Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis has told LBC he is considering holding a smaller event in September following the news of the festival's 2021 summer cancellation.
Eavis said he hoped to hold some kind of event later in the year to finally celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival.
"I would like to do something in September. I would like to do something smaller somewhere around the anniversary date of when we started, which was the 18th of September 1970. "I would like to consider possibly doing something around that time."
When asked if the artists confirmed to perform at Glastonbury 2021 would be involved (headliners Sir Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar were all due to perform), he answered: "Yes, but I do need to get reassurance from the ethics people."
Thinking ahead to the 2022 rescheduled festival he said:
"I just hope it's going to be the best we've ever done."
On making the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 festival, he said: “I'd been talking to the big-wigs at Imperial College day-by-day, and last night was the last straw when they said 'no, this is really not going to happen'."
Eavis said he previously hoped to run a smaller festival for 2021 with around 50,000 people, instead of the usual 200,000, but that idea "didn't bear any fruit".
Eavis also stated that he is "very confident" about the festival's future following previous fears that Glastonbury could go bankrupt.
Glastonbury Festival was cancelled for a second year running due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The news was announced on the Worthy Farm event's Twitter page.
The full statement read:
“With great regret, we must announce that this year’s Glastonbury Festival will not take place, and that this will be another enforced fallow year for us.
In spite of our efforts to move Heaven & Earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the Festival happen this year. We are so sorry to let you all down.
"As with last year, we would like to offer all those who secured a ticket in October 2019 the opportunity to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, and guarantee the chance to buy a ticket for Glastonbury 2022. We are very appreciative of the faith and trust placed in us by those of you with deposits, and we are very confident we can deliver something really special for us all in 2022!
"We thank you for your incredible continued support and let’s look forward to better times ahead. With love, Michael & Emily.”