Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis has defended the decision to have Metallica headline the festival this year. There has been growing opposition regarding Metallica performing at the festival by festival-goers who don’t feel a heavy metal band is an appropriate headliner and animal activists who disagree with band member James Hetfield’s association with bear-hunting.

Michael Eavis Metallica Dairy farmer and festival founder Michael Eavis has defended the decision to have Metallica headline the festival

Eavis has not been put off by either of these factors and has maintained he is “looking forward to seeing them.” He continued: “We have been going for so long that people don’t expect us to put on a heavy metal band. We had Rage Against The Machine and we have had lots of fairly heavy metal bands in the past but this is not a typical headline. We usually have bands like Radiohead, Coldplay and U2, the Rolling Stones, but I am really looking forward to them.”

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Eavis added: “There’s no other band in the whole history of the festival that has been so keen to play, they will do the best set of their lives here.”

Michael Eavis MetallicaEavis maintains that Metallica will "do the best set of their lives" at the festival

A polar bear, which last year was a feature at the Greenpeace Area, was positioned at the entrance to the site when it was discovered Hetfield was involved with bear-hunting. Eavis said: “There was this boo-ha about the lead singer of Metallica going bear-hunting. He said they were only killing bears that were dangerous to life, I don’t know the truth behind that whole saga but one of the team put it there after that. It wasn’t me.”

Glastonbury Festival kicks off on June 25 and closes on June 29.

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