Glastonbury Seeks Four-Year License

Glastonbury Festival organizers must wait until March 26th to hear if the local Mendip District Council will grant it a four-year license and up its audience capacity to 137,500.

Fans wanting to buy tickets needed to register with the festival by February 28th, as those who are successful in the annual rush to get to Glastonbury – which may well be heightened because there was no festival last year – will need to have their photographs on their tickets.

Glastonbury chief Michael Eavis is one of the most vehement opponents of ticket touts, once referring to them as "no more than rogues and vagabonds," and won’t stint on the effort and money he’s prepared to spend fighting them.

Mendip Council will be gathering opinions from relevant local bodies, residents and businesses before the March 26th meeting, although the authority has shown a more conciliatory approach to the festival since Melvin Benn from Mean Fiddler was drafted in to oversee the whole licensing process.

The festival is aiming to get back to its environmental roots with a new "village green" area and greater use of coaches to transport fans.

The application said the site would be open for six days but music on the main stages would take place only between June 22-24.

The U.K. media is in its usual headlong frenzy to guess who’s on the bill, with The Who, Arctic Monkeys, and Bjork the most frequently named acts.