Castle Cary on Glastonbury weekend, with the crowds passing through

Picture the platform at Castle Cary in a festival year: tents, rucksacks, wellies, everyone checking the time, and a free shuttle bus waiting to take ticket-holders to Worthy Farm. Castle Cary station is the nearest mainline stop to Glastonbury Festival, which is held most Junes, with a fallow year every few years. 2026 was one of them.

For all the people it puts on that platform, the festival brings the town very little trade. Very few of them are coming to Castle Cary. They're passing through, with a shuttle to catch and everything they own for the weekend on their back. Someone who has come to a town is looking for lunch and something to do. Someone changing from a train to a bus is looking for the bus.

In a festival year the town is packed, with people flowing through it rather than stopping in it. Nobody goes into town for the day during the festival, because it's too busy, though it's still beautiful.

The businesses that do well are built for that moment: quick, near the station, and useful to somebody in a hurry. A high street shop hoping for a detour is competing with the shuttle timetable.

What the town does get is warning. The dates are known a year ahead, so stock, staff and hours can all be planned around a week that won't move. You'll find the 2027 dates on our page for Somerset businesses, with the rest of the local calendar.

It's the same shape as Derby Day in Epsom: a world-famous event, a fixed date, and a town working out how much of the passing crowd it can reach. And it's a very different visitor from the one the gallery in Bruton or the Tuesday market brings.