Britain’s biggest music event won’t take place for a second year in a row. The decision has sent shock waves across Europe, where festivals have already been asking politicians for help.
Britain’s Glastonbury festival, one of the world’s most prominent pop music events, was canceled on Thursday for a second year in a row because of the coronavirus — sparking fear that large music festivals in Europe will not go ahead this summer. “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,” Michael and Emily Eavis, the festival’s organizers, said in a joint statement on Thursday. “We are so sorry to let you all down.” Glastonbury is Britain’s largest pop event, held each June at the Eavis’s farm in Pilton, southwest England. About 210,000 people would have attended this year, camping at the site for several days. (The farm’s cows are moved off site for the festival.) The announcement came as coronavirus deaths are soaring in England, which is in its third national lockdown. Some 1,820 daily deaths were announced on Wednesday. On Thursday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters it was “too early” to say when lockdown restrictions would be eased. For weeks, Glastonbury’s organizers had been warning that the festival was at risk of cancellation because of uncertainties around the pandemic, with insurers unwilling to provide cover. In December, Emily Eavis did a string of interviews with British news organizations in which she asked the government to create its own insurance scheme to cover costs if a last-minute cancellation became necessary. “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,” she told the BBC.
