Missing out on Glastonbury came with an extra level of FOMO fuelled regret this year. Not only because, well, it’s Glastonbury. But also, because missing this year’s festival meant that it would be a whole two years before another opportunity to visit the magical site of Worthy Farm for one of the biggest festivals in the world arose.
True followers of the festival won’t have been surprised to hear that Glastonbury wouldn’t be taking place in 2018 – every six years the event takes what they call a ‘fallow year’ to allow the site to heal from the damaged caused by the festival’s thousands of visitors stomping all over the place - but a year without Glasto always comes with a bit of a blow.
The BBC, official broadcasters of Glastonbury, seems to have a solution, though. They intend to ease said blow and fill the gaping hole in our hearts with another festival. A really big one. Not at the same time or in the same place and probably not with the same sort of acts and activities. But they’ve got something in the works.
You’ve heard of Radio 1’s Big Weekend, right? Well, brace yourself for The Biggest Weekend. Taking place across the late May bank holiday weekend, an estimated 175,000 people will be able to attend the BBC’s one off festival.
It’s been announced that the festival will take place across four separate sites in the UK – one in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – which sounds absolutely insane but also pretty exciting. The plan is to ‘bring the biggest artists in the world to all parts of the UK’ in a project that involves all of the BBC music stations (so it might be a safe bet to expect a very eclectic selection of music offerings).
Director of BBC Radio and Music, Bob Shennan, said in a statement: ‘BBC Music has a strong history of bringing the nation together for some special moments, and this is the biggest single music event ever attempted by the BBC. We will be celebrating the diversity of music from four different corners of the country, bringing the best UK music to the world and the best global music to the UK’.
Ambitious much? Maybe. Let's be honest, there's no chance in hell that it'll be anything like Glastonbury, which is probably for the best. Some things can never be replaced and attempts to do so should never be made. That said, I don't know about you but I'm hella curious to see how this four site-one festival thing plays out. Good luck to whoever is arranging the lineup.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.