Mobile network Orange is this year celebrating a 10-year partnership with the Glastonbury music festival. The partnership began in 1997 when Glastonbury needed a mobile network to install masts giving mobile phone owners a better experience whilst at the festival. The following year, Orange became the Official Communications Partner at the event.
Orange was the first operator to offer free mobile charging facilities at a live event, an initiative that has since been rolled out at other music festivals. From the humble beginnings of the Mobile Charging Truck in 2000, which could simultaneously charge 50 phones, the facility has expended to the Chill n Charge Tent, which last year saw almost half the festival, over 65,000 people, visit the tent to recharge their mobile phones.
In 2004, Orange launched Text me Home Dome, a trial service which helped  Glastonbury revellers locate their tent after a hard days partying, by texting the tent and watching it light up bright orange in the crowd.
2007 saw the debut of the Orange Mobile Wind Charger, the UKs first wind-powered phone charger designed as a prototype to attach to the top of your tent. 2007 was also the year that the Orange Chill n Charge tent took its bow, with more than 65,000 phones charged over the weekend. This year, the tent has evolved into an 800 sq m. multimedia tent with 600 charging points. Punters will also be able to update profiles on their favourite social network sites by using one of 32 broadband points which are situated within the tent.
Also for this years festival, Orange asays it will unveil an evolution from last years mobile wind charger, as well as a new trial designed to capture kinetic energy created by dancing, to recharge your mobile phone.
Orange is also launching a downloadable Java application, complete with interactive map, to help festival-goers keep in touch with their friends at Glastonbury. The application also offers all the latest festival information to ensure revellers dont miss their favourite bands.
Spot The Bull, the online competition to win tickets to Glastonbury by guessing where the bull will be standing in the field at 3pm each day, is back for 2008 and, says Orange, is going to be the biggest Glastonbury ticket giveaway ever. Players are able to win up to eight tickets for themselves and their friends to ensure they wont be spending their Glastonbury weekend dancing on their own.
And following on from the popularity of Peaches video diaries in 2007, Orange is soon to announce this years celebrity video diarist, who will be reporting on all the ups, downs, blood, sweat and beers direct from Glastonbury, details of which will all be unveiled in the coming weeks.
Orange is proud to have been the Official Telecommunications Partner of Glastonbury Festival for the past 10 years, says Hattie Magee, Head of Partnerships at Orange UK. Weve been involved in some great promotions and innovations, and 2008 is sure to deliver even more amazing stories and experiences from the farm. It may have rained at the festival over the last few years but itll take more than that to dampen the spirits of the UK festival goers.   
Glastonbury Festival 2008 takes place at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset, from 27-29 June. For all the latest updates from the field, click here. For more information about Glastonbury, click here.