Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts returned in 1997 after 1996's fallow year. The attendance was 90,000 and tickets cost £75 including official programme. What was different this year was a a major sponsorship from The Guardian and the BBC, who had taken over televising the event from Channel 4. This was also the year of the mud, with the site suffering severe rainfalls which turned the entire site into a muddy bog.