Glastonbury has been fined £31,000

Glastonbury festival has to pay a fine of £31,000 due to a sewage leak killing wildlife in 2014.

The contents of a steel container ended up in a stream at the event two years ago, with around 42 fish dying and the water being harmed by 20,000 gallons of untreated human sewage. As a result, Bristol magistrates court has handed out a fine, although the district judge said Michael Eavis' festival had “low culpability” for the incident.

Despite the Environment Agency claiming Glasto has grown bigger than the amount of waste it can deal with, judge Simon Cooper praised the waste management efforts of the Somerset festival.

“I am still slightly amused that it has been necessary to go to this level of detail. I am satisfied that there was proper planning for the festival and no criticism is made of that. There was a waste management plan, there was a rivers and streams management plan. I am impressed by how responsive Glastonbury Festivals Ltd have been."

However, Cooper did say the festival could have acted quicker in contacting the authorities about the incident, meaning the case may not have had to go on for so long.

Eavis has assured a similar matter will not happen in the future, but didn't see the need of going to court. "It’s a great result and I think we were listened to fairly. I don’t really think it was necessary to get this far. We pleaded guilty to make it easier for them yet they still wanted to pursue this case.

“I think it was a bit of a waste of time, to be honest with you. It wasn’t that serious a crime really. We did our very, very best when we found the leak – we really did all that we should have done within the timescale."

This year's Glasto takes place from June 22 to June 26, with DJs Bicep, Eats Everything, Annie Mac and Leon Vynehall all included on the Silver Hayes line-up and Carl Cox, Andy C and Daniel Avery on the Arcadia Spectacular stage.

[Via: the Guardian]

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter