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Forget Burning Man or Coachella, if there's one thing the UK does better than any other country in the world, it's music festivals. The most famous, of course, is Glastonbury, synonymous with era-defining performances from David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Radiohead and a host of other global stars.
But Michael Eavis made an announcement today suggesting that the world's most famous festival could be getting a new name when it moves to a new site in two years' time – 'The Variety Bazaar', which sounds like a 99p shop on Peckham Rye. Don't get us wrong, when you're in desperate need of four cans of Coke or a kilo of misshapen biscuits, 'The Variety Bazaar' sounds like just the ticket. But for the biggest music festival in the world, 'The Variety Bazaar' is a bit, well, shit.
In a radio interview with Glastonbury FM, founder Michael Eavis said, ‘The Glastonbury Festival team presents The Variety Bazaar’.
'That’s a good name don’t you think? I’ve been a risk-taker all my life. In 47 years of taking risks, so far, touch wood, I haven’t come unstuck. This might be one risk too far, I don’t know.'
Luckily, his daughter Emily Eavis quickly took to Twitter to clarify that The Variety Bazaar will be a completely new event, separate from Glastonbury, which will return to Worthy Farm in 2020.
The festival is moving in order to protect land in Somerset, where Glastonbury has been held since the 1970s. Glastonbury 2017 will be held at the historic site at Pilton, Somerset, before taking a year off in 2018.
So, no, Glastonbury is not being renamed The Variety Bazaar. Thank fuck for that.
Read our letter to Michael Eavis, in which we try to convince him to move Glastonbury to London.