Until you’ve been hiding below a rock since 1970 you’ll take note of the five-day Glastonbury competition held each and every June (excluding “fallow” years to leisure the land and the organisers), close to Pilton in Somerset. Glastonbury is as a lot a pillar of the English summer season as tennis at Wimbledon or opera at Glyndebourne.
It’s a white, middle-class ceremony of passage and a straightforward win for other folks wishing peer approval and the cultural capital that includes the cost of a price tag. It’s pricey and unique and the reserving coverage displays its target audience.
This yr’s headliners come with indie pop-rock darlings The 1975, offended lady ideally suited Olivia Rodrigo, old-school famous person Neil Younger together with his band the Chrome Hearts, with circle of relatives favorite Rod Stewart filling the Sunday teatime “legend” slot.
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Different acts filling the 100-plus phases come with Brat popster Charli XCX, English hip-hopper Loyle Carner, authentic unhealthy boys The Prodigy (with out authentic frontman Keith Flint, RIP) plus Raye, Doechii, Noah Kahan, Gracie Abrams, and previous execs Alanis Morissette, En Style and Gary Numan.
With tickets costing £378.50 for Glastonbury 2025, are the 210,000 attendees getting price for cash?
A Reddit thread titled “Glastonbury 2025 lineup, thoughts?”, offers a flavour of a few repeatedly aired critiques. Disenchanted buyer praf973 “tried to get tickets but was unsuccessful. I’m not bitter, but the line up isn’t really looking that great.” Every other commenter, While-I-was-forced, declared: “Nothing to get excited about. It’s gone too commercial and sterile.”
Ok_Handle_3530 gave a unique point of view: “This line-up looks … great, people are too hard to please.” ShankSpencer opined, “There are no good line-ups any more. No one young listens to bands any more, so there are no headline acts.”
Neil Younger and his band the Chrome Hearts will seem at the invoice this yr.
The Picture Get entry to / Alamy
The exceptionally standard competition offered out in 35 mins this yr even sooner than the artists have been introduced, elevating the query: has Glastonbury change into a sufferer of its personal luck?
Remaining yr there have been problems with overcrowding at probably the most smaller phases developing problems for enthusiasts short of to look acts such because the Sugababes. Some units have been even being stopped early as a result of crowd surges.
However what’s truly at the back of those proceedings in regards to the lineup and are they justified? There’s been a converting of the guard because the veteran technology of performers from the Nineteen Sixties, Nineteen Seventies and Eighties step again from appearing as a result of they have got retired, are too in poor health or have died.
There doesn’t appear to be sufficient credible stadium acts from the Nineties onwards to fill their sneakers, resulting in a loss of enthusiasm for the present choices. The brand new technology of acts have a possibility to provoke, however lots of them don’t have the quantity of hits that legacy acts akin to Elton John or Paul McCartney supply – nor the cross-generational attraction.
Olivia Rodrigo will elevate younger hearts this yr.
Anne-Marie Forker / Alamy
There may be a rising sense that the cultural significance of the rock band is fading. Gen Z has way more in the best way of distractions than earlier generations with myriad varieties of social media and virtual leisure. With such a lot pageant for his or her consideration, the tribal allegiances that bands used to command would possibly really feel dated and beside the point to many more youthful other folks.
On their unmarried Guys, considered one of this yr’s headliners, The 1975 trill: “The moment that we started a band was the best thing that ever happened.” Possibly lead singer Matty Healy’s love affair with the mythology of rock’n’roll is not broadly shared.
Glastonbury has additionally been criticised for a loss of variety. Clubbing mag Mixmag made the purpose that during 2023, “the number of male acts playing this year’s Glastonbury Festival is nearly double that of female acts”.
In a similar fashion, the competition’s lineup and target audience are predominantly white and fail to adequately replicate the British track business. Despite the fact that there were a couple of black bands and artists headlining through the years, it wasn’t till 2019 that the primary solo black British performer headlined at the Pyramid level, with an unforgettable set from London rapper Stormzy in a black Union Jack stab vest designed through Banksy.
Stormzy at Glasto in 2019.
Jason Richardson / Alamy
For Glastonbury to transport with the days, a extra numerous reserving coverage is had to widen the target audience demographic and the competition’s attraction. In spite of having loved the development, mixed-heritage track journalist and educational Jenessa Williams famous: “I was still left with the feeling that certain punters saw black artists as a mockable novelty, a by-product to tolerate rather than truly a piece of the event’s heart and soul.”
After which there’s the problem of value. Consistent with a 2024 record, two-thirds of UK adults really feel that track fairs are changing into too pricey. Well-liked track artists have needed to pivot in opposition to reside occasions for source of revenue technology as a result of the deficient returns from streaming in comparison to promoting albums.
So are main excursions and bigger fairs akin to Glastonbury sucking income out of the track financial system? Analysis presentations that whilst large high-profile match excursions are making hundreds of thousands, on the different finish of the spectrum grassroots venues – the place new ability is incubated – are buckling below a loss of fortify and the prohibitive prices of operating their operations.
Glastonbury gained’t be making an look in 2026, the following fallow yr for leisure and restoration. This may occasionally create a possibility for organiser Emily Eavis to replicate on probably the most extra problematical problems the competition faces, from variety within the target audience and artists, to the sustainability of the ability pipeline.
Perhaps the ultimate must move to American rapper Azealia Banks commenting in this yr’s competition lineup: “Glastonbury is kinda cooked.”
