Emily Eavis shares when Glastonbury Festival’s next ‘fallow year’ will likely be

Virgin Radio

10 Jun 2024, 10:32

With this year’s Glastonbury just around the corner, co-organiser Emily Eavis is looking to the future, and has revealed when the festival might next take a year off.

This year’s Glasto returns to Worthy Farm on 26th June, and will see Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and SZA headline, while Shania Twain will fill the coveted legends slot. 

Planning ahead, Eavis has explained that she has a “vague idea” who might headline next year, and has also suggested that there might be a fallow year in 2026. 

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Speaking to Annie MacManus and Nick Grimshaw on the BBC's Sidetracked podcast, the festival organiser explained: “We are due a fallow year. The fallow year is important because it gives the land a rest, and it gives the cows a chance to stay out for longer and reclaim their land.

“I think it’s important, I think it gives everybody time to just switch off and the public as well. Then you kind of go away for a bit and it feels lovely when you come back.”

She added: “And I think it’s quite good not to be seen to be cashing in.”

The last time the festival had an official fallow year was in 2018.

Eavis also revealed that her father, Sir Michael Eavis, had planned to pull the plug on the festival back in the 1990s.

The Glastonbury founder started the festival on his Somerset farm back in 1970, and it subsequently became one of the biggest festivals in the world. However, by the 90s, Michael Eavis was up for calling it a day. “My parents were always like, ‘This is the last one',” she said.

“Everyone thought it was some sort of stunt to sell tickets but it wasn’t. They were genuinely like, ‘Well, we probably won’t do another.'”

However, when Michael’s wife, Jean, died in 1999, the festival went from being renewed yearly to a permanent fixture. “My dad was like, ‘Oh, I think I might need the festival now’, because they were going to retire and go on long cruises and things like that.

She added: “My dad was like, ‘Listen, let's keep it going.’”

Glastonbury Festival 2024 will take place at Worthy Farm in Somerset from 26th to 30th June 2024.