Glastonbury 2016: Emily Eavis promises festival will stay at Worthy Farm and reveals epic David Bowie tribute plans
One Bowie fan is trying to organise a mass sing-along of the 'Starman' icon's hits
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Vicious rumours that Glastonbury could soon be waving goodbye to its Worthy Farm home have finally been debunked.
Organiser Emily Eavis told the BBC that although the Glastonbury team has plans for a separate festival in 2018 or 2019 while their Somerset farmland recovers, “the main thing to set straight is that Glastonbury itself will always be at Worthy Farm”.
The exciting new event will be a “visual feast” run by the same people as Glastonbury, only called something different and featuring “larger-scale installations as well as music”.
Eavis also revealed Glastonbury’s plans to make over the Pyramid Stage in honour of the late David Bowie, who sadly died of cancer earlier this year. “It’s going to have a tribute to David Bowie - the Aladdin Sane lightning flash, in metal, which will be designed by Joe Rush,” she said.
“We’re also doing Philip Glass’ Heroes Symphony on the Park Stage on Saturday night, which is going to be a really intimate tribute. It’s being conducted by Charles Hazlewood with members of the Paraorchestra and we’re going to do an incredible light show which will go on for the whole show and beyond, into the night.”
Founder Michael Eavis recently said that Bowie’s full Glastonbury headline set from 2000 will be shown on one of the screens when the stages are shut down. One Bowie fan has gone so far as to set up a special ‘GlastonBowie’ Twitter account, from which they are organising a mass sing-along of the “Starman” singer’s hits by the Pyramid Stage. The account has over 1,600 followers so far.
Prince, who Eavis claims was “so close” to headlining Glastonbury in recent years, will also be remembered at the festival, with “talk of late night Prince parties and things”.
“It’s really disappointing that he hasn’t played her but it’s also, obviously, a huge loss to music because he was an incredible force,” Emily Eavis said. “He was just phenomenal. There was no one else like him on the planet.”
This year’s Glastonbury takes place between 22 and 26 June, with Adele, Coldplay and Muse headlining.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments