With the lights turned out on Glastonbury 2020 and growing uncertainty regarding next year’s festival season, organizers Michael and Emily Eavis worry that the iconic UK festival could face bankruptcy.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Michael Eavis bluntly stated, “[2021] has to happen for us, we have to carry on. Otherwise it will be curtains. I don’t think we could wait another year.” Like many events in music, Glastonbury uses the profits from one year’s festival to fund the next, a formula that’s proving to be unsurprisingly vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In noting the hefty sum of money lost in canceling this 2020’s event, which was posed to be Glastonbury’s 50th year anniversary, Emily Eavis calls on the UK government to walk-the-walk and show more support Britain’s crippled music industry.
“This country’s venues, theatres, festivals, performers and crew bring so much to this country financially and culturally, but they need support now.” Eavis continued, “Otherwise, I think we face the very real possibility of so many aspects of our culture disappearing forever.”
However uncertain, the marquee UK festival is still drumming up contingency plans for how 2021 could happen, including pre-festival testing for all attending and on-site mobile tracing of contact between those in the audience.
Via: The Guardian
Featured image: James Hines
