Glastonbury music festival cancelled amid coronavirus outbreak

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The 50th edition of Glastonbury music festival, which had artistes such as Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney as performers, has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Organisers on Wednesday confirmed that they were not going ahead with this year's edition of the festival, which was set to take place from June 24-28. The festival will be back next year.

"We are so sorry to announce this, but Glastonbury 2020 will have to be cancelled, and this will be an enforced fallow year for the Festival. Clearly this was not a course of action we hoped to take for our 50th anniversary event, but following the new government measures announced this week and in times of such unprecedented uncertainty this is now our only viable option," the organisers said in a statement posted on the festival's official website.

The festival's co-creator Michael Evis and his daughter Emily Evis said they had hoped the situation to improve by the end of the June but the spread of the virus presented logistics issue.

"But even if it has, we are no longer able to spend the next three months with thousands of crew here on the farm, helping us with the enormous job of building the infrastructure and attractions needed to welcome more than 200,000 people to a temporary city in these fields.

"We would like to send our sincere apologies to the 135,000 people who have already paid a deposit for a Glastonbury 2020 ticket. The balance payments on those tickets were due at the beginning of April and we wanted to make a firm decision before then," they said.

Those who have already paid 50 pound deposits can get a refund or they can choose to roll them over to 2021 and guarantee the opportunity to buy a ticket for Glastonbury 2021.

"The cancellation of this year's festival, Michael and Emily said would come as a terrible blow to the crew and volunteers.

"There will also inevitably be severe financial implications as a result of this cancellation not just for us, but also the Festival's charity partners, suppliers, traders, local landowners and our community.

Coronavirus pandemic has led to the cancellation of many events world over as governments scramble to get the spread of the virus under control.