Glastonbury 2024: Story behind Edgar Phillips' beautiful Glastonbury wings sculpture at Stone Circle
Edgar Phillips explains how he went about creating the wings.
Revellers at Glastonbury Festival this year may have spotted a new sculpture in the Peace Garden beside the Stone Circle.
A giant pair of wings. Crafted from stained glass and lead, pointing heavenwards, in shades of amber and garnet.
The man behind them - or in front - is Edgar Phillips, an artist from Wells, Somerset.
He told ITV News West Country: "To me, this is the spiritual heart of Glastonbury, so to be allowed to put a piece of art here and then for everybody to say how it fits in, it means so much to me. It really does mean a lot. People care so much about this area.
"The feedback ranges from 'I love your wings' to people coming up to me to show me the order of service from their loved one's funeral, and the picture is of them in front of my wings. That to me is just like a kind of mini-miracle. It's so beautiful."
The wings at the Stone Circle are not Edgar's first at Glastonbury. In 2017, Emily Eavis commissioned him to produce a pair for The Park.
Since then he has added two more to their ranks, as well as those in the Peace Garden, making four pairs on Worthy Farm in total.
But just over a decade ago all of this would have seemed impossible to Edgar.
Although he had a successful career in creating stained glass windows, he was also struggling with addiction, anxiety, depression, and had plans to take his own life.
"I was going to hang myself, when I suddenly thought 'how has it come to this?'
"When I closed my eyes back then, it was like oblivion black. This endless blackness. I closed my eyes and in the darkness burned this red pair of wings, out of nowhere.
"My head snapped up and I realised what I had to do. I knew I had to make them big so people could stand in them," Edgar said.
Over the following two years, he designed the first pair of wings along with three others which went on display in the Bishop's Palace in Wells.
They were such a hit with visitors that the Palace asked Edgar to stay on as an artist-in-residence.
It was there that Emily Eavis first saw Edgar's work, prompting her to commission a pair of wings for The Park in 2017.
He said: "Being there really helped me. It was my rehabilitation. I used to wake up with the four horsemen of the apocalypse looming over my chest.
"Now I wake up and think 'will I have toast, porridge, eggs?' It's a completely different universe, really."
When Emily Eavis asked him to create another sculpture for Worthy Farm, Edgar attended the festival in search of inspiration.
"I was sitting in The Park in front of the other wings when one afternoon this huge cloud appears in the shape of a winged creature.
"It could have been an angel, a dove, with the wings pointing up."
He started with four oil paintings inspired by the cloud before moving onto glass and lead.
When it was finished, he asked his sister Elizabeth, who has Down Syndrome, what she thought it should be called.
She was grieving the loss of their mother at the time and so she chose the name "Goodbye Mum".
How to get help if you have been affected by the issues mentioned in this article:
CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) - Helpline: 0800 58 58 58
MIND provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. Information line: 0300 123 3393
Samaritans is an organisation offering confidential support for people experiencing feelings of distress or despair. Phone 116 123 (a free 24 hour helpline).
Shout is a 24/7 text service, free on all major mobile networks, for anyone struggling to cope and in need of immediate help. Text SHOUT to 85258.