Glastonbury "Still Quite A Long Way" From Confirming 2021 Event

Huge challenges remain...

*Glastonbury Festival* is "still quite a long way" from being able to confirm a 2021 event.

The historic UK festival was due to celebrate its 50th birthday this summer, but those plans were shelved due to the pandemic.

*Speaking to the BBC*, festival head Emily Eavis discussed the huge challenges in front of the Worthy Farm event.

Glastonbury is still some way from being in a position to outline its 2021 plans, but she did say: "I can't tell you how much we'd love to welcome everyone back to the farm! It's been way too quiet here this year and we want to get people back here as soon as we possibly can. Obviously the vaccine news in recent weeks has increased our chances, but I think we're still quite a long way from being able to say we're confident 2021 will go ahead."

The award-winning booker added: "We're doing everything we can on our end to plan and prepare, but there are still just so many unknowns and factors which are completely out of our control. What we definitely can't afford to risk is getting too far into the process of next year, only for it to be snatched away from us again. We lost millions this year, and we can't risk that happening again."

The question of government support for the live music sector has been a flashpoint in 2021, with Emily Eavis adding her thoughts:

"I think everyone - including government - wants there to be festivals next summer. But because of the huge uncertainty I just spoke about, and the fact that events take months to plan, there's a huge risk for organisers that they'll spend an awful lot of money and then see their events being cancelled for reasons completely outside of their control. And when those events go down, a huge number of jobs and livelihoods will disappear again too. So, for that reason, I would certainly love for the UK government to offer some kind of support for events in the case that they are forced to cancel."

So, could Glastonbury go digital in 2021? It remains a possibility. "We're actually looking into the possibility of streaming some things from here if we can't run the full show next year. We really want to get busy with planning some gigs - even if they're to be streamed!"

Find the full interview *HERE.*

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