Glastonbury Festival cancelled amid coronavirus concerns

Glastonbury Festival will not go ahead in 2020 due to coronavirus concerns. Tickets for this year’s festival will roll over until 2021 while its Worthy Farm site takes an “enforced fallow year”.

“Clearly this was not a course of action we hoped to take for our 50th anniversary event, but following the new government measures announced this week – and in times of such unprecedented uncertainty – this is now our only viable option,” Glastonbury’s Michael and Emily Eavis wrote in a joint statement on their website.

“We very much hope that the situation in the UK will have improved enormously by the end of June. But even if it has, we are no longer able to spend the next three months with thousands of crew here on the farm, helping us with the enormous job of building the infrastructure and attractions needed to welcome more than 200,000 people to a temporary city in these fields.”

This year’s festival was set to mark its 50th anniversary, and was to be headlined by Kendrick Lamar, Paul McCartney, and Taylor Swift, with Diana Ross playing the Sunday Legends teatime slot. The line-up was announced last week, with Emily Eavis writing at the time that “as things stand we are still working hard to deliver our 50th anniversary Festival in June”.

In their statement, Michael and Emily Eavis added: “We would like to send our sincere apologies to the 135,000 people who have already paid a deposit for a Glastonbury 2020 ticket. The balance payments on those tickets were due at the beginning of April and we wanted to make a firm decision before then.”

People who have already secured a ticket for this year’s festival can roll their £50 deposit over until next year, guaranteeing them the opportunity to buy a ticket for the 2021 festival. This will happen automatically, but if not, there is also the option to take a £50 refund, available until September this year.

Information about coach packages and official accommodation bookings will be added to the festival over the coming days.

“The cancellation of this year’s Festival will no doubt come as a terrible blow to our incredible crew and volunteers who work so hard to make this event happen,” the statement continues. “There will also inevitably be severe financial implications as a result of this cancellation – not just for us, but also the Festival’s charity partners, suppliers, traders, local landowners, and our community.”

“We were so looking forward to welcoming you all for our 50th anniversary with a line-up full of fantastic artists and performers that we were incredibly proud to have booked. Again, we’re so sorry that this decision has been made. It was not through choice. But we look forward to welcoming you back to these fields next year and until then, we send our love and support to all of you.”

See their full statement via Twitter below.