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Glastonburied Glastonbury 2000 under threat From SchNEWS, 3rd November, 2000 update (01/01): the festival is now officially cancelled for 2001. Every year Mendip Council refuse the Glastonbury Festival's license, yet it always goes ahead. But this time, they are refusing to renew the license unless "the Festival Organisers and Police co-operate in resolving the issue of intrusion by the New Age Travellers convoys each year to the Festival site." Intrusion? What a bloody cheek. Glastonbury today would not exist without the "intrusion" of the free-festival community. Even the greenest of young festival goers could not fail to perceive a marked difference between the chaotic 24-hour non stop carnival that is Glastonbury and the sanitised, lights out and bugger off at 11.30pm glorified pop-concert-in-a-field that is Reading/V2000 etc. Almost every article on Glastonbury this year raved about the casino Lost Vagueness, with photos showing the travellers who invented and ran it. Other site venues and bubbles of pure old-style festival spirit are run by people who were doing their thing on the travellers site 10 years ago but have gradually become an intrinsic part of the whole event. According to the council report, 58 complaints were received concerning the site at Pipplers field. "Some members of the public could put up with their presence during the Festival only if they were quiet." So that's several thousand travellers' annual party threatened by 58 people who object to the inconvenience of a couple of days of basslines. What seems beyond the comprehension of opponents is that, for people who live on the road, Glastonbury is a traditional family gathering. Because their contribution to the festival over the years has not been cash based, the travellers have become increasingly marginalised. 
Michael Eavis has attempted to accommodate them whilst conforming to license requirements, but this latest report signals a new onslaught of intolerance. Free festival veteran Tash told SchNEWS, "I have 30 years of experience in festivals. With outfits like Festival Welfare Services and Travellers Aid Trust, we have helped run the medical and welfare services at lots of events and did so as volunteers. Many will be excluded from Glastonbury under the new criteria although we have contributed to the festival for years. As far as those policing the event are concerned, we are 'travellers'. This is how they terrorised and fragmented the movement before in 1985 at the beanfields. If we have no annual gathering, we are less united."
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