At the very beginning of 2025, Neil Young made a big announcement: He was out as headliner of this year's Glastonbury Festival. The festival was a "corporate turn-off" with a partnership with the BBC, and Young wanted nothing to do with it. This was news to everyone, since Glastonbury hadn't yet announced its lineup. Soon after, calls were made, and Young said that he'd headline the festival after all, blaming the breakdown on "an error in the information received." Today, Glastonbury has finally unveiled its initial lineup, and Neil Young is indeed headlining the Pyramid Stage on Saturday night. He's smack-dab in the middle of two other headliners, the 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo, who have basically nothing in common with Neil Young.
It's remarkable to see 79-year-old Neil Young slated to headline one of the world's biggest festivals, not even in the usual designated legend spot. On the Saturday-night bill, the other artists in the top line are all much-younger pop-girl types: Charli XCX, Raye, and Doechii. (You will be relieved to learn that those three artists' combined ages do not exceed that of Neil Young.) The legend spot is going to Rod Stewart, who is one year older than Neil Young. Other top-line artists on this year's Glastonbury bill include Noah Kahan, Loyle Carner, Biffy Clyro, the Prodigy, and Alanis Morissette.
There are actually a lot of acts on this Glastonbury bill who could conceivably be considered legends. It's getting increasingly hard to separate legacy acts from of-the-moment ones, but the festival will feature a great many people with at least a couple of decades in the game. In addition to Young, Stewart, Morissette, and the Prodigy, this year's Glastonbury will feature the likes of John Fogerty, Nile Rogers & Chic,Busta Rhymes, Deftones, the Libertines, Weezer, TV On The Radio, Supergrass, Nick Lowe, Gary Numan, Franz Ferdinand, Beth Gibbons, Fatboy Slim, Snow Patrol, En Vogue, Burning Spear, Black Uhuru, Cymande, the Selecter, Leftfield, Scissor Sisters, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Kaiser Chiefs.
And we haven't even gotten to many of the big names on the bill. It also includes Wet Leg, Father John Misty, Turnstile, St. Vincent, Lucy Dacus, Amyl And The Sniffers, Four Tet, Caribou, Brandi Carlile, Shaboozey, Denzel Curry, Faye Webster, Future Islands, Gracie Abrams, PinkPantheress, Japanese Breakfast, Beabadoobee, Djo, ANOHNI And The Johnsons, AJ Tracey, JADE, Floating Points, Kneecap, OSEES, Amaarae, BADBADNOTGOOD, Girl In Red, Goat, Katy J Pearson, Jorja Smith, Parcels, English Teacher, Overmono, Lola Young, Wolf Alice, Maribou State, and Ezra Collective, among many others. More acts are on the way. The entire affair is happening 6/25-29 at Worthy Farm in Pilton, and you can find the necessary information here.
