Glastonbury changes

Glastonbury Festival organiser Michael Eavis was a speaker yesterday at the Event Show in London, and gave some details of changes to the Festival for 2007.

We'll start with something very important - beer! Budweiser will no longer be providing the beer at the Festival bars, and instead there'll be Carlsberg. Eavis explained that this choice was a better 'fit' with the festival ethos, as Carlsberg have a "Code of Responsible Management, which governs [their] behavior in all business relations, and dedicated programmes within areas of particular relevance to the beverage business, such as [their] Environmental Policy and our Beer Awareness" (quote from Carlsberg's website).

Following the serious flooding in the Pennards Hill camping area at the last Festival in 2005, Eavis is hoping to spend around £200,000 on new drainage work to stop or lessen the effects of such a downpour in the future. It's hoped that the work will be done before the festival this June.

In entertainment changes, there's plans for some sort of dome over The Glade, a slightly bigger Lost Vagueness, as well as the new Park Farm area which will include two additional open air stages for acoustic bands and new bands, as well as a permanent Silent Disco, and a silent films tent. This new area is dependant on the granting of a suitable licence - it's hoped to increase the number of tickets available this year by 25,000. The licence hearing is expected to take place in February. Elsewhere, look out for the motorised robots!

Yesterday Michael Eavis confirmed that the Arctic Monkeys are to be one of the headliners this year, just as we told you first a week ago. Although still not stated explicitly by Eavis, I think we can all guess Who will be the Sunday night headliner - again, just as we told you. Friday we expect to be headlined by The Killers on the Pyramid Stage, while Bjork - also confirmed as playing by Eavis yesterday - we believe will be on the Other Stage, preceded by Arcade Fire.

As the above proves yet again, eFestivals continues to be the very best place for Glastonbury rumours. Help us to help you - if you hear of a band that's playing, please let us know.

Glastonbury Festival will take place at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset from Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th June (with the gates opening on the Wednesday).

For all the ticket buying information (as available), see here.

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