Oxford University Students’ Union has had many famous faces through its debating doors – but on Monday night it was the turn of Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis to be invited in to talk music, milk and more.

Luckily for us non-Oxford students, some kind soul live-tweeted the whole event. Here’s 16 things were learnt from the Q&A session.

1. 2 million people pre-registered for this year’s festival – when only an eighth of that can actually go

2. Farmer Michael was in search of something more glamorous than milking cows – so he decided to start a music event

Michael Eavis backstage at the Glastonbury Festival
(Yui Mok/PA)

3. The first-ever Glastonbury Festival was £1 entry with free milk and was headlined by The Kinks (who weren’t impressed that the drive to the stage ruined their Chevrolet)

4. The event really became a festival in 1985 when 50,000 hippies came to the farm after the Stonehenge festival closed

5. The festival has got so big that Michael now has to rent land from 22 other farmers

6. Michael described booking Jay Z to headline in 2008 as a “genius move” – but he didn’t actually know how to pronounce his name (he thought it rhymed with Stacey)

7. Michael doesn’t like grime but knows lots of people do, so the festival has a whole stage dedicated to it

8. Rumours of Beyonce and Coldplay headlining together on the Saturday remain unconfirmed – but Michael reckons “there are better rumours than that going around”

9. Prince was on the list to perform at Glastonbury – Michael said “it’s such a shame he never came”

10. Michael loves the music side of his life – but “milk is in my blood”

11. Michael seems to think Europe is the only way to save small farmers. He said: “They’re the only one looking after them”

12. Michael listens to music on a vinyl record player with a stylus and is not into streaming at all

13. Some of the notorious fence-jumpers who sneaked into the festival before security was upped in 2002 now help to run some of the stages

The crowd watching George Ezra performing on The Pyramid Stage
(Yui Mok/PA)

14. The team behind Coachella festival in the US said they learnt from Glastonbury

15. Glastonbury was voted the third best “brand” in the UK – even though no money has been spent on marketing, which Michael thinks is “amazing”

16. Glastonbury is proudly political – and the festival changed Michael’s life