Metal tops bill at Glastonbury?

This year’s Glastonbury festival has a new addition to the bill, and it’s metal but not as you know it.

For festival goers used to standard hippy fare, the good news is not that British heavy metallers Iron Maiden have got a coveted headline slot (they haven’t), but that Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis has expanded his environmental endeavours and ordered more than 200,000 reusable cups.

But these reusable cups comes with a twist — they’re not made of paper or cardboard but of Sheffield steel and built in Birmingham.

Rocking up to any of the 10 bars at the festival, music fans will get a resusable steel cup for ÂŁ5 when they buy their first pint, and can then swap it for a clean one whenever they need a refill.

Festival organisers always viewed the amount of plastic as a problem, but with 200,000 steel cups in circulation the environmental impact of the festival will not only drop, but Glastonbury will also do its bit for British steel.

“Week after week, there’s a story in the national press about jobs in the UK steel industry being put at risk,” said festival organiser Michael Eavis. “There’s seemingly no end to the negative slide of this critical industry, and if the jobs, skills and infrastructure are lost they won’t be replaced.

“We’ve worked on this project over the last three years, which will hopefully encourage other UK businesses to think about how they can support our steel industry during these very challenging times.”

Let’s hope other firms follow Mr Eavis’ lead, now mine’s a pint, and if you don’t mind I’ll have it in a stainless steel cup.