An evening shot of Glastonbury 2011. Photo Credit: jaswooduk
Six months after Glastonbury was canceled for the second consecutive year, organizers have announced that their previously planned single-day event has also been shelved.
Emily Eavis – the daughter of Glastonbury co-founder Michael Eavis – revealed in an Instagram post that she and her team had opted to put the one-day mini-festival (dubbed Equinox) on ice “for a number of reasons.” The happening had been slated to take place in September, with local government officials having issued a permit for a maximum of 50,000 attendees. Additionally, the younger Eavis told The Guardian in May that the event had already filled out its lineup.
Though the precise cause of the cancellation remains unclear, Eavis signaled that she and the rest of the Glastonbury staff will now put “all of our energy into the campsite,” referring to the Worthy Pastures campground that’s set to open at Glastonbury’s site (Worthy Farm) this week. According to Worthy Pastures’ website, the “tranquil, family-friendly campsite” will look to “capture the essence of the Glastonbury Festival with its familiar style of signage, painted bins and décor,” complete with “the site’s famous landmarks” as well as “a range of on-site activities.”
Organizers have already pitched the campsite’s tents (guests are unable to bring their own), and notably, campers must book a three-night (or longer) visit, with a “two-person scout tent” setting customers back £199 (about $272 at the present exchange rate) for the shortest-allowed stay. “No amplified live entertainment” will be available, Worthy Pastures makes clear on its website, though guests will have access to a full-service bar, besides the above-mentioned activities.
The Equinox cancellation represents the latest in a recent cluster of COVID-related live-music setbacks, which might suggest that the return of concerts and music festivals could prove relatively difficult in certain areas.
To be sure, 1,000 COVID-19 cases have been traced to the Verknipt Festival – despite the fact that organizers required guests to show that they’d been vaccinated against or tested negative for the bug. (It’s unclear, it bears highlighting, whether these infections resulted from the festival itself or other activities; the mentioned COVID-19 tests had to have been administered sometime during the preceding 40 hours.)
Additionally, Bigsound organizers called off their music festival and conference earlier this week, citing continued (state-specific) lockdown restrictions throughout Australia as the reason for the cancellation. Notwithstanding this and other setbacks, however, Lollapalooza is scheduled to return in just eight days, with Bonnaroo expected to kick off in early September.
