This year’s Glastonbury music festival has been cancelled due to coronavirus, organisers have confirmed.
Organisers Michael and Emily Evis announced the news on the festival’s official Twitter page writing: “With great regret, we must announce that this year’s Glastonbury Festival will not take place”.
It’s the second year running that Glastonbury – Europe’s largest live music event – will not go ahead, after last year’s 50th anniversary event was cancelled due to COVID-19.
In a full statement on their website the father and daughter team explained that in spite of “efforts to move Heaven & Earth”, the event – which is an annual pilgrimage for hundreds of thousands of music lovers – would no longer be able to go ahead.
Taylor Swift had been scheduled to headline in 2020. Pic: AP
They wrote: “With great regret, we must announce that this year’s Glastonbury Festival will not take place, and that this will be another enforced fallow year for us.
In spite of our efforts to move Heaven & 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.
As with last year, we would like to offer all those who secured a ticket in October 2019 the opportunity to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, and guarantee the chance to buy a ticket for Glastonbury 2022. 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!
We thank you for your incredible continued support and let’s look forward to better times ahead.”
Earlier this year rumours that Glastonbury 2021 swirled after stars including Sir Paul McCartney and Mel B hinted that the festival was going to be cancelled.
However, at the time the Eavis’s dismissed speculation, and said they were doing their utmost to make it happen.
The 2021 festival had been sold out, as the majority of ticket holders from the cancelled 2020 event had chosen to roll-over their tickets.
Headliners Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar, as well as McCartney, plus hundreds of other acts, were due to play at the 2020 anniversary celebration in June before the festival was called off due to COVID-19.