The legendary Glastonbury Festival faces the serious prospect of biting the dust. According to its founder Michael Eavis, the festival needs to return next year to ensure survival. Eavis, with his daughter Emilia in tow, spoke to the Guardian on 25th of June. He emphasized on the need for Galstonbury’s return at Worthy Farm next year to ensure its survival.
“We have to run next year, otherwise we would seriously go bankrupt … It has to happen for us, we have to carry on. Otherwise it will be curtains. I don’t think we could wait another year.”
Michael Eavis
The iconic festival has been headlines by the likes of New Order, The Chemical Brothers, Underworld, The Prodigy, Deadmau5 to Coldplay, Adele, Bob Dylan, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas with a host of other legendary acts over the years. This year would have been the 50th anniversary of its existence. Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lemar were the headliners booked for the same. It was eventually called off in the middle of March once the impact of the global corona-virus pandemic became clear.
The 84 year Eavis highlighted that the financial reserve assets of the festival would not be able to encounter another cancellation. “We haven’t got unlimited resources – we carry enough to float the next event”, he pointed out. Emily also called for the UK Government to compensate the 2020 event license fees, which could potentially serve an aid of survival to many events. She said that the festival has a tentative contingency plan for next year, though it is too early to dig into further details.
The UK government is going to need to step up and support the British arts more broadly. This country’s venues, theaters, festivals, performers and crew bring so much to this country financially and culturally, but they need support now. Otherwise, I think we face the very real possibility of so many aspects of our culture disappearing forever.
Emily Eavis
However, on the flip side, Emily was also confident that it might still be far to press the panic button.
We’ve navigated choppy waters so many times. This festival has always evolved and found ways to survive, and I’m confident that we will again. Mutate to survive!
