Emily Eavis, one half of the Father-Daughter organisation team, took to her Instagram page to confirm the cancellation of the event.

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In May it was announced that a one-off event was being planned to replace the annual 5-day festival which Glastonbury normally held. The replacement event was due to take place in September of this year but was unfortunately terminated.
The September live music event was to be organised to replace the last two cancellations of the Festival due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions enforced due to the current health crisis. The September concert was to be called Equinox, the event organisers had a lot of ‘red tape’ to go through and eventually secured the necessary licenses and permissions from Mendip District Council to allow for 50,000 ticket holders to attend the autumn event. The event appeared to be approved albeit with over 50 conditions and provisions, the festival’s organisers and the team have not yet provided further details on the cancellation. The Instagram post from Emily Eavis is the main cancellation confirmation at this time.

This is not the first cancellation in which Glastonbury has issued, the cancellation of the rescheduled 2020 festival was announced by the Eavis’ in January. The announcement confirmed the event would not be going ahead and gave information on how ticket holders could attend next year’s event. The Festival released the following statement via their Twitter page. “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 the incredible continued support and let’s look forward to better times ahead. With love, Michael & Emily.”

The 2020 event would have been the 50th birthday of Glastonbury, both organisers were not deturbed in their celebrations however and wanted to still proceed with an anniversary event. Michael Eavis was keen to hold the event this autumn to match the Festival’s birthdate of its first event on 18th September 1970, Eavis previously confirmed his hopeful plans for the eventually cancelled event. “I would like to do something in September. I would like to do something smaller somewhere around the anniversary date of when we started, which was the 18th of September 1970. I would like to consider possibly doing something around that time.” Eavis was then asked if he would recruit big acts to perform, to which he replied. “Yes, but I do need to get reassurance from the ethics people.”

Glastonbury is one of the most iconic institutions in music history, the festival has been leading the way in live entertainment and legendary live performances for over half a century. It is no surprise that the festival’s founder Eavis wanted to celebrate its 50th birthday with a bang.
The festival has seen line-up’s full of rock, soul, folk and pop performers, known for its inclusivity the festival has catered for every niche market and genre throughout the decades. The festival’s first event was held the day after Jimi Hendrix’s tragic death, some may think that it was this tragedy that inspired Eavis to launch the new festival, but his inspiration came from a Blues Festival held at the Bath and West Showground. The initial event’s attendance is not even half of the 250,000 attendees at 2019’s event, in 1970 the attendance was 1,500 ticket-holders who paid £1 to attend the festival. Along with the attendance at the festival, the £1 ticket also entitled the holder to free milk from the farm. Considering that the concert was the festival’s first event the line-up was an impressive who’s who of the era’s popular music, the line-up included T-Rex frontman Marc Bolan, Stackrudge, Quintessence, Keith Christmas and Scottish folk musician Al Stewart.

Whilst the festival’s annual Glastonbury event and proposed September concert are no longer going ahead, music and culture fans will still be able to have a Glastonbury-like experience.  During the cancellations of the farm’s events, Michael and Emily Eavis have concentrated on another side of their business. The duo has opened up the famed event location, Worthy Farm, as a campsite open to the public. The new business venture is called Worthy Pastures and allows visitors to connect with one of music’s most iconic venue locations. Entertainment and activities provided to guests include the Pyramid Field, a SUNDAY Craft Market, Walking Routes, Cycling Paths, Table Tennis and the stone circle.

Click here for more information on Worthy Pastures.

The Glastonbury themed spectacular entitled ‘The Glastonbury Experience 2021’ will take place from Friday 25th June until Sunday 27th June 2021 and will be available across all of the network’s channels. Including the BBC television channels, iPlayer, BBC’s radio stations and BBC Sounds. Due to the unfortunate news that the Festival has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions for the second year, BBC has taken it upon themselves to devote an entire weekend to Glastonbury. The network plans to make available a variety of special content from highlights from past years to airing special performances.

Included within BBC’s celebration of all things Glastonbury are 50 sets from the archive which will be available on BBC iPlayer as well as 30 sets which are available on BBC Sounds available from Monday 21st June 2021. The sets recorded within the ‘Live At Worthy Farm’ online event will also be included, the performances which aired online on Saturday 22nd May 2021 gifted viewers at home sets from Coldplay, HAIM, Idles, George Ezra, Jorja Smith, Wolf Alice, Michael Kiwanuka, The Smile, Honey Dijon featuring Rosin Murphy, Kano and former Blur member Damon Albarn. As well as more recent sets, viewers will also be able to watch classic performances from the festival’s archive across the weekend, available to watch on BBC Two and Four. The classic sets will include a never before aired performance from multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti from 1984. Also available from the festival’s cannon are sets from Radiohead in 1997 and the princess of pop Kylie from 2019.

