The erection Licence granted allows for the equivalent number of tickets as this year’s festival to be made available. Glastonbury’s future would appear to have been saved by the so-called ‘superfence’. The festival looked on the verge of closing three years ago after a ‘break–in’ by an estimated 250,000 people caused chaos on the site, and brought great distress to Mr Eavis’s neighbours. With up to 150,000 tickets available this involves staging the world’s largest outdoor event. The festival began in 1970, but Eavis declared this the best year after an outstanding headline performance from Radiohead.

Rumours and conjecture as to the bill for 2004 abound with Sir Paul McCartney (why don’t people just Let it Be?) high on the list of possible headliners. Prince and Oasis are also in the running. This year’s festival sold out in just 18 hours and tickets were being advertised for £1,000 on websites. As a result Eavis is investigating a computerised ticketing system that would deter touts.

The detailed version of the approval will take a few more weeks as stated on the festival web site as final details need to be negotiated with the council. Some of the arguments applied by Melvin Benn, MD of Mean Fiddler Organization to convince the board are posted on the web site here.