Glastonbury Music Festival Canceled Over Coronavirus Fears

The iconic U.K. event attracted around 175,000 visitors in 2019.

Organizers of Glastonbury Festival, one of the world's most famous, not to mention largest, music events, has announced that its 2020 edition will no longer take place due to growing fears of the coronavirus pandemic.

"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," festival organizers said in a statement.

"We very much hope that the situation in the U.K. will have improved enormously by the end of June. 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."

The news comes as British authorities clamp down on mass gatherings in a bid to stop the spread of the virus, which has already caused hundreds of events across the world to be cancelled or postponed. Last year, Glastonbury welcomed approximately 175,000 attendees to its traditional site of Worthy Farm in the county of Somerset in England.

The 50th anniversary of the British festival was due to be held June 24-28, with Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney among the year's headline acts, alongside the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Diana Ross, Lana Del Rey, Haim, Dizzee Rascal, Pet Shop Boys and Thom Yorke.

In early March, Coachella was postponed from April until October.