Glastonbury 2024: New app launches and fallow year revealed
Emily Eavis has been chatting about this year's festival
Glastonbury 2024 is not too long away - and the organisers have been revealing more details about this year's edition - as well as talking about the future of the festival.
It's as every so often, there is a 'Fallow Year', which gives the land the chance to repair itself after hundreds of thousands of people descend on Worthy Farm in Somerset.
A new app
For this year, a brand new app has been revealed.
A new Glastonbury app will allow festival-goers to find their friends and their tent more easily, while recommending artists based on the user's Spotify profile.
For the first time, fans heading to Worthy Farm from June 26 to 30 will be able to link their Spotify account to the app, which will use the profile to provide personalised recommendations on artists performing at the festival, Vodafone said.
When connecting to their Spotify, users will be given a top 10 line-up from those performing, as well as a wider selection of recommendations via a Discover More option.
The app also includes a new map feature to let festival-goers navigate the 1,000-acre grounds by dropping pins on locations such as their tent, where they parked their car, and to set meeting points to regroup with friends before performances.
Further additions include new directional navigation to help fans move between stages more easily, as well as the ability to filter the map for specific food stalls, camping shops and official merchandise stands.
Rob Winterschladen, consumer director at Vodafone UK, said: "Glastonbury Festival is one of the premier events of the summer, and we want to make sure we deliver an app to help visitors get the most out of the festival along with connectivity to match.
"We're delighted to have delivered not one, but a number of never-before-seen features to our 2024 Festival App. Map pinning, Spotify integration and the upgraded line-up features will massively benefit fans and make their Glastonbury experience even more seamless."
Glastonbury Festival co-organiser Emily Eavis said: "It's great to see so many new features in this year's Glastonbury app, and I hope it will enhance everyone's experience of the Festival, whether they're watching at home or joining us at the farm."
2026 the likely Fallow Year
Organiser Emily Eavis has been chatting about the festival - and has hinted that Glastonbury is likely to take a fallow year in 2026.
The festival usually takes place four out of every five years, with the fifth year reserved for rehabilitation of the land.
The last official fallow year was 2018, but the festival was also cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic and had "enforced fallow" years.
Eavis's father, Sir Michael Eavis, founded the festival on his Somerset farm in 1970 and is still involved, but his daughter and her husband Nick Dewey take on the majority of the organisation.
This year singer Dua Lipa, SZA and Coldplay will headline the world-famous Pyramid stage.
Eavis has also revealed this year will feature a call for peace, led by performance artist Marina Abramovic, on the festival's main stage.