it is definitely not due to public transport infrastructure
Thu 13th Mar 08
Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival 2008 Radiohead's Thom Yorke has cleared the air with festival organisers over that statement which was reported in 'The Sun' newspaper where Thom says, "My words were taken out of context and implied we were not playing Glastonbury because there was no public transport infrastructure. Well that's bollocks."
On his blog (here) Thom makes it clear that he had said they weren't playing Glastonbury, but not because of transport issues, "I also mentioned that we were not playing Glastonbury this year but were doing our own shows in London. Not because of transport issues but because the festival goers at Glastonbury were more than likely sick of the sight of us. It felt a little early to be doing it again, we felt as if we had only just played there."
The lead singer says that during his interview with the Sun, "which is owned by one of my least favourite people Rupert Murdoch" during the course of the interview he had been discussing the band's findings from a carbon footprint study and that the biggest shock had been all travel to the show by the audience. Thom adds, "As we have said before we are trying to concentrate as much as we can on playing places with some form of transport infrastructure other than cars.. and encouraging you lot as politely as we can without sounding preachy to consider car sharing if other things are not available."
Thom's blog also re-iterates what eFestivals reported about how hard Glastonbury Festival works to try and offer transport links to the festival, he says, "I have been talking to the Eavis's about this and apologised for any misunderstanding and they are totally cool with it. Today Emily & Michael sent me though some stuff about how they are trying to minimise car use as much as they can.. with buses and train trips etc. To be honest its pretty impressive. They have obviously been busting a gut about it. I wish more people were thinking as hard them."
The information is worth re-printing, as it makes for positive green reading.
Since 2004 Glastonbury Festival has worked hard to improve their impressive record in shifting people out of cars and onto public transport - reducing the number of public cars on site from 60,000 in 2000 to 36,000 in 2007.The headliners for the Pyramid Stage for 2008 have already been confirmed as Kings of Leon, Jay-Z and The Verve. With Editors, Goldfrapp, The Enemy, and The Fratellis also confirmed to play as well as CSS, at the Park Stage.
In 2007 Glastonbury festival was granted an increase in public attendance of 22,500 to a total of 177,500. The entire increase in the public attendance numbers were transported to the site by coaches.
Overall the festival has encouraged nearly a third of all public attending the event to come to the site on buses, trains, coaches and alternative forms of transport.
22,500 members of the public arrive by coach and rail packages
7,500 members of the public arrive on site by National Express coach services
1,500 people arrive on site using local bus services run by the festival to Glastonbury and Bristol
16000 people travel to and from the site using the free rail and ride link to the local station Castle Cary
A minimum of 47,500 people arriving on site by public transport as this does not include a number of coach companies carrying private groups to the site using the Glastonbury Bus Station.
In terms of the public attendance at the festival of 150,000 (public not staff and performers) this equates to nearly one third of the public getting to the festival using means other than cars. (This number does not include the 15 plus coaches arriving on site carrying the Oxfam staff and Workers Beer staff and other workers arriving on site using buses and coaches).
For an event in a rural area Glastonbury Festival is unrivalled in its planning and achievements in terms of moving the public away from cars onto public transport.
There have also been some self confirmations by Hot Chip, Duffy, Jimmy Cliff, Joan Armatrading, Solomon Burke, Leonard Cohen and British Sea Power. Plus, hotly tipped as appearing are Neil Diamond, Gilbert O'Sullivan, and Massive Attack. However none of these have been confirmed by the organisers.
The deadline for Glastonbury's pre-registration scheme ends tomorrow night, midnight on Friday 14th March.
Registration, involves filling in a simple form and supplying a passport photograph, and full details can be found at www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk. Forms are available on line or at any branch of Millets.
Please note that anyone who registered last year will still need to register again this year. Festival goers can now tick a box to enable their registration for this year's event to also be eligible to buy tickets in 2009 and 2010.
If you've registered for Glastonbury, then why not enter the eFestivals' competition to win yourself a pair of tickets here!
To get the best idea of the acts you'll see over all the stages at the festival in June make sure you keep an eye on our Glastonbury 2008 rumours, which will build up into the most comprehensive list available anywhere before the full line-up announcement is made at the beginning of June.
Tickets for Glastonbury will go on sale on 6 April, either online or through a free phone call from a normal landline.
Radiohead at Glastonbury 2003published: 12:12 (GMT)
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