How many have we got left...?

[Glastonbury101]

I know this is going to be an unpopular question but I have realised that I can not attend the festival in 2017 and again in 2018 (because its the fallow year). From what we've read and heard, how likely do we think it is that there will be another in 2019 what with the 22 apparently difficult farmers they rent from, the threat of closing due to 'overpollution', becoming 'too commercial' etc.. I don't want to sound overly negative but the possibility of Glastonbury Festival (at Worthy Farm) ending is a subject that has been thrown about a lot in the past few years in the articles and interviews I've read. Despite this I would like to say that I do see that 2017 is unlikely to be the last but how many does everyone think we've got left after that? I'm certainly hoping for a fair few more.

Glastonbury101 (I couldn't think of a good name)

Edited July 2, 2016 by Glastonbury101
Error in title

[Guest]

Very negative post 

[rpfranks]

The fallow year is 2019 now - that's when they'll be trying to use Longleat

Can't see it ending any time soon. 

[Glastonbury101]

Just want to stress - I am in no way hoping for it to end I'm just suffering from post-glastonbury blues and want to be reassured that it wont end!!!

LongLiveGlasto ahah

Edited July 2, 2016 by Glastonbury101
Awful grammar

[FloorFiller]

8 minutes ago, rpfranks said:

The fallow year is 2019 now - that's when they'll be trying to use Longleat

Can't see it ending any time soon. 

is that a fact? not really been keeping up with all this Glastonbury moving business. was still under the impression it was 2018

[Avalon_Fields]

11 minutes ago, FloorFiller said:

is that a fact? not really been keeping up with all this Glastonbury moving business. was still under the impression it was 2018

That was my understanding too. 

[gsansom]

The Glasto press on Sunday had eavis saying he won't be resting the festival for at least the next 2 years and Longleat is on the backburner as they visited last weekend and "weren't impressed "

[arcade fireman]

Emigrating to Australia for good at the end of 2018 so next year will be my last for a long time.

[FloorFiller]

14 minutes ago, gsansom said:

The Glasto press on Sunday had eavis saying he won't be resting the festival for at least the next 2 years and Longleat is on the backburner as they visited last weekend and "weren't impressed "

interesting! as much as i love the place a part of me was kind of hoping to have a rest from it in 2018 (although that's just the post-festival blues/comedown talking more than anything. i'm sure i'll miss it greatly when the fallow year finally comes)

[rpfranks]

49 minutes ago, FloorFiller said:

is that a fact? not really been keeping up with all this Glastonbury moving business. was still under the impression it was 2018

yeah - think it was in the Guardian, Eavis said they're trying to do something with Longleat for 2019 now but they visited on the weekend and were not too impressed.

[The_Wiseman]

Lets hope it will be back in Worthy for the 50th anniversary in 2020 that is a milestone they need to make happen regardless....

[stuartbert two hats]

14 minutes ago, rpfranks said:

yeah - think it was in the Guardian, Eavis said they're trying to do something with Longleat for 2019 now but they visited on the weekend and were not too impressed.

Doesn't that mean that they might have the fallow in 2018 anyway since they might not be able to make the move for 2019?

[FloorFiller]

17 minutes ago, rpfranks said:

yeah - think it was in the Guardian, Eavis said they're trying to do something with Longleat for 2019 now but they visited on the weekend and were not too impressed.

they certainly chose a bad year to visit/assess the festival what with the mud etc. although i don't blame them - any site the festival is on is gonna be fucked for a good while after the festival has taken place

Edited July 2, 2016 by FloorFiller

[johnomatic]

Maybe I'm just being optimistic but I suspect all this worrying over it finishing in the next few years is going to come to nothing. Michael has been making comments like 'it might only last a couple more years' for a very long time now but other than the occasional 'the farmers are being unreasonable' or 'we might try an event somewhere else' I don't really see why it *should* finish up anytime soon, unless of course Michael and Emily want it to. Personally I buy into the theory that someone came up with that Michael is just trying to warn his neighbours off pushing their luck.

[Charm]

I think Glastonbury will continue well in to the future, Emily seems to be very passionate about it and because of that I'm sure there will be many happy festivals for us to enjoy in the years to come, no need to worry. 
Charm x

[Lucy92]

An interesting aside thought, do you think they'd ever let someone else take it on? 

[Al2006]

any sources for this fallow year stuff?

[budvar]

As Neil said a while ago Michael is doing everything he can to stretch the gaps between fallow years. The London Olympics helped, giving him a good excuse for 2012 rather than 2011 and now he seems to have made it known that 2019 will be the next but that they're looking for alternative options. Having "experienced" two fallow years I'm all in favour of them being rare, but understand that the locals probably feel very differently. FWIW I fully expect the festival to keep going for years to come.

[incident]

I think it'll certainly make it to the 50th anniversary in 2020.

