After a busy week of rumours, the Glastonbury organisers answered Guardian readers’ questions on their new ‘sister festival’, urban myths, ticket costs – and confirming Kris Kristofferson for 2017

Can you clarify what is happening going forward over the next three years? Are we looking at the fallow year 2018, the new festival 2019 and Worthy Farm 2020? Or is the whole thing still up in the air?

Mufc88

Michael: Well, it’s certainly in the air at the moment. We’re very much still at the planning stages. We’ve talked about 2019 for the event away from Worthy Farm, but it could well be 2021.

Emily: Yes, I think we’re most likely going to come back here in 2019 after the fallow year in 2018, when there will be no event. Then 2020 is our 50th anniversary. And 2021, we may then do a show somewhere else, which we’re calling the Variety Bazaar. But none of this is set in stone.

Who came up with the name Variety Bazaar?

Laura Snapes

Michael: Ah, that’s such a good question! There was a shop in our local town, Shepton Mallet, years and years ago, run by three sisters, which sold all sorts of stuff – everything from knitting to books to cream cakes. And the name of the shop was the Variety Bazaar. I mentioned it to Emily and she loved it.

Emily: He was saying it was a hub for life in Shepton, and it was quite an unusual name. And then we said, “Well that would be a good name for something.” But we never considered calling the new event Glastonbury.

Michael: Definitely not. Because it’s a hundred miles away.

Emily: It won’t be Glastonbury. It will be the Variety Bazaar.



When will you be able to let us know the site for the Variety Bazaar?

MarkHainge

Michael: Not yet. But we’re looking at a site about 100 miles away from here. It was suggested to us by someone who works with us.

Emily: It’s in a beautiful valley, and it has one landowner who is very keen. But, yes, in answer to Mark’s question, not for a while. There’s no rush on this. We’re talking about a few years.

Is the Variety Bazaar going to be on a similar scale to Glastonbury?

Stuart Quinn

Michael: Oh yes. We don’t like boutique. Why pretend when we do the real thing?! Hahahaha!

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Festivalgoers at the Glade, Glastonbury 2016. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

Is it going to have any of the areas from Glastonbury transplanted, eg the Glade, Avalon?

Stuart Quinn

Emily: They wouldn’t have the same area names. Avalon can’t be Avalon in a new site. So they will be called something else, but run by the same teams of people. Arcadia want to go and see the site next week.

Michael: Oh, really?

Emily: Yep!

Michael: That’s good going. Well, you’re ahead of me, dear! Hahaha!

Emily: This is like a meeting and an interview in one.

In 2019 would you expect to have both Glastonbury at Worthy Farm and the Variety Bazaar at another location?

Nikisorabjee

Michael: No. Always one or the other.

Emily: It takes us a whole year to plan this. We couldn’t do both in the same year.

Michael: The plan would be to do the Variety Bazaar every fifth year, in the fallow year.

Emily: And just to be clear, there’s no plan to move Glastonbury festival away from Worthy Farm or to stop doing those here.

When will the Variety Bazaar be taking place (ie month of year)?

ID4360753

Michael: The same weekend as we do Glastonbury, around the summer solstice.

Aside from the change of location, are there any other differences between Glastonbury and the Variety Bazaar?

Dan Hayes



Emily: It’s not going to be exactly the same. It will be unique. With the same team, but crafted into a new event. Like a sister festival. We’re not going to just try to roll out Glastonbury 100 miles away.

Michael: We’re never the same two years running anyway.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Michael and Emily at Glastonbury 2010. Photograph: Felix Clay/The Guardian

I think you said recently that you had to deal with 22 landowners to host Glastonbury on one site. Is that the sole reason for moving/having an alternative festival?

Donroberto

Michael: No, of course not. We have always had fallow years, to give the farm a rest. But the whole team is so creative and so enthusiastic, and to get all that lot to stand down for a year is a tall ask! So that’s a big reason why we’ve looked at doing an event in the fallow years.

Emily: But can I just say that my dad has spent a lifetime dealing with a lot of issues from a lot of people, and it has sometimes been a battle. He is really keen that we give a new event a go, and that’s what we’re all set to do.

Michael: Absolutely. But our plan is still definitely to stay here most of the time.

Is it true, Emily, that you aren’t as keen to keep the festival going as Michael?

ID4002843

Emily: What?! Absolutely not. We both want to keep this going. We’re completely united in that. I’ve got three children living here now and, of course, it’s amazing for them to experience growing up with the festival. I’m as keen if not more keen! Not to mention that my husband, Nick, books most of the bands now. It’s our life.

Michael: You didn’t like it when you were three, though.

Emily: Haha! No, that is true. But I’ve dedicated my adult life to it. Me and my dad talk about it every morning, we work on this together every day. We wouldn’t go through the amount of stress that we get from it if we didn’t want to continue it. Because it’s so much fun as well.

