An online petition has been successful in its bid to prevent the ceremonial item from being sold without prior discussion with organisers

Glastonbury has agreed to restrict the sale of Native American-style headdresses at their 2015 event. An online petition garnering just 65 signatures was enough to sway the administration of the UK’s most famous music festival, helping to convince Emily Eavis that the ceremonial garb should not be treated as meaningless fancy dress.

Daniel Round, from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, launched his Change.org petition less than two months ago, calling on Glastonbury to “lead the way this side of the pond in raising awareness of the issues surrounding the wearing of feathered headdresses”. He posted an update on Tuesday stating that organisers “got in touch” to tell him that they were adding the headdresses to the list of Glastonbury’s prohibited vendor items. The Glastonbury website has since listed “Indian headdresses”, alongside cigarettes, candle flares and flags as items not to be sold in its traders section “without prior authorisation or discussion with the markets’ management”.

“Our petition, small in numbers but passionate in support, pushed this issue right up to Emily Eavis, and she listened,” Round wrote. “Although it is only one UK festival, I hope that if we spread the news of Glastonbury’s decision online, positive discussions about the stereotyping of Native Americans and the headdress will grow in the UK and elsewhere.”

Despite this concession, the festival has not followed all of the suggestions in Round’s petition: he also called on organisers to make “an official statement about the issue”, broaching a conversation that could “foster understanding and facilitate positive shifts in attitudes”. Neither Eavis nor any other spokesperson has spoken publicly about their decision.

Glastonbury has not gone as far as the organisers of Bass Coast however, a music festival in British Columbia, Canada. Last summer, the annual event banned any attendees from wearing feather headdresses to their concerts. “We understand why people are attracted to war bonnets,” they wrote. “They have a magnificent aesthetic. But their spiritual, cultural and aesthetic significance cannot be separated.”

Feather headdresses have become a major site of contemporary discussions about cultural appropriation and colonialism. Musicians such as Pharrell Williams and the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne have apologised for wearing the headgear as costume items, and some indigenous artists have likened the wearing of headdresses to a form of racist “redface”.