Glastonbury 2023: Strabane man brings cool factor to festival

Amid a crowd of 200,000 music fans and some of the biggest names in rock and pop at Glastonbury, Gareth Turnbull is arguably the coolest of all.

But it's not because his rock 'n' roll credentials stand out above the others.

Instead he is providing walk-in fridges, freezers and pop-up cold rooms for the world-famous festival.

The Northern Ireland man has trailers stationed at the production and green rooms of the renowned Pyramid Stage and other main venues at Worthy Farm.

He says it is an honour to work at the festival, having started his business in 2017 with just two refrigerated trailers.

Festival-goers, organisers and artists at Glastonbury could benefit from chilling out, with temperatures expected to hit 27C.

Speaking to the BBC's The North West Today, Gareth says his job is intense in the run-up to the festival but it has its perks and there's plenty of down time after some hard graft.

"We have been here for the last two or three weeks now and it's been absolutely flat out," he says.

"We are building refrigeration around the festival so we've got the privilege of keeping all the green rooms at the main stages refrigerated.

"It's a massive task and it's a very intense set up but now after that big job we get to enjoy it and have a good time."

The Glastonbury Festival gates opened on Wednesday and already tens of thousands of fans have descended on the Somerset farm grounds.

The music bill across the long weekend includes Sir Elton John, Lizzo, Guns N' Roses, Lana Del Rey, Lewis Capaldi, Queens Of The Stone Age, Rick Astley and Lil Nas X.

Gareth, from Strabane in County Tyrone, is looking forward to seeing Sir Elton take to the Pyramid Stage.

His job gives him access to "festival royalty", and he says that without the efforts of his team the big stars' pre- and post-show drinks and food could not be kept cold.

Throughout his years working at the festival one of his favourite things is seeing the huge amount of Irish people who make the trip.

"Like last year there's so many people from Derry here and from all over Ireland - they're a bunch of troopers and are always great craic," says Gareth.

Friday's main stage has a mystery band listed as the The Churnups, rumoured to be Foo Fighters, due to perform before Arctic Monkeys and rock duo Royal Blood.

On Saturday fans will see award-winning artist Lizzo play just before headliners Guns N' Roses on the Pyramid Stage, with Sir Elton closing proceedings on Sunday.

The Rocket Man star is playing the festival as the final UK date of his farewell tour but says fans should expect the unexpected.

Folk singer-songwriter Yusuf, also known as Cat Stevens, will play the coveted Sunday afternoon "legend slot".

The veteran folk-rocker, best known for a string of albums in the 1970s, follows in the footsteps of artists such as Dolly Parton, Kylie Minogue and Diana Ross in the coveted slot.

He will be followed by classic rock outfit Blondie.

Across BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds, TV, radio, online and more, there's plenty of options for Glastonbury fans wanting to get up close on the action .

You can tune into BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 1Xtra and 6 Music for live music and highlight performances from Worthy Farm.

BBC One and BBC Two will also be your main point of call for Glastonbury TV coverage throughout the festival.

BBC iPlayer will also offer the choice to move between continuous live streams from the five main festival stages.

You can watch Pyramid Stage sets in Ultra High Definition or catch up on more than 90 on-demand sets from 2023 for 30 days after broadcast.