What happens beyond that I'm much less confident about - but for me the question isn't so much whether the festival continues or not, it's what form it's able to continue in. Apart from pissing on the land, none of the various issues facing the Festival are - in themselves - likely to kill it outright, but they could certainly change it in (from our perspective) negative ways.

I do think it's only a matter of time before, for example, on site car parking is dramatically reduced and instead car parks are strategically located next the M5 / M4 / A303 with a shuttle bus service running to them. I also think it's pretty likely that volume limits are further reduced, especially after midnight.

[justperfect]

I'm guessing  (and I'm here to be put right) that the awkward farmers who rent the land out during the festival make more money out of cars being parked on their land for for 1 week of the year than any livestock could in the other 51.

 

What I'm getting at is they might be moaning now, i bet they're not when the big fat Gregory lands on the door mat in a few months time or when they're renegotiating for not year

Edited July 2, 2016 by justperfect

[incident]

1 minute ago, justperfect said:

I'm guessing  (and I'm here to be put right) that the awkward farmers who rent the land out during the festival make more money out of cars being parked on their land for for 1 week of the year than any livestock could in the other 51

That's almost certainly true, but it's kind of beside the point. Public Car Parking is only one of many potential uses of those fields and there's an ever increasing pressure on land use.

For example, it's even more lucrative (with less potential damage to the land) to put up a few yurts and charge stupid people 2,000 quid a head to stay in them. Land outside the fence are also needed for Staff Camping, for Production Parking (which can't  be shuttled off site quite as easily), access routes, etc.

If the current trend of fewer and fewer fields (adjacent to the site) being available to the Festival continues, then something has to give, and of all the things outside the fence that could be moved further afield, first Public Car Parking and then Campervans are the easiest problem to solve - especially when you factor in traffic issues - after 2009 the Festival came under huge pressure to make signfiicant changes, which they did. It's fairly likely there'll be more pressure this year. So putting a huge Park & Ride next to the M5 and shuttling people in would help on both counts.

[EasyUserName]

2 hours ago, arcade fireman said:

Emigrating to Australia for good at the end of 2018 so next year will be my last for a long time.

You can always fly back!

[Guest]

2 hours ago, gsansom said:

The Glasto press on Sunday had eavis saying he won't be resting the festival for at least the next 2 years and Longleat is on the backburner as they visited last weekend and "weren't impressed "

Anyone glad they weren't impressed?

[EasyUserName]

17 minutes ago, incident said:

 ... If the current trend of fewer and fewer fields (adjacent to the site) being available to the Festival continues, then something has to give, and of all the things outside the fence that could be moved further afield, first Public Car Parking and then Campervans are the easiest problem to solve  ...

I'd put Campervans on top of the list, after this year.  After all, Bath & West Showgrounds handled things well (from the feedback I have read) with no planning.  Imagine if everyone was sent there instead as a proper plan?

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

10 minutes ago, incident said:

That's almost certainly true, but it's kind of beside the point. Public Car Parking is only one of many potential uses of those fields and there's an ever increasing pressure on land use.

For example, it's even more lucrative (with less potential damage to the land) to put up a few yurts and charge stupid people 2,000 quid a head to stay in them. Land outside the fence are also needed for Staff Camping, for Production Parking (which can't  be shuttled off site quite as easily), access routes, etc.

If the current trend of fewer and fewer fields (adjacent to the site) being available to the Festival continues, then something has to give, and of all the things outside the fence that could be moved further afield, first Public Car Parking and then Campervans are the easiest problem to solve - especially when you factor in traffic issues - after 2009 the Festival came under huge pressure to make signfiicant changes, which they did. It's fairly likely there'll be more pressure this year. So putting a huge Park & Ride next to the M5 and shuttling people in would help on both counts.

While this is true, there has to be a saturation point for glamping? Yes there is clearly demand but by no means can 135k people afford or even want to go down this route. The more farmers that find themselves doing this the more risk there is that they cannot sell all their yurts and actually lose money due to the over heads (buying/renting yurts etc) I guess however it may be more of a case of a third party approaching the farmer and offering them £xxxxx for their field for the week. I would assume for a lot of the farmers its more attractive and less hassle for gfl to give them a wad of cash to have some cars parked on their field for a week.

As far as the festival goes I personally feel it will go on indefinitely, anything that comes out of the organisers mouths is just with a view to threatening people trying to squeeze them, it is a cash cow for everybody around it and one way or another solutions and compromises will be made to make it happen.

On the point of the fallow year I do actually think its a shame its now possibly not going to be 2018. I think the festival needs a break soon and needs a chance to think about headliners and reinventing things like the south east corner, potentially though the stretching out of the fallow years is a move to appease the neighbouring land owners and keep the cash flowing? Which kind of supports the fact that the festival will continue one way or the other because they each need one and other.