Glastonbury organisers granted licence for one-day festival in September, Equinox

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Glastonbury has been granted permission to hold a one-day festival this year.

In January, the Somerset festival announced it was officially cancelled for 2021 due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. Two months later, co-organiser Emily Eavis revealed that they had applied for a licence to hold a smaller event on the Worthy Farm site this year. 

Now, Mendip District Council have authorised the festival to host a 50,000 capacity, non-camping event called Equinox in September. It will be held solely at the iconic Pyramid Stage. While the event is to be fully confirmed pending further developments, Emily Eavis said it would essentially be a bigger version of the Pilton Party, Glastonbury annual “thank you” fundraising gig for villagers, workers and local people.

Speaking to BBC 6 Music’s Matt Everitt, Eavis added: “We are going to throw everything at 2022. The light is coming in. We’re able to move out of this very awkward time and plan to be back in fields again and to be watching live music and camping for five days outside with 200,000 other people. That is now a possibility and it’s looking highly likely that that will happen next year. So we’re booking bands for that [now]. It’s hugely reassuring to be able to actually plan something that might happen.”

Sam Phripp, Mendip council’s chair of licensing 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.”