The festival's tent city is a temporary home to 175,000 people

Metal pegs that are left behind can harm the cows that live on Worthy Farm, Somerset, where the festival is held.

Organiser Michael Eavis will instead ask fans to use a "very stout" biodegradable peg made of potato starch that is used in the turf industry.

The registration period for this year's event has now opened. Anyone wanting to attend must register by 15 March.

They must submit their details and a photo, which will be printed on their ticket in an attempt to beat touts.

Michael Eavis hosts the festival on his dairy farm in Somerset

Registration does not guarantee a ticket, but everyone who wants to buy a ticket when they go on sale on 6 April must have registered first.

Some 175,000 people will attend the festival from 27-29 June.

Mr Eavis has a skip on his dairy farm full of tent pegs that have been recovered since last year's event.

They are "a real problem for the cows", he told BBC News.

"We're going to buy a biodegradable tent peg this year, but it is very stout actually. They use it in the turf industry and we've just discovered it.

"So we're going to force people to use the tent pegs and not use the wire ones. Potato starch, they're actually made from."

Thousands of metal tent pegs have been collected from Worthy Farm

Different prototypes have been tested, with organisers looking for something that is very strong during the festival but breaks down in the ground over subsequent months.

The move is one of a range of measures to be announced in March aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the festival under the slogan "leave no trace".

Last year, revellers were told any tents that were left behind would be sent to crisis areas around the world.

But owing to a mix-up over who was supposed to collect them, many were binned.