Exclusive: Glastonbury Festival bans hunt from fundraising on site

Glastonbury Festival says it is “absolutely not pro-hunting” and has moved swiftly to ban a hunt from fundraising activities on its site.

The move by the festival follows release of minutes from a meeting of the Mendip Farmers Hunt in Somerset in which the hunt said one reason for their “poor financial state“ was the loss of income from providing stewards when the festival was postponed in 2020.

The minutes were revealed by an anti-badger cull organisation Innocent Badger and the festival claim they had no idea the hunt had been using their event to raise much needed funds.

Glastonbury Festival employs thousands of stewards each year across its vast site. They “mostly come from local PTAs, sports groups and carnival clubs… are recruited by a team of steward coordinators… with these organisations benefiting from the fees paid to the stewards”.

The festival which is held on a farm in Somerset told ITV News: "Glastonbury Festival is absolutely not pro-hunting, and we do not - and would not - donate directly to any hunts.

"It has been brought to our attention that a group of these stewards represented a local hunt.

"We can confirm that this group will not be stewarding at Glastonbury in the future, and that we have fully vetted our list of stewarding groups to ensure that there are no other hunting organisations represented on it."

The Mendip Farmers Hunt have been approached for comment and have not replied to our questions.