Press Release - 15 May 2002

Glastonbury Festival - The Fence Goes Up

Work has started on a new fence specially designed to keep Glastonbury Festival alive for many years to come. It will be officially unveiled next Wednesday (May 22) by Festival organiser Michael Eavis. Also available to answer questions will be representatives from the festival management team, Mendip District Council and Avon and Somerset Police. Engineers have spent the past eighteen months assessing the problems and technical requirements of protecting the 800 acre site. The result is a 4½ mile long barrier which will completely enclose the festival. "This is make or break time for the festival," says Michael Eavis. "We are appealing to people's consciences - please don't come without a ticket. The local council have made it clear that if anybody breaks through the fence, there will be no more Glastonburys." If the festival does not go ahead in future years it will be the end of this unique event - Glastonbury is the only festival to reject overt commercialism and direct its profits towards providing vital support for aid projects in the developing world and saving the planet. After the last festival in 2000, the organisers donated over £700,000 to charitable organisations, including Greenpeace, Oxfam and WaterAid. ''Since 1994 proceeds from Glastonbury have helped provide the world's poorest people with life's most basic needs - water and sanitation," says Andrew Cook, Head of Fundraising at WaterAid. "The festival raises awareness of the millions of children who die needlessly every year. Its support is vital: it provides the first step out of the stranglehold of poverty for people in Africa and Asia.''