Glastonbury to move to Wiltshire?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

The music festival, not the town!   

http://www.indexwiltshire.co.uk/glastonbury-festival-set-to-relocate-to-new-wiltshire-home/

Longleat is looking like the red-hot favourite to host the Glastonbury Festival from 2018, after founder Michael Eavis confirmed the event would be looking to move due to ongoing complications and safety concerns at its Worthy Farm site.

It now looks increasingly likely the festival will relocate 27 miles, over the county border and into Wiltshire, with the world famous safari park^s 9,800-acre Warminster estate leading the race to host in two years.

Posting under "London to Kennet Valley" as that's the way most rail traffic would come, and I would suspect that it would be road transfer from Westbury.  Somehow I don't think that either Dilton Marsh or Warminster would have the capacity needed.   And Westbury is a major hub station - not only with capacity for expresses from London and from the West, but trains coming up from Southampton, from Weymouth, from Bristol and from Swindon.

[Noggin]

The music festival, not the town!   

http://www.indexwiltshire.co.uk/glastonbury-festival-set-to-relocate-to-new-wiltshire-home/

Longleat is looking like the red-hot favourite to host the Glastonbury Festival from 2018, after founder Michael Eavis confirmed the event would be looking to move due to ongoing complications and safety concerns at its Worthy Farm site.

It now looks increasingly likely the festival will relocate 27 miles, over the county border and into Wiltshire, with the world famous safari park^s 9,800-acre Warminster estate leading the race to host in two years.

Posting under "London to Kennet Valley" as that's the way most rail traffic would come, and I would suspect that it would be road transfer from Westbury.  Somehow I don't think that either Dilton Marsh or Warminster would have the capacity needed.   And Westbury is a major hub station - not only with capacity for expresses from London and from the West, but trains coming up from Southampton, from Weymouth, from Bristol and from Swindon.

Perhaps also Mr Eavis would like to retire and flog the farm?

More seriously, Westbury would make sense as a railhead

[Bmblbzzz]

It makes perfect sense for the once hippy festival to move to the estate of Lord Bath. Lucky festival-goers might end up as wifelets! Others might get their portraits painted or inspire him to poetry. And unlucky bands who fail to please the crowd can be fed to the lions.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Glastonbury Festival 2019 move to protect Worthy Farm


At Glastonbury 2016 the rain fell leaving the traditional mud bath

The 2019 Glastonbury Festival could be held at a site 100 miles away from Worthy Farm, "towards the Midlands" to help protect the main site.

Festival founder Michael Eavis said the new site would be used every five years to help the land at his farm recover. "I'm arranging to move the show [but] it would be a huge loss to Somerset if it went there forever," he said.

A previous plan to move to Longleat had been considered but owners of the Wiltshire attraction turned it down.

"We've got a wonderful product what we do and we can do it almost anywhere," Mr Eavis said. "I love my own farm... I might have to move it eventually. Most people are on side now and it's a wonderful, wonderful boost for the whole of Somerset and beyond as well. I don't want to lose it for ever, no way."

The Glastonbury Festival started in 1970 when Mr Eavis organised a gig in his field to pay off his bank overdraft.

With wife Jean and daughter Emily, Eavis has evolved the event from a small gathering of hippies to a world famous carnival hosting some 175,000 people each year.

[grahame]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Glastonbury Festival 2019 move to protect Worthy Farm

The 2019 Glastonbury Festival could be held at a site 100 miles away from Worthy Farm, "towards the Midlands" to help protect the main site.

If you're looking for an existing venue / site, could it be somewhere like Silverstone?

[JayMac]

Glastonbury Festival is usually on during the motor racing season. I think it highly unlikely the BRDC would want their diary blocked for five days in early summer for a non motor racing event.

[ChrisB]

How many acres/square km is the current festival? Bath & Wells showground?

[grahame]

How many acres/square km is the current festival? Bath & Wells showground?

Hardly "100 miles towards the Midlands" though ... of course, if there was a typo in the original article and it were to be 10 miles ...

Milton Keynes Dome?

[JayMac]

Glastonbury Festival site, 900 acres. Bath and Wells Showground, 240 acres.

Silverstone and environs owned by the BRDC and others, however unlikely a venue, is around 750 acres.

[ChrisB]

MK^▸ (Milton Keynes) Dome is really small in comparison, definitely smaller than Silverstone. And well over 100 miles away

[JayMac]

It's a bowl not a dome. 

Agree it's far too small for a five day festival.

[ChrisB]

Of course, I knew that

[grahame]

It's a bowl not a dome. 

Agree it's far too small for a five day festival.

Three Counties Showground?   http://www.threecounties.co.uk  (hey, it's fun speculating ...)

[ChrisB]

Oh, the good burghers of Malvern will love 175,000 fans in their neck of the woods, not!

[grahame]

Oh, the good burghers of Malvern will love 175,000 fans in their neck of the woods, not!

Wherever a massive event were to move, you're likely to find an element of local people not wanting it, and / or an element of it displacing other events at the same venue - witness the Silverstone comments.  The question "where is there that's about 100 miles somewhat north and a bit east of Somerset that could host this ... either existing or temporary build" is an interesting one ...