LONDON, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- This year's Glastonbury music festival, one of Europe's largest live music events, has been canceled "with great regret" due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, organizers announced Thursday.
"With great regret, we must announce that this year's Glastonbury Festival will not take place," organizers said on the festival's official Twitter page.
It's the second year that the festival, usually held in Pilton, a small village in the East Midlands of England, will not go ahead, following the cancellation of last year's 50th anniversary event due to the pandemic.
"In spite of our efforts to move Heaven & Earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the Festival happen this year. We are so sorry to let you all down," said the organizers in a statement.
Anyone who has paid a deposit for a ticket for this year's festival can roll it over to 2022, British media reported. A similar offer was given to ticket buyers last year when the festival was canceled because of the pandemic last year.
British festival organisers have said they face cancellation and possible financial ruin if the government does not institute an insurance scheme to protect them from bankruptcy in the event of cancellation owing to the pandemic, the Guardian newspaper said Thursday.
England is currently under the third national lockdown since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country. Similar restriction measures are also in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States have been racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines. Enditem
