Festival fiasco

By Andy Hughes

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FANS of the annual Glastonbury Music Festival were devastated to hear of��this year's cancellation, by Festival founder Michael Eavis.

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The reasons for this year's cancellation concerns Eavis' fears over crowd safety, caused by a huge number of fence jumpers last year. Estimates vary as to how many people climbed over or�tunnelled�in,�though some reckon the officially licensed 100,000 crowd may have swelled to double this amount. Eavis now faces the possibility of being�sued by the local council for breaking the terms of his licence.

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This gap is not the first in Glastonbury's history, however. 1998 was a Festival-free year to allow installation of additional facilities required by the increasing size of the event. Violence at 1989's Festival caused closure a year later, and in 1996, Eavis allowed his farm land a year out to recover for use as�pasture.

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With Glatonbury out of the picture can any of the others offer a realistic alternative Well, the touble is that nothing can really touch�Glastonbury for its size and diversity.�Reading might try to square up, but really its main audience is indy kids and aging rockers. The Phoneix festival, once ideally�placed in late July to catch the mid festival lull, died a death a couple of years ago. And more recently Richard Branson, bless, has done his best (which is quite good)�to entertain us with�his corporate friendly V2000.

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Two of the more down to earth festivals that keep on truckin are�the chilly T in the park catering for those�north of the border, and the 'world music' specticle that is Womad. A more recent addition to these traditional affairs have been�the dance-oriented weekend festivals, including Homelands and Creamfields, which although muddy and noisy, fall short of offering an authentic�festival experience.

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Here are the dates:

• T in the Park (Scotland) 07 - 08 July
• V2000 18 - 19 August
• Reading 27 - 29 August
• Leeds 28 - 30 August
• Creamfields England 28 August

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