Michael Eavis has given a glimmer of hope to Glastonbury fans by revealing he is hoping to hold a “smaller” event in September after calling off this year’s festival.
The 2021 event, which was due to take place in June, has been axed for the second year running due to the coronavirus pandemic, devastating festival-goers when the news was announced on Thursday.
And while a full-scale Glastonbury now won’t be going ahead until at least 2022, organiser Michael has revealed potential plans for a different live event later this year.
Appearing on LBC on Thursday night, Michael, who organises Glastonbury with daughter Emily, said: “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 in 1970, and I would like to consider possibly doing something around that time.”
After presenter Tom Swarbrick suggested he could get some of the artists originally lined up to play Glastonbury this year to perform, Michael continued: “Yeah, but I do need to get reassurance from the ethics people and everything.”
Michael also revealed that the decision to call off this year’s festival came after conversations he had with health experts at Imperial College London, who told him there was no real chance it would be able to go ahead.
Asked if the planned 2022 event would be the “biggest ever”, Michael added: “I just hope it’s going to be the best we’ve ever done.”
Announcing the cancellation of Glastonbury 2021 on Thursday, Michael and Emily said in a statement: “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 sorry to let you all down.”
They added that “tickets for this year will roll over to next year”, and thanked those who had already paid deposits for their “faith and trust placed in us”.
“We are very confident we can deliver something really special for us all in 2022,” they said.
Rapper Kendrick Lamar, Beatles star Paul McCartney and chart-topping singer Taylor Swift had all been booked to headline Glastonbury’s 50th anniversary festival last year, before the event was eventually scrapped.