Michael Eavis

Glastonbury Festival is conspicuous by its absence from the calendar of the British summer of 2018. However, its organiser Emily Eavis revealed that a significant plan is afoot for when the prestigious festival returns next year, announcing that the use of plastic bottles will be outlawed.

Attending the NME Awards in London on Tuesday night (February 14th), where Glasto won the Best Festival Award, Eavis told The Mirror: “Our big mission for next year is banning plastic bottles. We’re in the middle of it at the moment.”

Despite requests to leave the campsite as clean as possible, approximately one million plastic bottles are used and abandoned at the festival site during its five-day run when it is held. Over half of the waste left over at the site is recycled each festival, adding up to 85 tonnes of cans and plastic in 2014 alone.

Continue reading: Emily Eavis Announces Plastic Bottle Ban From Glastonbury Festival In 2019

This year’s Glastonbury will feature a venue open to women only for the first time in the festival’s history. Named The Sisterhood, the space will be hidden in the festival’s Shangri-La area and is described as an "intersectional, queer, trans and disability-inclusive space open to all people who identify as women".

Program and line up will be revealed shortly on our FB page! https://t.co/yZgH9Ci901 #sisterhoodshangrila pic.twitter.com/qglbGTcKmR

— The Sisterhood (@join_sisterhood) 4 June 2016

Continue reading: Glastonbury 2016 To Have First Women Only Venue The Sisterhood

Tickets for next year's Glastonbury Festival have sold out in just 30 minutes. The 118,200 standard tickets went on sale at 9am on Sunday morning (October 4th), at a price of £228 plus £5 booking fee, with eager fans rushing to snap them up in just half an hour.

Coldplay are among the favourites to headline Glastonbury 2016.

A spokesperson for the festival told the BBC, "We have, once again, been staggered by the sheer number of people from around the world who hoped to come to the festival, with demand significantly outstripping supply."

Continue reading: Glastonbury 2016 Tickets Sell Out In Just 30 Minutes

Could the Glastonbury Festival one day be moving to London? An idea to temporarily relocate the legendary festival has been floated by Labour MP Gareth Thomas, who has suggested that the British capital would host it for one year in 2023 if London won the bid for European Capital of Culture.

Thomas, the MP for Harrow West, is campaigning to be selected as the party’s mayoral candidate. He suggested that Epping Forest or Hackney Marshes could be considered as one-off site for the festival, according to a report by The Independent.

He would push for a special edition of Glastonbury as part of a series of “pop-up” arts and culture events throughout London, even the outskirts, during 2023, if he were elected as Mayor.

Continue reading: Could Glastonbury Be Moving To London?

China has issued a warning to the Glastonbury Festival organisers over their booking of the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan spiritual leader is to give a talk at this weekend's festival to promote a message of "compassion, non-violence and the oneness of humanity."

Dalai Lama's booking at the Glastonbury Festival has caused a stir in China

However, officials in China have warned that the Eavises' booking is tantamount to offering the Dalai Lama a platform to "engage in anti-China splittist activities," Reuters reports. The leader is not scheduled to meet with officials in Britain, though China nevertheless is concerned that he may be intent on promoting his wish for an autonomous Tibet in the UK.

Continue reading: China Issues Warning To Glastonbury Festival Over Dalai Lama

Glastonbury has become one of the key dates in Britain’s social calendar over the last ten years, but a major shake-up of the festival could be on the horizon. Michael Eavis, the founder and organiser of the annual musical celebration, has admitted that it may have to move location in the future.

With just a week to go until the 2015 edition, which will see headline performances by Florence + The Machine, Kanye West and The Who, 79 year old Eavis told Sky News on Friday (June 19th) that he does not own the entire site and, as a result, is finding it increasingly difficult to get the requisite commissions to stage the event each year.

Michael Eavis admits Glastonbury may have to re-locate in the future

Continue reading: Glastonbury May Have To Move Site In The Future, Says Michael Eavis

With a little under a month to go before it kicks off, probably the most talked-about thing about Glastonbury 2015 has been the booking of Kanye West for the Saturday night headline slot. In a new interview, the festival’s chief organiser Emily Eavis has revealed that she has received death threats as a result.

Speaking with The Times, Eavis, 36, who runs the festival with her father Michael, stood proudly by their decision to book the rapper to headline the Pyramid Stage, but said that some of the abuse they’ve received has been “just horrible”.

Michael and Emily Eavis, the father-daughter team behind Glastonbury

Continue reading: Glastonbury's Emily Eavis Reveals She Received Death Threats Over Kanye Booking

Michael Eavis, the founder of the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Arts, says he has booked three "excellent headliners" for 2015 though confirmed that Fleetwood Mac were not available. The legendary rock band have been the strong favorites to headline the festival next year, though Eavis debunked the speculation, also going on record as saying Queen are not in his thoughts, either.

Michael Eavis has confirmed that all three Glastonbury headliners are now booked, but that they do not include Fleetwood Mac or Queen

"Queen? Not Queen, no. Fleetwood Mac don't seem to be available at the moment. But we've got three excellent headliners for next year," he said, during an interview with Music Week. Pushed on his bookings, Eavis, 79, teased that one of the headline acts had "been around for a long time."

Continue reading: Michael Eavis Books Headliners For Glastonbury 2015 (It's Not Fleetwood Mac)

Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis has paid tribute to former Labour politician Tony Benn, whom he described as a "friend of the festival." Benn died in March after making regular appearances at the festival, appearing at the Left Field political forum.

Tony Benn died in March

"What a fantastic fellow," said Eavis. "Highly principled. A conviction politician. He didn't do what was popular, he did what was right.

Continue reading: Michael Eavis Pays Tribute To Tony Benn At Glastonbury Festival

The well-trodden fields of Worthy Farm will be privy to live music, stabbed by tent pegs and defecated on for another decade thanks to Glastonbury Festival’s new 10-year license, ensuring the world-famous annual weekend get-together will run on.

Glastonbury revellers having a whale of a time

The festival attracts 135,000+ visitors nearly every year to the South West of England, in Somerset, where the world’s biggest stars enjoy the sunshine/endure the mud playing huge headline sets and intimate gigs in any of the myriad stages on offer.

Continue reading: Ten More Years! Glastonbury Festival Gets License For Another Decade