Follow the 2014 Glastonbury Festival on Twitter

As the gates open for this year’s Glastonbury Festival, there’s one place that festival goers and fans at home are coming together to share in the event — Twitter.

More than 90% of the acts playing the main five stages over the course of the festival are on the platform, and the broadcast partner BBC will be providing a live commentary on the platform for fans near and far.

So it was fitting that organiser Emily Eavis (@emilyeavis) chose a Tweet to kick off this year’s festival as the gates opened yesterday: 

Twitter and music go hand in hand, and the Glastonbury festival is one of the biggest live music events in the UK music calendar. In 2013, Glastonbury was one of the UK’s top ten most tweeted-about moments of the year, and once again this year fans can expect tweets, photos, Vines and gifs from the road, the field — and maybe even the stage.

In the run up to the festival, musicians have taken to Twitter to share their excitement about playing at the legendary festival. Headliner Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) announcing her set back in February:

And in May, news broke on Twitter of one of the most hotly-anticipated acts:

And even up the last minute, acts are using the platform to confirm their place in the lineup:

Accounts to follow
Glastonbury Festival themselves have three main accounts to follow — @GlastoFest, which will be delivering big news and updates; @GlastoInfo, which will be operating an answering service from 8am to 11.30pm questions related to the festival; and @GlastoLive is the account to follow if you want to get a feel for the festival as it happens.

Live Twitter voting and #GlastoShout
The BBC is the main broadcast partner and will be covering the festival across their Twitter accounts @BBCTwo, @BBCThree, @BBCR1 and @BBC6Music. There’s also the devoted @BBCGlasto Twitter account, which will pull all the great Twitter coverage together into one place.

BBC Three have been using Twitter to take the pulse of conversation around live music and kick started the summer festival season with live Twitter voting around Radio 1’s One Big Weekend: 

Look out for similar chances to share your opinion and make Tweets count across the BBC Three coverage this weekend.

Following on from last year’s success, the BBC will also be giving Twitter users the chance to get closer to the action by using #GlastoShout. If you watch the live TV shows you very well may see your username pop up around the festival site and gifts given to musicians: 

Check out this list for a full run down on BBC accounts and presenters.

Live updates
For those who have tickets, Twitter has become the definitive way for festival goers to get live updates on the most exciting things happening right now. Organisers and acts are already using Twitter to share exclusive updates, including set times, information on secret gigs and hints of a few big surprises: 

So whether you are on the farm or watching from home, follow along with hashtags including #Glasto2014, #Glasto, #Glastonbury and #BBCGlasto to be the first to get the latest updates and get closer to the action than ever before.