Coverage FAQs

The BBC will be recording approximately 60 performances from across the Pyramid, Other, John Peel and West Holts stages at Glastonbury 2011. In addition, the majority of the performances from the BBC Introducing stage will be filmed. We will endeavour to air highlights from as many of these performances as possible across BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, 6 Music, Red Button and here online.

Why don't we show all artists and songs?

When the BBC decides to cover a music festival, it needs to work within a tight budget to provide the best value for money for Licence Fee payers. This means we cannot always afford to record all performances from every stage. At Glastonbury festival we are recording the Pyramid stage, Other stage, John Peel stage, West Holts stage and BBC Introducing stage. These stages offer the main headline acts from the festival and interesting newer artists.

On occasion an act may not wish to be filmed or recorded. Artists may also agree to be recorded but only allow a limited number of songs to be aired. This could be for a number of reasons for instance: the quality of some parts of the performance, because they do not wish to broadcast new or unreleased material, or they do not want to broadcast their entire live set.

The material an artist plays may not agree with the BBC Taste & Decency guidelines, such as containing excessive swearing. In these instances there is no way for the BBC to air that material.

The BBC is committed to making sure the sound and visual quality of a performance is high. In live open air arenas, the quality of recordings and performances can vary greatly due to environmental and technical factors. The BBC may decide that the recording of particular songs are not of a high enough quality to air, although we endeavour to provide at least a sample of a band's show if we feel they are central to the festival.

Another reason why certain songs are not available on the BBC is due to there being a limited number of broadcast slots to air material. Around 40 hours of performances will be recorded at Glastonbury festival, but TV and Radio slots will amount to much less. This means TV and Radio producers select the performances that reflect the festival best and appeal to the different audiences for networks and channels. Much more material is featured on Red Button and online but even then the practical limitations of editing such a large amount of material quickly can prevent performances from being available.

Mark Cooper, Creative Head of BBC Music Entertainment, explains more about how Glastonbury and BBC TV works on the BBC Music blog.

Will you add more to the archive?

We plan to add more videos and photos to the archive as content becomes available.

Why are full performances not available in the archive?

At the present time our rights agreements with the artists only allow us to offer 30 second clips of live performances. We hope to obtain the rights and add longer performance clips to the archive in time.

Why don't you publish all comments and tweets?

The BBC recieves a large number of comments across the weekend of the festival. Unfortunately due to this high volume we can only publish a small selection of those that that are submitted. We also select tweets from Twitter by subscribing to hashtags relating to BBC coverage or replies to BBC Twitter profiles such as BBC 6 Music or BBC Glasto.

For more information on how the BBC manages contributions from users, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/terms/faq.shtml and how it considers whether to publish comments from users.

For a full list of BBC Twitter accounts at Glastonbury, please see http://twitter.com/bbc/glastonbury
For a full list of 6music presenters and accounts, please see http://twitter.com/bbc/bbc6music