Glastonbury was “due to close” in the ’90s

nme.com:

Emily Eavis has revealed that her father nearly closed the gates on Glastonbury for good in the 1990s.Glastonbury returns to Worthy Farm, Somerset this year from June 26-30, with Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and SZA headlining the Pyramid Stage.

Other major acts on the bill include Shania Twain, LCD Soundsystem, Little Simz, The National, Avril Lavigne, The Last Dinner Party, Jungle, Justice, Bloc Party, Fontaines D.C., Yard Act, Arlo Parks and Gossip.The festival’s principal organiser Emily Eavis has been discussing this year’s event in an appearance on the BBC’s Sidetracked podcast, where she spoke about some of the hard times that nearly forced them to close the festival down.She said that her father, the festival’s founder Michael Eavis, had planned to bring the festival to a permanent end when he reached retirement age in the late ‘90s.She said: “My parents were always like, ‘This is the last one’.

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.’”But when Eavis’ wife Jean died in 1999, he vowed to carry on.Emily Eavis added: “My dad was like, ‘Oh, I think I might need the festival now’.

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’.