Thom Yorke turns blind eye to Glastonbury's transport policies

You have to wonder how Radiohead's Thom Yorke has travelled to Glastonbury in the past, not by bus or train. The media is awash with Yorke's revelations in The Sun (here) that Radiohead aren't playing Glastonbury this year because of the lack of a local transport infrastructure around the festival site.

Thom said, "What we're trying to do now is only play in areas that have a public transport infrastructure in place. So that rules out Glastonbury for this year. Maybe we can work out a plan for the future. They’re probably sick of the sight of us anyway."

That must come as a bit of a shock to festival organisers, who have for at least the last twenty years provided free buses from the local train station at Castle Cary. There are also shuttle bus services from Wells, Shepton Mallet, Bath, Bristol and Glastonbury Town for ticket holders. Glastonbury even takes over the Bath and West Showground converting it into a bus station.

First Great Western and Wessex Trains both put on special services from London Paddington/Reading and Swindon/Westbury direct to Castle Cary as well as the normal service trains for years and there will be special train services provided again in 2008.

The Festival also ensured that last year 22,500 tickets would only be used with coaches, that's around 20% of attendees. The festival has also promoted lift share for years. All these measures surely mean Glastonbury actually has one of the longest running and successful transport structures of any festival in the country.

It seems strange that on the back of this Thom and pals played V in 2006. V the festival that to date appears not too bothered by green issues!

Thom made his bizarre statement while promoting the Big Ask Europe campaign in Brussels yesterday. He explained: "One of the conditions of the band carrying on touring is that we do everything we can to minimise our impact on the environment."

How does Thom and company justify the impact of so many people's travel miles to come from all over the country to see Radiohead. Surely there would be less environmental impact if the band played lots of small local shows, so fans around the country would be travelling shorter distances on local public transport to see them. The reason Radiohead aren't putting on a nationwide tour of 20 smaller dates around the country probably comes down to cost rather than carbon footprints. Surely having only the band travelling around to shows would be even better for carbon emissions?

Latest Updates