Glastonbury festival will return in September – but only 50,000 fans will be allowed back
GLASTONBURY Festival will go ahead in September with 50,000 lucky fans for a special one-day event.
The Somerset festival has had its licence approved for the day at Worthy Farm - but there won't be a campsite this year.
Organisers had been forced to cancel the annual five-day extravaganza TWICE due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
It was first set to take place last summer, before being postponed to 2021, then ultimately cancelled.
In its place, they'd organised an online streaming event for this weekend, which will take place at the usual site but with no audience.
The likes of Coldplay, George Ezra, and Damon Albarn are set to perform.
It will now be used as the perfect opportunity to whet music-lovers' appetite - with Mendip council's chair of licencing Sam Phripp warning that they will still need to ensure the September event is Covid-safe.
They said: "Any event would have to be Covid-safe, and Mendip will work with other organisations and the organisers to make sure that’s the case."
Organiser Emily Eavis, who runs the famous festival with her dad Michael, first teased the chance of a smaller event back in March.
Writing on Instagram, she said at the time: "For those asking for an update on our plans later this year.
"We have put an application in for a licence for a concert at the farm in September (around the time we'd usually do Pilton Party).
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"Of course, we've no idea yet whether we'll able to do that, but we wanted to get the application in to be in with a chance."
The pair had previously promised 2020 ticket-holders that their tickets will be valid for the festival when it finally happens, hopefully in 2022.
It is currently not known if they will now have priority to the 50,000 tickets for September - but this is just a fraction of the 135,000 spots sold.
The line-up is also yet to be confirmed, with Kendrick Lamar, Paul McCartney, and Taylor Swift all previously secured to headline the three nights of music scheduled in 2020.