Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis says “smaller” festival could take place in September

Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis has said that a “smaller” edition of the festival could take place in September.

After announcing another forced fallow year for Glastonbury amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, festival founder Michael Eavis has said that a smaller-scale edition of the Somerset festival could take place later this year. 

Speaking on LBC last week, Eavis told hosts that he and the team behind Glastonbury were considering staging some autumn events. “I would like to do something smaller somewhere around the anniversary date of when we started, which was the 18th of September in 1970” he said, speaking about potentially holding an event this year, “and I would like to consider possibly doing something around that time.”

Last week, Festival Co-organiser Emily Eavis said that the team were still working on Glastonbury-related projects for this year, including possible livestreamed events. “A lot of big artists have been in touch offering to perform for us at the farm, so we’re doing everything we can to make that happen. We would love to build a show that can be watched at home by people all over the world, and of course it would be a useful way for us to make some very welcome income.”

Glastonbury has been among the most vocal forces calling for UK government support with coronavirus insurance to help protect against cancellations and postponements this summer. As of Tuesday 5th January, the UK has gone back into a national lockdown which will run until mid-February at the earliest in a bid to curb surging COVID-19 infections. Elsewhere, in New Zealand tens of thousands have been attending festivals as life continues to return to something like normality, with new cases of the virus now numbering less than 80 across the country.