founder of Glastonbury Festival says it may have to move

Glastonbury Festival 2015

Wednesday 24th to Sunday 28th June 2015
Worthy Farm, Pilton, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 4AZ, England MAP
£220 (secured with a deposit) - SOLD OUT

Daily capacity: 198,000

Glastonbury Festival founder farmer Michael Eavis has said he would like to stay at Worthy Farm but organising the five-day festival is getting "very, very complicated." according to a report by Sky News (here).

Michael Eavis reveals he is looking into alternative sites, but he is keeping them secret and has yet to reveal a time frame, saying, "All good things come to an end and one has to make changes. I would love it to stay but it's getting very, very complicated now."

Whilst many Glastonbury veterans may consider the move impossible, eFestivals has heard that farmer Eavis has had talks with the owner of Matterly Bowl, and it does sound like there's been some exploratory talks about the potential of re-locating the event.

Farmer Eavis does not own the entire site and as a result it is getting increasingly difficult to stage the event, which has been going since 1970. Eavis told Sky News, "I'm always worried about the future, about the land not being available really, because I only own the middle bit, and that's where the pyramid is. I may have to find a site that's bigger and is all under the control of one person. That's the ideal situation really, so that might happen in the long-term.

"...All good things come to an end, and one has to make changes, all through your life you have to make changes. I would love it to stay here but it's getting very, very complicated now."

The organisers of the event have had issues in the past with surrounding farms over the years attempting to make money off the event by selling car parking space, and more recently offering glamping when the facilities they offered were little more than rudimentary campsites.

The 79-year-old, who set up the festival on his Somerset farm in 1970, also reveals in a new film on BBC iPlayer, Glastonbury: The Udder Side available on BBC iPlayer now, that the farm comes first and the Festival second.

Despite founding the greatest show on earth his proudest achievement is nothing to do with the festival but the moment he won the gold cup for best herd from the Royal Association Of British Dairy Farmers.

The farmer says in the documentary, "The festival could come and go, it could go in a wink, it is very open to fashion. 200,000 people might decide at some point it is not fashionable any more, but the farm and the cows and the tradition of the dairy, it is lasting.

"It is there forever really. This farm is what I am made of. There is nothing better to me than to win this award. I never thought we'd actually win it. I'll tell you what though; we're going to win it again. The farm always comes first, the festival comes second.

"The rock 'n' roll and the glamour of all that stuff, you know, it is not really in the same league."

Although Emily Eavis, lives at Worthy Farm with her husband and two sons, the ownership of the farm following Michael's passing is also uncertain. It's not known what would happen to the ownership of the farm in the future - without knowing his will, there's no guarantee that Emily would control the farm to be able to keep running the festival, because Michael has a number of other children.

This year's headliners are Florence + The Machine, Kanye West, and The Who. Revised Pyramid Stage set timings for Friday will be announced soon. The line-up is vast but here's a few of the other names who will be appearing over the five days - Lionel Richie in the teatime legends slot, Patti Smith & her band, Rudimental, Deadmau5, Paul Weller, The Vaccines, The Maccabees, Suede, The Chemical Brothers (live), Belle & Sebastian, Clean Bandit, Jungle, Jamie XX, Gregory Porter, Super Furry Animals, Jon Hopkins, Sharon Van Etten, Kate Tempest, Wolf Alice, Perfume Genius, Hozier, Father John Misty, Courtney Barnett, Fat White Family, La Roux, Death Cab For Cutie, Kasai Allstars, FFS (Franz Ferdinand & Sparks), Modestep, Circa Waves, Peace, Young Fathers, The Moody Blues, Pharrell Williams, Alt-J, Motorhead, Mary J Blige, Alabama Shakes, Paloma Faith, The Waterboys, The Fall, George Ezra, and many, many more.

This year's sold out Glastonbury Festival runs for five full days from Wednesday 24th until Sunday 28th June 2015 across over a 1,000 acres of beautiful countryside at Worthy Farm, Pilton in Somerset.

To see who is playing where and when see our Glastonbury Festival 2015 line-up page.

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