Green light given for Glastonbury

The Glastonbury Festival looks set to go ahead this summer after organisers convinced councillors to grant them an entertainment licence.

The three-day event, which is held at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, was cancelled last year due to crowd safety fears.

The last time the music event was held, in June 2000, it was attended by 200,000 people - double the licence number - and organiser Michael Eavis was fined £6,000 for breaching the terms of his licence.

But after a six-hour meeting of Mendip District Council's regulatory board, fears over safety were eased and councillors approved the licence.

Mr Eavis was granted a licence for a crowd of 140,000 in order to cover the costs of the extra security measures needed to control numbers at the largest event of its kind in Europe.

On gaining the licence, a delighted Mr Eavis said: "We have been working on this for over a year and are all very pleased and have a lot of work to do now.

"People should not come without a ticket - we have to plead with people not to come along unless they do.

"It's a make or break thing for us, but we really do have to make it work this year."

Mr Eavis hinted that Rod Stewart and Pink Floyd would be among the acts this year.

The site will be surrounded a 3.6 metre-high fence with overhang surrounding the site while extra security staff will be employed on the fence line, gates, pits, and off site. There will be a total of 663 security and 610 regular staff.