Glastonbury Festival 2021 has been cancelled for a second year running due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The news was announced on the Worthy Farm event's Twitter page.
Festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis said: "With great regret, we must announce that this year's Glastonbury Festival will not take place. And this will be another enforced fallow year for us.” They went on to say: “Tickets for this year will roll over to next year."
It came in the same week that the future of UK music was up for debate at a DCMS inquiry into streaming, and in Parliament regarding post-Brexit music touring visas. The full statement on the festival website read: "In spite of our efforts to move heaven and 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."
It confirmed that as with last year, anyone with a ticket will now be offered the opportunity to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, when the festival will hopefully resume. It had been due to take place in June 2021.
"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!"
On January 5 the government responded to a report by UK Music called Let the Music Play: Save Our Summer 2021, which outlined a range of measures that could help the industry get back up and running. They (the government) said: "We know these are challenging times for the live events sector and are working flat out to support it.
"Our £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund has already seen more than £1bn offered to arts, heritage and performance organisations to support them through the impact of the pandemic, protecting tens of thousands of creative jobs across the UK, including festivals such as Deer Shed Festival, End of the Road and Nozstock."
