The Glastonbury festival has been cancelled for a second year running due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Organisers Michael and Emily Eavis announced on Thursday (21.01.21) that the rescheduled 2020 festival - which would have been the event's 50th anniversary - would not go ahead in 2021 due to the continued spread of coronavirus throughout the UK and the restrictions that are in place to fight the respiratory illness.

A statement released via the official Glastonbury Twitter page read: "With great regret, we must announce that this year's Glastonbury Festival will not take place, and that this will be another enforced fallow year for us.

"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.

"As with last year, we would like to offer all those who secured a ticket in October 2019 the opportunity to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, and guarantee the chance to buy a ticket for Glastonbury 2022.

"We are very appreciative of the faith and trust placed in us by those of you with deposits, and we are very confident we can deliver something really special for us all in 2022!"

"We thank you for the incredible continued support and let's look forward to better times ahead.

"With love, Michael & Emily."

The decision to call off the festival for a second year in a row comes despite the best efforts being made to get fans at Worthy Farm and the artists on stage, which would have included headliners Taylor Swift, Sir Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar.

Last month, Emily said: "We're doing everything we can on our end to plan and prepare but I think we're still quite a long way from being able to say we're confident 2021 will go ahead."

Beatles legend McCartney previously admitted that headlining Glastonbury was not looking likely in 2021 due to the numbers of people who attend the world famous music event and how coronavirus spreads.

The 78-year-old musician said: "This is the problem, the thing we do is we get 100,000 people closely packed together with flags and no masks - talk about a super-spreader.

"I’d love it to be in my diary but I have a feeling it’s not going to be.”