Glastonbury 96 cancelled

[Martyn White]

The Electronic Telegraph  Thursday 4 January 1996  Home News

 [Home News]

Glastonbury gives pop a miss for '96

By Colin Randall

THERE will be no Glastonbury pop festival this year, much to the relief of
the Somerset villagers.

But the farmer who has run Europe's biggest open-air event of its kind for
25 years said yesterday that his decision had nothing to do with his hopes
of becoming a local Labour MP.

Insisting that the festival would return in 1997, Michael Eavis said: "We
want a rest for the farm and family, the cows and the village. We need to
pause and let people go somewhere else."

Mr Eavis, 60, of Worthy Farm, Pilton, is prospective candidate for the
cathedral city of Wells, in which Labour trailed in third place, 22,000
votes behind the Tories, in 1992.

He said that Labour supporters had assured him that his popularity would
increase by running the festival this year - a possible election year.

He hoped that a festival-free year would enable talks to be held on
increasing the official daily attendance limit, invariably breached by
thousands of gatecrashers, from 80,000 to at least 100,000. Ann Goode, 64,
whose 10-acre garden adjoins the site, welcomed the respite, but called for
the event to be abandoned.

Mr Eavis's decision will disappoint charities and campaigns which benefit
from his donations from festival receipts.

Peter Gold, the prospective Liberal Democrat candidate, said: "I wonder
whether new Labour would not want a prospective parliamentary candidate
involved with Glastonbury in a possible election year."

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