Festival season is effectively shut down this year, so organizers have been getting their ducks in a row for their 2021 returns. Events like Rolling Loud, Mad Cool, and Outside Lands have started announcing their lineups for next year. Sadly for UK residents, though, the country’s biggest event may not have a 2021 lineup to announce soon, as it may not return next year at all.
Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis spoke about the future of the fest in a recent interview, and while he’s hopeful Glasto can come back in 2021, he seems pessimistic that will actually be the case.
He said, “500 people is OK, isn’t it? But my job, 250,000 altogether is too many people I suppose, isn’t it, really. I’m still hoping I’m going to be running next year and I’m going to be moving Heaven and Earth to make sure that we do. But that doesn’t mean it will necessarily happen. That is just wishful thinking, really.”
Eavis was asked if he worries about the fate of the fest beyond 2021, and he appears confident the event will return better than ever: “No, I do not worry at all, I am so confident that it will survive. The only certainty, I think, is the year after, 2022, to be perfectly candid, so we might have to wait for two years maybe. But I am still hoping and we are fighting and working at it all the time to make sure it happens next year. You can’t kill it off just like that. It will come back. It will come back, probably stronger, actually.”