Glastonbury Festival: Celebrities fly in by jets and helicopters despite flaunting eco-friendly credentials
Virtue-signalling celebrities are nothing new but Glastonbury seems to be taking the organic, ethically sourced biscuit when it comes to climate change hypocrisy.
While many of the festival’s performers are keen to flaunt their eco-friendly credentials, the event has a sizeable carbon footprint – made all the worse by jet-set VIPs travelling to Worthy Farm by helicopter.
The festival is partnered with Greenpeace and organisers say the festival “does not endorse or facilitate travel by helicopter, except for operational purposes”.
But I can reveal that flying into the festival has never been more popular.
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A spokesman for one company running a chopper service to the event, Charter A, tells me: “It continues to be a hugely popular way to travel to Glastonbury. We’re always rammed for Glastonbury and fully booked as early as February. It was the same again this year.”
Another company, Air Charter Service, which has two heliports serving the festival, tweeted: “We’ve had a high-flying day at #Glastonbury! With a busy day of landings across both our Air Charter Service Heliports, our team has been working hard to ensure your travel experience is unforgettable.”
One local anti-noise group reported 85 flights on Friday alone while a resident living 48 kilometres from Worthy Farm noted: “The helicopters overhead have been relentless today in case anyone’s wondering how green the music industry’s credentials are.”
Meanwhile, the uber-exclusive Newt in Somerset hotel has offered a runway for private planes — a former military base at Henstridge — to its Glastonbury guests for the first time, in addition to its six helipads.
It comes despite musicians trumpeting their own eco-credentials Coldplay, who performed on the Pyramid Stage last night, have announced they have cut their tour’s carbon footprint by more than 50 per cent.
They encourage fans to help power their shows with dynamo bikes and kinetic dance floors.
Fellow headliner Dua Lipa has also been working to make her tours greener with measures such as energy-efficient lighting.