Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis says the festival runs the risk of going "bankrupt" if they can’t return next year.
The world famous festival was set to see Sir Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar perform on the hallowed grounds of Worthy Farm for the music extravaganza’s 50th anniversary this week, but due to the coronavirus pandemic and the ban on mass gatherings the festival’s grounds are empty.
Michael and his daughter Emily Eavis – who curate the lineup – are already working on making the 2021 festival the best ever, but they have warned that if they cannot hold the event next year, it will leave the festival’s finances in dire straits.
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Michael admitted: "We have to run next year, otherwise we would seriously go bankrupt … It has to happen for us, we have to carry on. Otherwise it will be curtains. I don’t think we could wait another year."
Emily insisted that it would be a "very serious situation if we had to cancel next year’s event, but then the whole live industry will be hanging in the balance if we have another summer without festivals, and we don’t know what level of government support there will be for this industry."
However, the pair are determined they’ll be able to "mutate to survive" like they have in the past.
She added: "We’ve navigated choppy waters so many times. This festival has always evolved and found ways to survive, and I’m confident that we will again. Mutate to survive!"
If 2021 does go ahead, Emily teased there will be "a hell of a lot of surprises".
She told BBC 6 Music: "We’re rolling two festivals together for 2021. We’ve got a hell of a lot of surprises and things that we were planning for the 50th (anniversary) and we’re going to try to get those things going for next year.
"Logistically it’s a little bit complicated because we’d already pencilled in many of the acts for 2021.
"It was one of those very unusual years where you’re quite far ahead, two years ahead, on the line-up. So we’re trying to work out how much we can fit into next year.
"We’ve had lots of amazing letters from people with ideas of how we could make it into like a two-week holiday or run over three weekends. There’s lots of ideas going."