It was only a matter of time before this announcement was made. Just days after announcing new acts on the line-up for Glastonbury 2020, the music festival has been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The United Kingdom festival was set to take place from June 24 to June 28 but, with uncertainty as to when this pandemic will blow over, public events are being postponed and canceled left and right. Coachella was moved to the Fall, the sports world has effectively been shut down, and more. Shortly after announcing the line-up, Glastonbury officials revealed that the festival would no longer be happening.
"Clearly this was not a course of action we hoped to take for our 50th anniversary event, but following the new government measures announced this week — and in times of such unprecedented uncertainty, this is now our only viable option," announced festival founder Michael Eavis.
"We very much hope that the situation in the U.K. will have improved enormously by the end of June. But even if it has, we are no longer able to spend the next three months with thousands of crew here on the farm, helping us with the enormous job of building the infrastructure and attractions needed to welcome more than 200,000 people to a temporary city in these fields."
Anybody that has already purchased a ticket will be able to redeem it for Glastonbury 2021. It's looking more and more likely by the day that many other mass gatherings will suffer the same fate.