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1997 was the first year ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ TV went to Glastonbury; it was a muddy year and what surprised me the most was the texture of the mud which was deep, dark and gluey and pulled at your wellies. We only filmed two stages and one of them nearly sank. We were terrified and then exhilarated and delighted to pull through. The second year was also muddy and our operation expanded to include a trial run for what would launch a month or two later as ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Choice, the predecessor for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Three.

Alison Howe now executive produces the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s TV coverage and works closely with colleagues in online and red button to deliver the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s ever expanding multi-platform offer from five Glastonbury stages and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Introducing. In 1998 she was an Assistant Producer overseeing what would become ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Choice from a VW van. I seem to remember her overlaying shots from the tall hoist camera that overlooks the Pyramid Stage of a crescent moon over the feed of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds from the main stage scanner. If you can't play with a trial service, what can you play with?

The arrival of digital TV, online, red button and live streaming have all continued to expand and enrich the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s offer from Glastonbury and to give our audiences the chance to make more and more of their own choices. This year we'll stream around 100 artists from across those many stages and that doesn't include the unique acoustic performances we'll offer on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Three and across our radio coverage from the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Music tent.

What the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ increasingly does is offer different audiences different choices. Some people may want to flick from channel to channel, or stream to stream as though flying across site without the hassle of mud or crowds. Meanwhile, different ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ TV channels still offer appointment to view armchair moments when you can tune in to the key headliners absolutely live. Sure, we can't always go live on TV to artists pre-watershed but come the darkness and Metallica or, say, Disclosure on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Three, we'll be there.

Glastonbury offers the ultimate broadcast challenge because it's playing on a variety of stages on a farm in the Vale of Avalon. Most of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ staff and freelancers who work at Glastonbury go year on year and quite a few of them have been going since the 90s. It's what they do, come rain or shine. Last year, 19 million people watched our TV coverage and a record 1.5 million unique browsers accessed the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳’s digital Glastonbury coverage – with over 6m viewers on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳’s Red Button over the weekend and 42 per cent of total traffic across the weekend coming from mobiles and tablets.

Without many broadcast trucks, miles of cable, fibre-optics and the many other things our Engineering Manager Peter Taylor understands so we don't have to, wouldn't have a prayer. Without our Production Manager Jo Housden no one would know where to go, when to eat, when to come on site or how.Ìý

The small editorial production team love working on three TV channels for which we are making every kind of TV at once. There’s a lot going on. There’s filming headline acts, each with their own massive production, booking upcoming artists from stages we can't get to perform in our presentation positions, and working with our presenters to be the audience's eyes and ears from site to making the VT inserts that have been a key part of our coverage from the first. We’re also showing some of the cultural context and human stories that take viewers inside the Glastonbury experience and give some hint of the often weird and wonderful worlds that lie beyond the big stages.

Glastonbury the phenomenon has never lost its beauty or its fascination for us either. This year we're making items about which fields fill up first and where the 'hot' tent pitches are, the construction of the new Arcadia and meeting quite a few of the characters who work at the festival for starters. Many of the small teams filming these items will be staying up very late to film night time Glastonbury and getting up very early to edit them. Meanwhile many of the key production management and engineering staff are already living onsite, preparing for the weekend and the arrival of the larger ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ teams while living in tiny port cabins backstage.

Glastonbury for our production teams is already 24/7. If it rains or floods, some of our stories will change and we may even find ourselves at the centre of the story on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ News ourselves. But it's not going to rain, not this year, or so I keep telling myself...

What will I be doing this year? Doing what I always, do, walking for what seems like miles between our various trucks, trying to get out to West Holts or the John Peel tent to visit the crews out there, probably having the odd last minute discussion with a French manager who insists he hasn't received a contract for his artist who are about to go onstage and who we want to film, talking through running orders for the programmes that just seem to keep coming all weekend, staying up late in the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two broadcast truck, driving back to Street with my exhausted but mostly buzzing colleagues at 2.30 am and trying not to drop in to the bar for a quick one because the next day we've got to do it all over again, back onsite for a late breakfast. I wouldn't have it any other way.

ÌýMark Cooper is Head of ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Music TV

• Read Director of Music Bob Shennan's blogÌý
• Visit the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ at Glastonbury website for the and answers to .
• Follow for updates about coverage throughout the weekend.Ìý
• A has been compiled by our colleagues in ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio.Ìý

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