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Will anything be done this year to prevent the horrific flooding and Tuesday night queueing of last year?

Skillfulperson

Michael: Well, that was a one-in-10-year problem. Normally there are no traffic problems on these roads any more. But once in 10 years you get that terrible rain before the festival and we’re stuffed with the parking fields. That’s the problem. But I’ve made an arrangement with the Bath & West Showground, which is a couple of miles from the farm and has enormous car parks, as a backup for this year. So we’re in a much better position for this year if we do have that incredible rainfall again.

Can you dispel the urban myth that people in the south have a better chance of getting tickets on the website when they go on sale?

Johnnyfingers

Emily: Yes, that is completely untrue. We’ve looked at the map and sales are evenly spread across the whole country. Some people talk about broadband speed too, but we’ve been assured that doesn’t make a difference either. Obviously there are more people in cities, but we see a lot of tickets sold in rural areas, and right across the country. It really is down to luck.

Why not ballot for tickets rather than the current scrum?

David Webb

Michael: Oh, nobody would like that. We did suggest that years ago and people didn’t want it.

Emily: I think you’d get even more people trying for tickets in a ballot, so you’d end up with even less chance of getting one. I know it’s hard for the people who miss out, but at the moment demand is much higher than supply and we think this is the most pain-free way. We open the ticket site slowly so that they’re not gone in 30 seconds and people have a fair chance. But within an hour, you’ll know whether you’ve got one.

Do you worry that the price inflation that putting on a big music festival requires every year will price out the next generation of festivalgoers?

Guardianistaleeds

Michael: We really do try to keep the price down. I’m on to the budget people all the time to see if we can do it for less. But it is a very expensive event to run. We have more than 100 stages across all those areas.

Emily: We do realise the tickets cost a lot of money, but we’re still the only major festival that does a free programme, free firewood, free app, five days camping with no extra charge for early camping, etc. We’re always trying to make it the best value that we can.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Thom Yorke performing with Radiohead – confirmed for Glastonbury 2017. Photograph: Sophia Kembowski/AFP/Getty Images

I’m on the recycling team, is there anything we can do to make the festival greener and leave less trace?

Giantkatestacks

Emily: This is something we work on all year – and we’re always open to new ideas. We’re currently working on pre-erected tents, and looking at working with various small charities who can put up recycled tents. We actually just won an award at the Greener festival awards, but we’ve always got lots of new initiatives in the pipeline – like the steel cups last year.

I think the move of the John Peel stage and creation of the Wood was a huge success. Are there any more site changes in place for 2017?

Derek Keeping

Emily: Oh, good! That was Michael’s idea to move the John Peel stage.

Michael: Wasn’t it lovely! And the Wood was your idea. We’ve got lots of new stuff for this year. The big thing is Cineramageddon, which is an idea that Joe Rush and Julien Temple have had. It will be west of the Park, in an effort to move people away from the south-east corner late-night areas, to balance the crowd. It’s going to have all these amazing vintage American cars parked there, facing a huge outdoor cinema screen. And there will be all sorts of 1950s American-y stuff around. Also, we’re expanding the Temple in the Common – which is the big venue built out of old lock gates. That’s incredibly popular and it holds its sound in really well, so we’re making that bigger for 2017.

What is the biggest risk to the festival not being at Worthy Farm in the future? The 22 landowners you have to deal with? Environmental concerns? Gas pipes? Or other?

HarryPalmer42

Emily: I don’t think there is a big risk that it won’t be here, to be honest. We’ve had the OK on the gas pipes from the National Grid.

Michael: The only thing would be a breakdown with the landowners, but we’ve worked with them for 47 years! And they’ve all done really well from the festival. We’re in a good place.

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We’ve got Radiohead … Any more news on the big acts joining them this year?

Adamshin

Emily: Well, I think a lot of people saw that Kris Kristofferson announced himself on his website this week, so I think we’re OK to talk about that one! He’ll be playing on Friday afternoon on the Pyramid. We’ve had a history of country stars from Johnny Cash to Willie Nelson to Dolly Parton, and we’ve been trying to get Kris for years. Luckily, he happens to be touring this year so we asked him and he wanted to do it. I think he’ll be amazing.

Prince – why did it never happen?

GeraldLobOn

Michael: We got very close several times.

Emily: He was actually confirmed to do it two years before he died, but unfortunately he pulled out after it was leaked that he was playing. And then we were actually really close again last year. We were told that he really wanted to do it. It’s such a pity that he never did.

Can we have any hints on what the Park stage is going to have as a celebration for its 10th year?

James Kay

Emily: We’ve got a few things planned to mark its 10th birthday, but I can’t really give any hints just yet, sorry. It’s Block9’s 10th anniversary too, so they’ll definitely be doing some big things too. This year is shaping up to be a really good year. We’re all very excited.

Michael: It’s going to be the best one yet, isn’t that right, darling? Hahaha!