Glastonbury 2018: Why there won't be a festival next year

Organisers are preparing to also launch a new, separate event titled The Variety Bazaar in coming years

Glastonbury Festival has come to an end once again, but revellers will have to wait until 2019 for the next one.

Michael Eavis confirmed that his five-day music event will take a gap year in 2018, what they call a “fallow year,” to give the dairy farm in Somerset time to recuperate from the damage.

This occurs every six years, “in order to give the farm, the village and the festival team the traditional year off,” but the organiser said they would break tradition if one mysterious band agreed to perform.

The Glastonbury founder told The Guardian that, “there’s one band I want to re-form – if they re-form, I’ll change my mind,” and it’s not One Direction.

There had been reports of the festival moving from Worthy Farm to another location because the organisers had struggled to to agree terms with the 22 landowners it takes place on. However, Emily Eavis - Michael’s daughter and organiser - confirmed that Glastonbury was all set to return in 2019.

The Eavises have also announced plans to launch another event, The Variety Bazaar, at an undisclosed location but with the same team behind Glastonbury. This is not a replacement for the 47-year-old festival but a new venture that Michael has described as “the last big gamble of my life.”

He told the Glastonbury Free Press: “We have no plans to stop doing [Glastonbury at Worthy Farm], but we want to try something in another location away from the farm, possibly in 2021.”

“It’s still very much in the planning stages, but we’ve got to be brave enough to have a go.”

Read more of our Glastonbury 2017 coverage here.