Glastonbury ‘weatherman’ shares his predictions for festival

The Met Office and BBC Weather are considered among the most trusted organisations that try to predict the unpredictable: the weather.

Scores of people have searched for Glastonbury Festival’s weather forecast in the past seven days on Google, followed by “Wellington boot” and “Met Office”.

But other sources are out there, including Youtuber Gavin Partridge who has thousands of viewers watching his weather predictions for the festival at Worthy Farm, in Somerset.

“I’ve had an amazing reception from the Glasto crowd. It means a lot, it’s one of the highlights of my year. I love it,” the 46-year-old said.

The vlogger uses different models to predict the likelihood of certain weather patterns with technology set up in his living room.

His predictions have become so popular that dozens of people now send him postcards from the festival.

“They [the fans] are always so kind, so lovely to me. It doesn’t matter whether I’m giving them good news,” Mr Partridge said.

“In the Glastos before lockdown, there were a few that were pretty bad and even then I was received kindly. People just want to have a forecast, whether it’s good news or bad.”

Mr Partridge, based in Northamptonshire, started weather forecasts as a hobby in 2012, and has gradually built them up to a full-time job under the name “GavsWeatherVids”.

He began Glastonbury forecasts in the same year and over time, because of people sharing his videos, the festival is now his busiest time of the year.

“I’ve been very lucky, it’s developed organically,” he said.

“The forecasts seem to be well respected, people seem to enjoy them and find them reliable.

“It’s like the last piece of the puzzle on the journey to Glastonbury.

“When I start doing my forecasts, which is normally two weeks out, it’s the beginning of the final countdown. The final push.”

Mr Partridge said he has had a love for the weather since he was about three years old, after a “series of very cold winters”.

He said: “That was the first thing that started the passion, watching the BBC weather every night and seeing if it will snow the next day.

“The passion just grew.”

Despite providing weather forecasts for many festival-goers for over a decade, he said he has never been to Glastonbury.

“I would love to go and meet everybody but I’m not really a camper,” he said.

“If they built a nice hotel with an en-suite bathroom down the road, that would be ideal for me.”

His latest forecasts show early arrivals will experience “very warm and sunny weather”, but Wednesday or Thursday could see a “thundery” breakdown.

“For anyone attending the full week, I’d take sun cream and sun hat as well as wellies and some warm clothing,” he advised.

“It’s going to be a changeable year overall.”

Mr Partridge is not the only unusual source people turn to for weather predictions.

Emily Eavis, the festival’s organiser, said they use a local cheesemaker who has a “really reliable weather forecast”.

“He’s always the most reliable forecast. He’s got a special link to the Met Office,” she told BBC’s Sidetracked podcast on 10 June.

“He hasn’t let us down.”

“We haven’t had a wet one for a while, we assume it’s going to be lovely… if it happened people would have almost forgotten what it’s like. The mud adds another soundtrack.”

The gates open for this year’s event on 26 June, with Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA as the headliners.