Glastonbury Festival Bans Sale of Single-Use Plastic Bottles
The U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival has banned the sale of all single use plastic bottles at this year’s event in June, including areas backstage, in production, catering and the dressing rooms. Over one million bottles were sold at Glastonbury 2017. In an effort to curb that number, canned soft drinks and canned Life Water will be available for purchase.
A statement made on the Glastonbury website Thursday noted that the festival’s partnership with Green Peace inspired the environmentally-conscious move. The fest has also announced plans to supply “hundreds of free water taps” around the site, tripling in numbers from 2017. All attendees — Glastonbury draws an average of 135,000 concertgoers — are encouraged to bring a reusable water bottle, though they will not be prevented from bringing single use bottles from outside festival grounds.
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The announcement comes after a recent ban on some single-use plastics was approved by the European Union.
“It’s paramount for our planet that we all reduce our plastic consumption, and I’m thrilled that, together, we’ll be able to prevent over a million single-use plastic bottles from being used at this year’s Festival,” said Emily Eavis, co-organizer of the festival and daughter of founder Michael Eavis. “I really hope that everyone – from ticket-holder to headliner – will leave Worthy Farm this year knowing that even small, everyday changes can make a real difference. It’s now or never.”
Glastobury has been held in Pilton, Somerset, England since 1970 but took a year off in 2018 in order to allow the grounds to recover. The 2019 lineup has not yet been announced. In 2017, Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran were among the headliners.
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