Following on the same theme of classics, BBC Two will also air a 60-minute documentary entitled ‘Live At Worthy Farm: Backstage’, and will be presented by suitable figure, Jo Whiley. The Queen of indie music and Glastonbury will show how the special event was created thus charting the festival’s success and will also show how the festival became a musical Mecca for any music fan. The documentary will be followed by a hand-picked collection of performances by artists involved in the festival’s special event as well as hand-picked performances from ‘Life At Worthy Farm’.

Whiley has spoken with the BBC concerning the event, the music icon reminisced on her favourite memories from past festivals and invited fans to celebrate Glastonbury with her. The famous DJ said “Whilst we can’t be together in the fields of Pilton just yet, I can’t wait to go back in time and share a selection of my favourite Glastonbury memories and performances with you all. I have incredibly fond memories of the 90s at Glastonbury, so join me on Friday 25 June to re-live some of the very best moments from that unforgettable decade. I had a fantastic time at Live At Worthy Farm in May, so I’m also really looking forward to showing viewers exactly what went on behind the scenes.”

Other features from ‘The Glastonbury Experience 2021’ include a pop-up channel, that will be available across the weekend on BBC iPlayer. Included on the steam are documentaries, more sets from the vault and further exclusive content. The content will see multiple DJ’s present programmes concerning different periods of Glastonbury, the 1990s will be discussed on Friday, Saturday will cover the 21st century and finally, Sunday will be dedicated to festival Legends. The programmes will be presented by Jo Whiley from BBC Radio 2, Clara Amfro from Radio 1 and finally Lauren Laverne from 6 Music. Also included in the special event is a weekend full of programmes, all of which will follow the Glastonbury theme. These will include more classic sets along with more highlights from the recent ‘Live At Worthy Farm’ event, all will be available through Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2 and 6 music.

Radio presenter Clara Amfro also spoke with the BBC and shared her personal connection with Glastonbury.

“As a nation of music lovers, Glastonbury is truly a part of our DNA. Whether it’s two or twenty performances, we all have a collection of them seared into our memory from many a previous weekend on this Somerset farm! Sharing some of my personal faves is a real treat and a testament to the hard work from the Eavis family and these brilliant artists.”

Even though it seems that the Summer festival experience will be out of reach for the UK this year, the BBC has seemingly taken it upon themselves to bring Summer’s most popular festival to our homes.

For a full line-up of the special content click here.

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Many of the artists included in today’s announcement have taken to social media to tell of the news. PJ Harvey wrote on Twitter: “PJ Harvey will be performing two original poems written in Dorset dialect as part of #LiveAtWorthyFarm, @glastonbury’s 5 hour global livestream event on 22nd May with encore screenings on 23rd May.” Singer song-write George Ezra wrote, “Exciting Glasto News I’ve been invited to give a guest performance for the Glastonbury global livestream on the 22nd of May Tickets are on sale now. http://worthyfarm.live If you can’t make the live performance there’ll be an encore screening on the 23rd of May!” 

The set times for those announced so far has also been revealed, with Wolf Alice taking the 7 pm slot, a ‘special guest’ at 11:05 pm, followed by Kano and Honey Dijon back-to-back as the night goes on. Alongside the artists already set to perform, the festival has also hinted there are further surprise guests yet to be revealed, from both the musical and spoken word communities.

The iconic festival has also announced an added day of ‘encore streaming’ on 23 May 2021. This will allow the virtual audiences to watch the five-hour show from Sunday afternoon, broadcasting at 2 pm and 7 pm. Glastonbury’s ‘Live At Worthy Farm’ is also set to be aired in a number of UK cinemas from 22 May 2021. 

‘Live At Worthy Farm’ was announced by the festival’s organisers earlier this year. Co-organiser Emily Eavis said: “We’re very pleased to announce that on the May 22, we’re going to be streaming an incredible line-up of artists from Worthy Farm,” She continued: “We’re working with an incredible director called Paul Dugdale and we’re going to be taking you on a five-hour journey through an evening at Worthy Farm. It’s going to be like the festival, but without the people.” 

The organisers are also making the Glasto site available to campers over the school holidays this year. “With no Festival taking place on Worthy Farm for a second consecutive year in 2021, Michael and Emily Eavis are pleased to invite campers, for one year only, to experience the farm in a way you’ve never been able to before,” they wrote. 

