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No Glastonbury – or Longleat spin-off – in 2018

Glastonbury Festival’s next fallow year – when the Somerset festival takes a year off to give the land and local community a breather – will be in 2018, it has announced.

Despite festival co-promoter Emily Eavis seemingly confirming in April that a spin-off event, rumoured to be at Longleat in Wiltshire, would be held in its place in 2018, her father and festival founder Michael later said any Longleat festival would instead take place “by 2019”. Today’s announcement from Glastonbury confirms that “there are no plans to hold an event at another location in 2018” and Michael told The Daily Telegraph today the Longleat event “probably won’t happen anymore”.

Pre-registration for the 2017 festival – part of Glastonbury’s “ongoing efforts against ticket touting” – will close on 3 October, with general admission tickets on sale on 9 October, priced at £238 plus £5 booking fee. Glastonbury 2017 will take place from 21 to 25 June.

 

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MIA dropped over Black Lives Matter comments

MIA has been dropped from her headline slot at the inaugural Afropunk Fest London over comments perceived to be critical of the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

In an interview with the Evening Standard’s Richard Godwin in April, following Beyoncé’s black power-themed Super Bowl performance, the British Tamil rapper said: “It’s interesting that in America the problem you’re allowed to talk about is Black Lives Matter.

“Is [sic] Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar going to say Muslim Lives Matter? Or Syrian Lives Matter? Or this kid in Pakistan matters? That’s a more interesting question.”

Many ticketholders threatened to boycott the festival – a spin-off from an event held in Brooklyn since 2005 and Paris since 2015 – in response to the interview, leading to speculation as to whether MIA (Mathangi Arulpragasam) would still play.

In a statement released on Friday, Afropunk said that “after discussing the situation with the artist [MIA] and the community, a decision was agreed upon by all involved that MIA will no longer headline”.

A new headliner will be announced tomorrow. We’re calling it now: it’s going to be Ted Nugent.

 

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