Glastonbury Festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis have expressed fears in an interview with The Guardian that the beloved festival could face bankruptcy if not able to take place in 2021.
The UK government is going to need to step up and support the British arts more broadly. This country’s venues, theatres, festivals, performers and crew bring so much to this country financially and culturally, but they need support now. Otherwise, I think we face the very real possibility of so many aspects of our culture disappearing forever.
Emily Eavis
In an interview with The Guardian
The toll the pandemic has taken on the music industry, specifically the live music industry, has been unprecedented; quite frankly, the news seems to be getting worse each week.
With very little support for the arts and culture sectors in the majority of countries around the world in particular (even despite the urgent calls from music groups around the world for funding) it’s difficult to sugar-coat the severe toll COVID-19 has, and will continue to have, on the music industry for a long time. It’s important for us to try and remain positive as a community as we will be able to rebuild financially, but that may take quite some time and there will unfortunately be a lot of losses of venues and festivals in our wake.
Hopefully, that won’t be the case with the beloved Glastonbury Festival, one of the biggest and well-renowned festivals in the UK (and the world). Despite the unfortunate cancellation of this year’s 2020 festival, the Glastonbury team continue to commit to charitable causes when it comes to the environment, as well as social housing initiatives.
Unfortunately, despite their fantastic charitable work, in an interview with The Guardian: Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis have shared that if the festival cannot take place in 2021, they face “a very serious situation” in which the festival could see the reality of bankruptcy. Of course, cancelling a massive festival costs an outstanding amount of money – and if they are unable to recoup their 2020 losses next year and receive adequate financial support without the 2021 Glastonbury Festival taking place, they fear the worst.
However, Emily Eavis shared some positivity regarding the situation:
We’ve navigated choppy waters so many times. This festival has always evolved and found ways to survive, and I’m confident that we will again. Mutate to survive!
Emily Eavis
In an interview with Guardian
This is indeed true, and as dire as things may look right now for the music industry, human beings are experts at adapting to even the most tumultuous of situations and we can already see this playing out when it comes to our technological advances.
Read the full interview with The Guardian here.
Image: Glastonbury Metamorphosis show via Joe Green on Unsplash
