Glastonbury festival cancelled

LONDON, England -- The organiser of Britain's Glastonbury music festival has cancelled the event in 2001.

Michael Eavis announced on Thursday that the rural music event, first staged in 1970, would not go ahead after thousands of fans sneaked into the 2000 weekend-long extravaganza causing alarm among local authorities.

The on-again, off-again festival has drawn crowds of up to 90,000 to see acts ranging from Radiohead and the Prodigy to Joe Cocker and Van Morrison.

Eavis, who has battled with local authorities during the three decades that he has held the festival on his farm in western England, said he hoped his decision would send out a message that organisers were taking the issue seriously.

Tens of thousands of people are thought to have scaled fences, tunneled in or simply knocked fences down to gain entry without tickets last year.

Eavis faces prosecution over alleged breaches of the festival license. During the 1980s he successfully defended five charges laid against him over permit conditions.

In a statement released on Thursday he said: "After much deliberation and consultation I have now decided not to run the festival this year."

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Eight fans crushed to death at music festival in Denmark
July 1, 2000

Glastonbury Festival
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