rock showdown is a diversion. "It's not fair to blame Jay-Z," Eavis told TIME, instead choosing to blame the weather in typically British fashion, "We've had three years of mud in succession, that was too much to bear, I almost gave up last time." With relentless rain the festival has become a particularly brutal test of endurance, but more fundamentally, Glastonbury has become a victim of its own success.

"It's covered like the [soccer] FA Cup now, no other festival is treated that way," says Paul Stokes, news editor of British music weekly the NME. The hippie shindig that became a celebration of counterculture is now as established a fixture on the British social calendar as Wimbledon. When the BBC broadcasts live coverage of the festival over three channels, online and on several radio stations, it's hard to maintain the mystery of alt-cachet. After last year's Glastonbury, Stokes wrote an editorial in the NME saying the atmosphere at the event was suffering as young people sought out alternatives, effectively leaving Glastonbury to their parents. "I didn't really see the 16-to-25-year-olds last year," says Stokes. "When I was that age Glastonbury was the festival that you had to go to."

Eavis even acknowledges that the festival has become too middle-class and middle-aged. Says Eavis, "I didn't intend that to upset people... but it's a bit like a church or a Sunday school; you need young people coming along or the whole thing dies." Adding, "I was anxious to maintain the interest for young people and the Jay-Z thing was part of that."

Young festival-goers have plenty of alternatives. More than 500 music events of various dimensions have sprung up in fields and glens across the U.K. in recent years. From the posh or quirky to the uber-green, the small-scale boutique festivals put the emphasis on the experience rather than lineup. And with cheap flights and tickets, Brits are heading to Europe in increasing numbers. It was estimated that half those attending Spain's beach-based Benicassim festival (dubbed Glasto del Sol) were British. And while a Glastonbury ticket costs $305, Serbia's Exit Festival is just $170 including nine days of camping. "A lot of fans are now thinking, I might as well go and have a weekend or week away and go to a festival in the middle, " says Stokes, "and it's definitely not going to rain."

Down on Worthy Farm, Eavis has again forgotten the previous year's rain and is raring to go again. "There is no competition for this one," he says. "It sounds incredibly big-headed to say this, but there is nothing in the world that gets even close." As for the Jay-Z rumble, Eavis's money is down: "The fellow has had as many number one albums in America as Elvis Presley... he's a mega-star. It turned out to be brilliant idea." Maybe. Eavis now has one of the most eagerly awaited Glastonbury sets ever. And on Saturday night Jay-Z should put on a show to settle this beef fair and square.