Major festivals tend to set the tone for fests more broadly, which is why it was such damning news when Ultra Music Festival and Coachella were among the first fests to change their 2020 plans. Festival organizers held out hope that events in 2021 would be viable options, but even that isn’t guaranteed.
Glastonbury canceled its 2020 fest early on and set new dates for between June 23 and June 27 of 2021. In August, Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis wasn’t sure about the status of the 2021 festival, saying, “The only certainty, I think, is the year after, 2022, to be perfectly candid.” Now, with the 2021 dates just about half a year away, organizers still aren’t sure if Glastonbury will be able to return for 2021.
In a new interview, organizer Emily Eavis told the BBC that a 2021 festival is still far from a guaranteed thing at this point:
“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.
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.”
She also noted that even if the festival doesn’t go on as planned, it’s possible they could still organize some livestreamed performances, saying, “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!”
Read the full interview here.