Glastonbury postponed for a year – and misses its 50th milestone
GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL has been postponed until next year, organisers confirmed yesterday, as the entertainment industry was plunged into a deepening crisis due to the pandemic.
The music festival, due to celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, is among a long list of highprofile events pushed back or cancelled due to coronavirus.
Michael and Emily Eavis, the organisers, confirmed that tickets for this year would roll over into 2021.
A statement said: “Clearly this was not a course of action we hoped to take for our 50th anniversary event but following the new Government measures announced this week – and in times of such unprecedented uncertainty – this is now our only viable option.”
The postponement follows updated guidance from the Government, calling on people to stay away from pubs, clubs and theatres and to avoid all non-essential contacts and travel.
Greenpeace, which alongside Oxfam and WaterAid receives donations from the festival after each event, praised Glastonbury for doing “the responsible thing”.
Last week, US rapper Kendrick Lamar was announced as
JAM-PACKED: the third headliner, joining Taylor Swift and Sir Paul McCartney, with Diana Ross due to play the Sunday “legend” slot.
Other music acts on the lineup included Dua Lipa, Camila Cabello and Pet Shop Boys, as well as rockers Sam Fender, Blossoms, Haim and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
Meanwhile, filming of EastEnders and top BBC dramas has been halted amid the coronavirus outbreak – as plans for “virtual church services” and older-age exercise routines were unveiled by the broadcaster.
All BBC Studios’ continuing dramas, including Casualty, Doctors, Holby City, River City and Welsh series Pobol y Cwm, will have filming suspended.
EastEnders fans will still be able to get their fix of Walford from episodes already filmed. But television bosses will air just two episodes of the soap a week to make them last as long as possible.
Production on the long-running soap opera, the writing and planning, will continue.
ITV soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale have not announced plans to suspend filming but will drop the number of episodes. The announcement came as BBC Director-General Tony Hall unveiled “a series of changes to our output”, with “special programming and content,” saying the BBC had a “special role to play at this time of national need”.
The Who, Madonna and Miley Cyrus have cancelled live dates due to the Covid-19 outbreak, while festivals such as Coachella and Stagecoach in the US have been postponed or called off.
In the UK, Radio 1’s Big Weekend is among the other big music events called off by organisers.
The event, which had Biffy Clyro, Harry Styles and Cabello on the line-up, was due to take place in Dundee from May 22 to 24.
In Hollywood, Disney announced it was shutting down production on many of its liveaction films, including The Little Mermaid.
The studio also delayed the release of a blockbuster remake of Mulan, which had been due to arrive in UK cinemas on March 27.
Other film releases postponed include A Quiet Place II and Fast And Furious 9, as well as the upcoming James Bond movie No Time To Die, which has been pushed back to November, having originally been set to arrive in April.