Glastonbury makes no profit

• 3rd Nov 2008

This years Glastonbury has failed to make a profit. This is the first time since it began that the festival has made no money.

As many tickets did not sell in advance, it was known that the festival was under pressure and was not proving as popular as previous years; which have seen tickets sell out in just 3 hours.

Organiser Michael Eavis cited rising costs, esspecially that of fuel, for the festival's failure to turn a profit. Others have suggested it was due to Jay-Z appearing as a headliner.

“Glastonbury costs £22m now, it's a huge cost,” Eavis told BBC 6 Music. “The infrastructure, the fencing, the roads, the water and the loos, the marquees, the management, the security and the police, it goes on and on so we do have to sell out in order to make it work.”

“Costing had gone through the roof and the diesel costs had gone up by about 200,000 pounds,” he said. “All the other costs had gone up as well.”

The festival still managed to give a million pound donation to their chosen charities, “we didn't make any beyond that,” Eavis said. “There's no money to reinvest or anything”.

Despite the festival's, and currently the country's, economic woes, Eavis didn't seen concerned for the future, “It's the first year in 39 years that we didn't make anything out of it,” he said, “so it's not bad really is it?”