Glastonbury Festival 2008 only breaks even

Organiser Michael Eavis has said that Glastonbury festival made no money this year.

It is the first time in its 39-year history that the legendary bash has not made a profit, which organisers put down to a rise in fuel prices and increased costs generally.

This means there was no margin for investment in next year's event.

Eavis told BBC 6Music: "It was hard work making it work last year because costing had gone through the roof and the diesel costs had gone up by about £200,000. All the other costs had gone up as well.

"Glastonbury costs £22 million now, it's a huge cost. The infrastructure, the fencing, the roads, the water and the loos, the marquees, the management, the security and the police, it goes on and on - so we do have to sell out in order to make it work."

He added: "We still made about a million pounds for the charities we work for, so we actually achieved a million but we didn’t make any beyond that. There's no money to reinvest or anything.

"Having said that, it's the first year in 39 years that we didn’t make anything out of it, so it's not bad really, is it?"

Speaking about next year's event, Eavis remained positive.

he said: "I'm very confident with the bands that we've got next time that we will sell out."

Around 100,000 tickets for Glastonbury 2009 have already been snapped up.