Michael Eavis has been talking to the NME about Mendip District Council’s decision he refuse a licence for Glastonbury 2003.
"It was unbelievable. I could not believe it. It was the best application we have ever had. It was the strongest and most robust. We'd already succeeded with the fence, we'd proved that we can do it. We were confident. We had the police on our side. We should have won really." Eavis reckons the absence of six members of the licensing committee went against him. "It was really close, we should have really won it. People were away doing other things. It's just a shame, it was really bad timing. "
The four reasons for refusing the licence were given as follows: the festival has an unacceptable environmental impact, it causes an unacceptable increase in crime and disorder, particularly in the village outside the Pilton site, the location of the site is unsuitable and “taking into account the past failure to comply with licensed conditions the applicant is unfit to hold the licence".
The crux of the problem is that increased security on site this year in order to stop the traditional ‘fence hoppers’ pushed non-ticket holders into local villages. Eavis' proposal pledged to fund security officers and extra police off site to combat this problem next year – but the opposition were unconvinced.
Defending last year’s festival he told NME: "They say there was a lot of trespass, but there was no actual violence, no one got punched or anything like that. Two-hundred people were roaming around the village generally being a nuisance, but they weren't fighting people; people weren't assaulted or anything."
Eavis will appeal against the ruling immediately and is confident of eventually winning permission to hold the event next June.