The organisers of the UK’s biggest music festival, Glastonbury, have announced that this year’s event will be cancelled due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“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,” wrote Michael and Emily Eavis in their announcement yesterday. In truth, it’s not a surprise – and not just because Spice Girl Mel B had let slip out the cancellation news earlier this month in an interview.
Given the current state of Covid-19 infections and deaths in the UK, and the still-early rollout of vaccines, running a festival for more than 200,000 people in June is hard to imagine.
Glastonbury’s cancellation has huge knock-on effects too: for the artists who would have played; and for other festivals in the UK and elsewhere in the world exploring ways to run (and get insurance to run) this summer.
Glastonbury is a different kettle of fish from smaller boutique festivals, which are still optimistic, but the cancellation is a reminder that 2021 is unlikely to be a year in which the live industry gets ‘back to normal’ – whatever normal means in the post-Covid world.
Image by By Dusan Petkovic / Shutterstock.com
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