The first Glastonbury Festival cancellation linked to a disease outbreak occurred in 2001. That year’s event was called off amid the UK foot-and-mouth disease crisis, alongside concerns about safety and crowd control.
Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious viral illness affecting cloven-hoofed animals, including cattle, sheep and pigs. The 2001 British outbreak created severe restrictions on movement and public events, especially on rural farmland. Because Glastonbury takes place at Worthy Farm, the outbreak posed practical and biosecurity concerns.
The cancellation also followed the problems of the 2000 festival, when large numbers of people entered without tickets and overcrowding created serious safety risks. Organisers used the fallow year to redesign security, improve access controls and construct the large perimeter fence later known as the superfence.
Glastonbury eventually returned in 2002, with Coldplay, Rod Stewart and the Stereophonics among the headliners. The festival was cancelled again in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that was later than the 2001 cancellation.