Set times for Glastonbury ‘Live At Worthy Event’
22 May 2021
7.00pm: Wolf Alice
7.25pm: Michael Kiwanuka
7.55pm: George Ezra
8.05pm: IDLES
8.30pm: HAIM
9.05pm: Coldplay
9.50pm: Damon Albarn
10.35pm: Jorja Smith
11:05 pm: SPECIAL GUEST
11.35pm: Kano
12:00am DJ Honey Dijon ft Róisín Murphy

In an interview with LBC, Eavis confirmed that he was working on organising a smaller event in the month of September to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Glastonbury, which was supposed to have taken place last year. Eavis said, “I would like to do something in September. “I would like to do something smaller somewhere around the anniversary date of when we started, which was the 18th of September 1970. “I would like to consider possibly doing something around that time.”

Eavis also confirmed that a line up of big-artists was being organised for the event but also that he needed the green light “and the reassurance from the ethics people”. When asked if the September 2021 event, or the Glastonbury 2022 would be the “biggest ever”, Eavis responded by saying, “I just hope it’s going to be the best we’ve ever done”.

Eavis explained the cancellation of Glastonbury 2021 by saying that the decision had been made after multiple conversations with health experts at the Imperial College London. Eavis also said that he had hoped to organise a smaller event with 50,000 people instead of the 200,000 crowd Glastonbury usually hosts, but that the attempt “didn’t bear any fruit”.

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. Full statement below and on our website. Michael & Emily pic.twitter.com/SlNdwA2tHd

— Glastonbury Festival (@glastonbury) January 21, 2021

The event in the month of September 2021 might actually happen, as its announcement came shortly after the managing director of Festival Republic Melvin Benn’s statement, to NME, “I feel very positive because I know that it’s possible. The Prime Minister has said that 88% of hospitalisations and deaths will disappear once the over-70s and frontline workers are vaccinated. The Health Secretary said: ‘When that’s done, cry freedom’ – I’m crying freedom. At that point, I’m saying let’s get on with it. I’m super confident about the end of the summer, I’m super confident about the beginning of the summer. If everyone over the age of 60, or definitely the age of 50, is vaccinated by the end of May, then Jesus – there should be no stopping us.”

Dr. Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton also said that before festivals could resume again, “We’d want a bare minimum of 50% of the population to be vaccinated but probably more like 60%. That would probably take us towards the end of the summer at around August or September.”

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Normally this is great news, and for intense and purposes its is! However, fans of Sir Paul McCartney woke up this morning to the news that McCartney doesn’t think he will be a headline act at next year’s (2021) Glastonbury. This is certainly a sad piece of news for fans as McCartney has been somewhat of a staple of the festival and was planned for a headline show this year before the pandemic hit “I should have been rehearsing for my shows, culminating in Glastonbury, and suddenly all of that was knocked out, so I was able to do some recording.”

The former Beatle explains that he feels that despite there being a vaccine, places like festivals and large shows (or crowds that arent his immediate family) may not be safe “100,000 people closely packed together with flags and no masks, you know, talk about superspreader. I’d love it to be, but I have a feeling it’s not going to be.”. Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis has stated that they hope Glastonbury will be safe and they are doing all they can to make sure of it “We’re doing everything we can on our end to plan and prepare, but I think we’re still quite a long way from being able to say we’re confident 2021 will go ahead.”

McCartney may feel like festivals aren’t safe, but he has made it clear he wants to set an example by getting the vaccine as soon as it is possible. During the lockdown, McCartney has been writing music for the sequel to his two former solo albums ‘McCartney’ and ‘McCartney II’. The new ‘McCartney III’ which was delayed till today (18/12/2020) “I was just making music purely for me that no one really was going to hear, except me and my family. I thought of ‘McCartney I and II’. I’d played all the instruments on those, which put this in the same class, so this should be McCartney III. I’d found a place for it.”  

#McCartneyIII. The new album, out now. Get it here: https://t.co/8UPtDfPijp by @maryamccartney pic.twitter.com/BSFO1S4sSK — Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) December 18, 2020

Aside from his own Album, McCartney also teamed up with his former Beatle Ringo Starr as a featured vocalist on his soon to be released EP ‘Zoom In’. Even if he may not be seen at Glastonbury in 2021, fans can get a whole lot of McCartney right now! ‘McCartney III’ Is available to download, buy, and stream today.

At a Q&A event at Wells Cathedral School on October 21, as part of the Wells Festival of Literature, Michael Evais spoke about the strict precautions festivals will have to take in order to go ahead in 2021. He said; “The testing is going so well now, there could be massive testing arrangements.” He then questioned; “Do we want to test 200,000 people three times – when they leave their home, when they’re halfway here, and when they get to the [festival] gate – so that we’re clear of COVID?”

