The Glastonbury Festival 2020 has officially been canceled as the UK continues to suffer the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement, festival organizers Michael and Emily Eavis said the cancelation was the only "viable option".
The festival was due to take place later this year from Wednesday, June 24 to Sunday, June 28, with headline acts Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, Kendrick Lamar, Diana Ross, and Dua Lipa all set to appear.
In a statement posted to the official Glastonbury Twitter page, officials said: "We are so sorry to announce this, but Glastonbury 2020 will have to be cancelled, and this will be an enforced fallow year for the festival."
"Clearly this was not a course of action we hoped to take for our 50th anniversary event, but following the new government measures announced this week – and in times of such unprecedented uncertainty – this is now our only viable option."
“We very much hope that the situation in the UK will have improved enormously by the end of June. But even if it has, we are no longer able to spend the next three months with thousands of crew here on the farm, helping us with the enormous job of building the infrastructure and attractions needed to welcome more than 200,000 people to a temporary city in these fields.
"We would like to send our sincere apologies to the 135,000 people who have already paid a deposit for a Glastonbury 2020 ticket. The balance payments on those tickets were due at the beginning of April and we wanted to make a firm decision before then.
"We understand that it is not always easy to secure a Glastonbury ticket, which is why we would like to offer all those people the chance to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, and guarantee the opportunity to buy a ticket for Glastonbury 2021. Those who would prefer a refund of that £50 will be able to contact See Tickets in the coming days in order to secure that. This option will remain available until September this year. For those who are happy to roll their deposit over, that will happen automatically. Further information – including details on rolling over coach packages, official accommodation bookings and local Sunday tickets – will be added to our website in the coming days."
"The cancellation of this year’s Festival will no doubt come as a terrible blow to our incredible crew and volunteers who work so hard to make this event happen. There will also inevitably be severe financial implications as a result of this cancellation – not just for us, but also the Festival’s charity partners, suppliers, traders, local landowners and our community.
"We were so looking forward to welcoming you all for our 50th anniversary with a line-up full of fantastic artists and performers that we were incredibly proud to have booked. Again, we’re so sorry that this decision has been made. It was not through choice. But we look forward to welcoming you back to these fields next year and until then, we send our love and support to all of you."
This year will now serve as the famed festival's fallow year, and Glastonbury will instead take place in 2020.
Per the BBC, over 200,000 people, including 135,000 ticket-holders, would have descended on Worthy Farm in Somerset if the festival had taken place as planned. The news comes just two weeks before ticket-holders were due to pay the remaining balance of their £270 tickets.
Organizers have confirmed that ticket-holders will have the chance to guarantee their place for next year's event.
