insiderblmGlastonbury Festival has been cancelled for a second year running due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The news was announced on Thursday on the Worthy Farm event’s Twitter page.
“With great regret, we must announce that this year’s Glastonbury Festival will not take place,” said festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis.
“And that this will be another enforced fallow year for us. Tickets for this year will roll over to next year. Michael & Emily.
It comes in the same week that the future of UK music was up for debate at a DCMS inquiry into streaming, and in Parliament regarding post-Brexit music touring visas.
‘Move heaven and earth’
The full statement on the festival website read: “In spite of our efforts to move heaven and earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the Festival happen this year. We are so sorry to let you all down.”
It confirmed that as with last year, anyone with a ticket will now be offered the opportunity to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, when the festival will hopefully resume.
“We are very appreciative of the faith and trust placed in us by those of you with deposits, and we are very confident we can deliver something really special for us all in 2022!”
Last year’s 50th anniversary event was meant to be headlined by Sir Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar, but it was cancelled during the initial national lockdown in March 2020.
Last month, organiser Emily Eavis told the BBC she hoped the festival could go ahead, despite the “huge uncertainty” surrounding live music in the pandemic.
“We’re doing everything we can on our end to plan and prepare,” she told the BBC, “but I think we’re still quite a long way from being able to say we’re confident 2021 will go ahead.”
Eavis said Glastonbury lost “millions” in 2020. Her father, Michael, has previously warned the festival “would seriously go bankrupt” if they had to cancel again next year.
But that scenario is unlikely “as long as we can make a firm call either way in advance”, Eavis clarified to the BBC.
No details were announced for 20201. But just before Christmas, Sir Paul McCartney, 78, told the BBC the event was not in his calendar for this year, as it would be a “superspreader”.
Plight of music festivals
At the start of January, MPs were told that some of the UK’s biggest music festivals could be called off by the end of this month.
Events are “rapidly approaching the determination point”, after which they’ll have to pull the plug, said the Association of Independent Festivals.
Organisers will be in “absolutely dire straits” financially if the season is cancelled, added Anna Wade, of Winchester’s Boomtown Fair.
They were speaking to MPs examining the plight of music festivals in the UK.
