Something very special has been brewing at Glastonbury’s The Glade Stage for many years now. At its heart is an adventurous spirit and a hunger for innovation. This is the place Funktion-One Founder Tony Andrews chooses as the playground for our latest technological developments - where he continues a legacy that started at the very first Glastonbury Festival in 1971.

This year, 54 years later, Andrews and Funktion-One, working in collaboration with Audio Plus, continued a trailblazing ethos that has established The Glade Stage as the place for the most exciting sonic experiences at the festival. New heights were reached thanks to a cutting-edge sound system that delivered what Andrews described as “probably the best sonic experience of my life.”

At the heart of The Glade Stage’s setup was Vero VX - Funktion-One’s medium format, vertically arrayable loudspeaker system that delivers extraordinary clarity, midrange presence and dynamic range, whether for live bands, vocalists or DJs. In combination with Funktion-One’s now signature asymmetric bass configuration, The Glade Stage proved to be the place for inspiring audio.

On one side of the stage, a monoblock of F124s was dedicated to bass frequencies and a column of newly upgraded F132s for sub-bass. “We’ve sorted out the suspension, given it more control,” said Andrews about the F132. “It’s a different beast now.” The result was a clean, coherent and thunderous bass experience - a physical sensation that moved audiences while effectively containing the sound.

Leftfield’s FOH Engineer, Martin Harrison, commented: “When I saw the Funktion-One spec for the Glade, I thought it must be a typo - 18 F124s on one side of the stage. I hadn’t expected that but I really like people who are doing things differently. I paced up and down that field to see if the theory worked and really liked what I heard. There’s something beautiful about having a single source for the subs like that - the coverage and coherence. I found it really inspiring.”

The Glade Stage has become a testing ground for Funktion-One’s latest technological and system design developments - a space where decades of innovation converge. “We’ve done the Glade for years, but this time the sound just reached another level,” enthused Andrews. “The depth and clarity were extraordinary. There was a moment where I swear I could see the sound. I looked around and I could tell others were feeling it too - we locked into something.”

Luke Piper, Glade Area Organiser, said: “From my perspective, this was the best ever. I overheard artists, crew and, most importantly, members of the crowd all saying The Glade Stage had the best sound on site and the café and bar staff, who are out there all day and night for four days, told me the same thing. Not only that, but the reduction in unwanted sound spill this year was massive. It meant happier audiences and minimal impact on neighbouring stages. That makes my life so much easier.”

Goldie’s FOH Engineer, Alex Fienne, said: “I had the pleasure of being invited to mix Goldie's live band in The Glade again this year. I was fortunate enough to have the time to spend a day or so listening to other bands and DJs through the system. I think that the overall impression that I came away with was just how unforced the whole thing was - it obviously goes silly loud when you ask it to, but it does so in a way that isn't aggressive and the image remains totally consistent. The ability to present depth as well as width in the soundstage at concert volumes was beautiful.”