Glastonbury 2021 cancelled: Festival to take another fallow year due to coronavirus pandemic

Live music sector has been one of the worst-hit industries during the pandemic

Glastonbury Festival’s organisers have announced that the event has been cancelled for 2021.

A statement posted to the festival’s official Twitter account explained that it had been logistically impossible to make the event happen, “in spite of our efforts to move Heaven & Earth”.

A note accompanying the full statement from father and daughter team Michael and Emily Eavis said: “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. Tickets for this year will roll over to next year.”

Fans who secured tickets in 2019 will once again have their places rolled over to the following year, now to 2022.

“We thank you for your incredible continued support and let’s look forward to better times ahead,” the statement concluded.

The live music sector has been among the worst hit by the pandemic, with events reporting a 92.2 per cent loss in revenue in 2020. 

Earlier this month, festival organisers gave evidence to a parliamentary inquiry seeking to establish what needed to be done to support the live music industry now and later this year. 

They warned MPs that freelance workers were being forced to take their business elsewhere, while the festivals themselves were faced with the prospect of being wiped out completely.

The government has so far resisted requests by organisers to implement an insurance scheme that would underwrite losses of festivals that are forced to cancel last-minute. 

Emily Eavis told the BBC in December that she had made a similar request last year, but received no answers.

Asked about the cancellation of Glastonbury, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We have set out the support we have made available to businesses and industry throughout the pandemic. That support is still available, but it remains the case that we have to ensure that we can fight this virus and reduce the transmission of it.”

Julian Knight, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said: “The news that the UK has lost the Glastonbury Festival for a second year running is devastating.

“We have repeatedly called for ministers to act to protect our world-renowned festivals like this one with a government-backed insurance scheme. Our plea fell on deaf ears and now the chickens have come home to roost.”

He continued: “The jewel in the crown will be absent but surely the government cannot ignore the message any longer – it must act now to save this vibrant and vital festivals sector.”

The government is also coming under fire over its general treatment of the UK’s music industry, which in 2019 contributed £5.8bn to the economy.

Earlier this week, ministers rejected calls for visa-free tours by musicians of the EU – insisting “taking back control” of borders must come first.

Answering an urgent question in the Commons, Caroline Dinenage insisted talks would resume only if Brussels “changes its mind” about how to resolve the stalemate.

The culture minister admitted – as The Independent revealed – that the EU’s proposal was thrown out because of a fear it clashed with ending free movement of people after Brexit.