Glastonbury festival ‘was due to close’ in the 90s

Glastonbury founder Sir Michael Eavis wanted to pull the plug on the festival in the 1990s, his daughter Emily has told the BBC.

Sir Michael founded the festival on his Somerset farm in 1970, and saw it grow into one of the world’s most prestigious music events.

By the 1990s, it was attracting world-class headliners like Oasis, Bob Dylan and Radiohead – but the plan was to call it a day when he reached retirement age.

“My parents were always like, ‘This is the last one’,” Emily Eavis told the BBC’s Sidetracked podcast.

“Everyone thought it was some sort of stunt to sell tickets but it wasn’t. They were genuinely like, ‘Well, we probably won’t do another.’”

In those days, the decision to extend the festival was taken on a year-by-year basis, she said.

It was only when Sir Michael’s wife, Jean, died in 1999 that the event became a permanent fixture.

“My dad was like, ‘Oh, I think I might need the festival now’,” Eavis told Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw. “Because they were going to retire and go on long cruises and things like that.

“My dad was like, ‘Listen, let’s keep it going.’

“I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll help you’. Never did I think I’d still be here a few decades on.”