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Thursday, 4 January, 2001, 18:52 GMT
Glastonbury 2001 cancelled
![]() Fence-jumpers are a common sight at the festival
The 2001 Glastonbury Festival has been cancelled by organiser Michael Eavis because of safety fears.
Disclaimer: The BBC will put up as many of your comments as possible but we cannot guarantee that all e-mails will be published. The BBC reserves the right to edit comments that are published.Mr Eavis, who held the first festival on his land at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset in 1970, is being prosecuted by the local Mendip District Council over an alleged breach of the event's licence. The festival, headlined by David Bowie last year, has become one of the biggest events in the British music calendar.
He said he had taken the decision after "much deliberation and consultation". Three reasons were cited for the cancellation:
"People will have to understand that the growing culture of fence-hopping has to be stopped and the long-term prospects for the festival will depend on us succeeding," Mr Eavis said. Last year's event was criticised after a large number of people got into the event without paying by climbing fences surrounding the site, and Mr Eavis had earlier promised to build a "super fence" around the site - which is also a working dairy farm - for this year's event.
The coming months would be used to develop ways and means of controlling entry to the site effectively, he added. He told BBC News 24: "It is my own decision, but the police were really worried about the Roskilde problem and we were under great pressure to make lots and lots of changes in order to have more effective control of the numbers.
He said a working party had been formed to resolve the issue of excessive numbers, but there was not the time to implement recommendations for this year's event. "We need time to convince the police that we know what we're doing and that we have the management skills to run this thing properly," he said. Since 1981, the festival has only been cancelled three times - in 1988, 1991 and 1996. Some of the UK's best-known charities will also be hit by Glastonbury's cancellation.
Both Oxfam and WaterAid told BBC News Online they were "disappointed" with Glastonbury's cancellation. A spokeswoman for WaterAid, which raises money to provide clean water and sanitation facilities in the developing world, added: "We are proud to have been associated with Glastonbury for many years, and have been able to raise substantial funds there on top of funds from festival organisers. "We look forward to working with them to build a successful festival next year." Liquid News, BBC Choice's daily entertainment news show, will have coverage of Glastonbury's cancellation at 2030 GMT on Thursday, and it is repeated at 0030 GMT. The show can also be seen online. Is Michael Eavis right to cancel it? Do you think Glastonbury has become unsafe? Or are the festival organisers, and the authorities over-reacting?
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