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Repost @emily_eavis: 50 years ago today, my dad first opened the Worthy Farm gates and this happened. Ever evolving, the festival has lived through five decades, it has been a wild ride – controversial, unpredictable, and so much fun to be a part of. It has survived all kinds of moments and phases and now, it stands on hold through a pandemic. Since this day in 1970, there have been millions of people through Glastonbury’s gates. Each with a unique experience and story. Thanks for being part of it.

A post shared by Glastonbury Festival (@glastofest) on Sep 19, 2020 at 4:30am PDT

This comes after comments made by Reading & Leeds organiser Melvin Benn, who said that they may not need a vaccination “because we can work through the problem with a really good testing regime.” He went on to explain further, saying; “It will probably be the government’s version of the Full Capacity Plan, which is even bigger than what mine was. There will be some sort of test. By the time August 2021 comes around, it will take 10 minutes. You can see the kids outside doing it – who can neck a pint quickest, who can do a test quickest?”

Back in June, Glastonbury festival organiser, Emily Eavis talked about how expansive plans for next years’ festival are already underway. She spoke on BBC 6 Music Show, about how wild it will be to be combining the two festivals into one, saying; “Logistically, it’s a little bit complicated, because we’d already planned quite a few acts for 2021. It was one of those unusual years where you’re quite far ahead on the line-up. So we’re trying to work out how much we can fit in to next year.”

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The Pyramid in 1982. #Glastonbury

A post shared by Glastonbury Festival (@glastofest) on Jun 25, 2020 at 12:05pm PDT

The 2020 line-up was supposed to include headliners Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney. Emily couldn’t confirm whether the same headliners will return in 2021, but spoke of her hope that McCartney will return, saying; “We had Paul McCartney for this year. It’s unbearable to think that’s not happening, because it would have been the ultimate way to see in our 50th year.”

While it isn’t confirmed, the aim is that Glastonbury 2021 will go ahead in June. Everyone who had tickets to the 2020 festival are thankfully guaranteed a ticket for the 2021 show.

So, what does this mean for the future of Glasto? The “wishful thinking” as Eavis called the return of the festival in 2021 on ITV News West Country is rather unlikely to happen. But if there’s even the slightest chance, he will be “moving heaven and earth” to make it happen next year.

“500 people is ok, isn’t it. But my job, 250,000 all together is too many people I suppose, really”, the 84-year-old said. “I’m still hoping I’m going to run next year. I’ll be moving heaven and earth to make sure that we do. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to happen. That’s just wishful thinking, really.”

Limited, final quantities of our (previously sold out) Hope Shines Brightest fundraising merchandise for @oxfamgb, @GreenpeaceUK and @WaterAidUK have been added to our online shop, at https://t.co/ijOoF6tiht pic.twitter.com/pzfp69sGsG

— Glastonbury Festival (@glastonbury) August 3, 2020

Though he announced back in June that the festival is at risk of going bankrupt if it can’t take place in 2021, Eavis now seems to be less concerned than before. Actually, he’s quite positive that the massive music event will survive the crisis. “No, I do not worry at all. I’m so confident that it’s going to survive. The only certainty, I think, is the year after, 2022, to be perfectly candid.”

But even with the positive mindset that the festival will make it through anyways, he’s not taking any risks: “I’m still hoping, and we’re fighting and we’re working at it all the time to make it happen next year.” So, to all you worried Glastonbury-fans out there: Don’t you worry. “You can’t kill it off just like that. It will come back. It will come back, probably stronger actually.”

This year would’ve marked the 50th anniversary, the plan was to celebrate with headliners like Paul McCartney, Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift. Now, fans must wait another year to celebrate – if it’s not going to being too late. “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”, Eavis told The Guardian.

But a festival as big as Glastonbury, with big musicians like these, comes at a price. “Cancelling 2020 obviously cost us a sizeable sum of money”, Eavis’ daughter Emily, who’s been working side to side with her father for the past couple of years, has revealed. And Eavis himself has admitted that the cash isn’t flowing in the Glastonbury bank account: “We haven’t got unlimited resources – we carry enough to float the next event”, the 84-year-old-said. If the resources are gone, the Glastonbury experience could end up in your own backyard rather than at a festival ground, just like this Twitter user is currently experiencing:

@bbcglasto @glastonbury We have our Glasto at home set up – complete with our own Pyramid headliner pic.twitter.com/zV2XZpuCEn

— Claire Deakins (@clairebear2606) June 25, 2020

The entire live music industry is at risk at the moment, but with the largest greenfield festival in the world being self-organised, it makes Glastonbury dependant on governmental help. “The whole live industry will be hanging in the balance if we have another summer without festivals, and we don’t know what level of government support there will be for this industry”, Emily said.

