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When the Glastonbury Festival first started, Michael Eavis was not very popular with all of the local residents.

Many were seen on television complaining about the noise and extra people in the village and were worried about the impact this would have on their village.

But now, 37 years later, things have calmed down and the village has a lot to thank the festival for; the post office and village hall are just some of the things which have been paid for with money raised by events organised by Worthy Farm.

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The village is very important to Michael, whose family have farmed here for the last 150 years.

Recently he has built on his land 18 homes, soon to be 22, for locals to rent so that young families can stay in the village without being handicapped by large mortgages.

He said it was great to have children in the sports clubs and playing fields.

Preparations are nearly complete

The festival has also paid £880,000 towards the renovation of the parish hall and Pilton Working Man's Club, while in 2007, following an attack on the old wooden Playing Fields Pavilion, the festival paid for a replacement to be built.

Michael Eavis and co organise three main events a year; Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza and the Pilton Equinox Party.

The smaller of the three events, the Equinox has been going for ten years and is a fundraiser for the village.

Previous bands to play include the Stone Roses, Coldplay, Keane, Massive Attack, Supergrass and Kasabian.

Michael said: "Bands come and play for the village so they don’t charge us their normal rate so we’ve got Franz Ferdinand and the Ting Tings, which is the night before their national tour. Their tour has already sold out, it’s a big deal so this is like the dress rehearsal for the national tour at Worthy Farm, isn’t that great?!

"They’re a terrific band, absolutely first rate. And then we’ve got the Travelling Band who were last year’s competition winners."

This year's competition winners, Major Major, will also be playing.

"We're very good at choosing winners. We chose Scouting For Girls about four years ago, and look at them now, huge aren't they?"

It seems Michael has a good ear for spotting new bands.

Michael organises three events

"I enjoy choosing good bands, yeah it’s great," he said. "There’s another good band coming out called The Operation and they’re going to do well as well so watch this space."

The changing of the season seems to have put Michael in a buoyant mood; "we've got good cows, and the price of milk is going up so we’re all hunky-dory," he said.

Or could it be that he's close to booking an act he's been desperate to get for a while to headline Glastonbury? Of course he wouldn't say who, but he was very excited.

He said the registration is going well and that around 250,000 people have already registered.

So out of the three events, does Michael have a favourite?

"The Extravaganza is more difficult to sell. The Equinox sells well because it’s a lovely time of year, it’s harvest time, it’s the end of the season and it’s the last of the summer events and then you get into Winter and Autumn.

"It’s a lovely name, Equinox. It’s half-way through the season and there’s the solstice at either end so it feels right and it’s very agriculturally based. It’s a super time of the year and it’s usually dry for the Equinox. The forecast for this weekend is absolutely brilliant.

"It’s a bit like a harvest festival."

The Pilton Equinox takes place on 19 September and tickets are available from the festival website, the Glastonbury Festival ticket office in Glastonbury and also at Worthy Farm.