She’s urged the government to refund license fees for 2020 events, as “the return of those fees, which can be tens of thousands of pounds, would offer a financial lifeline to many events.” With the entertainment industry being a huge income for the economy, as well as being a big part of peoples social lives, Emily has been calling out to the government for help: “The UK government is going to need to step up and support the British arts more broadly. This country’s venues, theatres, 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.”

Here’s to hoping that this scenario will never happen.

The album, which has twelve tracks is fifty-three minutes of euphoric sounds and passionate lyrics which ends with a song called Remember Where You Are. This song, Jessie told Billboard, was written after Boris Johnson became Prime Minister and she felt the song reflects that “everything’s gone to shit, but remember what’s important” feeling that existed then and is prominent in 2020. Her intention is to remind everyone that while we feel held down by the world, we need to keep fighting.

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SO pleased you’re all loving What’s Your Pleasure? thank you @applemusic for all the amazing support on the album. If you haven’t heard it already, go have a listen xx

A post shared by Jessie Ware (@jessieware) on Jun 26, 2020 at 4:57am PDT

In an interview with Billboard, Jessie describes this album as the album she needed to make, for many reasons. One being that her previous album Glasshouse underperformed which led to a tough tour, financially and also mentally, leaving her in a “hard patch.” She also felt like her fans needed the album during the pandemic saying; “I think people need distraction at the moment, and that’s the beauty of dance and disco — it can provide euphoria.”

This is why Jessie was determined not to push the date back because of the global pandemic, instead opting to make the album as visual as possible, creating lyric videos and making the fans feel as involved. She added; “I know loads of people are going to get fans dancing, but we’re just trying to make it feel as artistic as possible. If we can get a visual for every song, that would be amazing.”

However, when Jessie realised that her original album release date would coincide with Junteenth, a celebration in America to honour the day of the emancipation of enslaved people in America on the 19th of June 1865, she decided to postpone the release of the album until the 26th of June. Jessie said in an Instagram video that “It’s an incredibly important day for Black voices, and I don’t want to distract from those voices or those experiences or stories in any way.” Jessie has spoken out openly about her support for the Black Lives Matter movement on social media and in an interview with the Independent. She has also attended protests in London, which she described as “peaceful and powerful” despite the media reports.

 

 

 

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An update on my album xx A post shared by Jessie Ware (@jessieware) on Jun 9, 2020 at 3:07pm PDT

Jessie has also accepted the chance to perform this album at Glastonbury 2021. While talking to the event organiser Emily Eavis on Jessie’s podcast Table Manners, Eavis asked Jessie right there and then would she perform at the festival. Jessie jumped at the chance saying; “Absolutely, 100 per cent. I was like, there, watching my opportunity to play this album pass me by.” She is the first artist confirmed for the festival.

“Too soon the little fella has threatened to take a year off which I highly recommend so I reckon he’ll give his head a good shake and bingo we’ll be on for the following year isn’t it.”

Oasis split in 2009 at a festival show in Paris amid the rising tensions between him and his brother Noel Gallagher.

Too soon the little fella has threatened to take a year off which I highly recommend so I reckon he’ll give his head a good shake and bingo we’ll be on for the following year isn’t it

— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) December 18, 2019

Noel Gallagher recently announced his plans to take a year off in 2020, as referenced by Liam in the tweet. In an article with Guitar.com, Noel opened up on his plans to “get away from it for a bit” in the coming year.

The ‘Black Star Dancing’ vocalist further elaborated, “Apart from the odd festival date next summer, I think I’m going to try to take 2020 off,”

Liam Gallagher recently confirmed his return to Manchester’s Heaton Park for a homecoming show next summer. He is set to play on June 12, 2020. He announced the news through a Twitter post, that he’d be playing a selection of music from his solo and Oasis discography.

In November, acts were announced for TRNSMT Festival 2020, including Gallagher at the top of the bill, along with The Courteeners and Lewis Capaldi.

The Glasgow Green gig runs from July 10-12. Other acts include Ian Brown, Foals, Keane, Sam Fender, Snow Patrol, Little Simz, Blossoms and Rita Ora.

Liam headlines the Saturday night, playing after Foals and Keane. He said, “I love Scotland and It’s an honour to be going back to headline TRNSMT Festival,” he said. “P.s. Have I told you lately that I Love You?”

His latest, and second solo album ‘Why Me?, Why Not’, was released in September.