Glastonbury festival has announced its full line-up of more than 3,000 performances between June 25th and 29th, adding a number of new artists to the main stages along with timings and a series of tantalising secret sets.
Plenty of eyes will be on the West Holts stage at 4pm on Saturday, for Kneecap. There have been calls in some quarters for the punkish Northern Ireland rap-rave trio to be pulled from the line-up, after footage emerged of them allegedly saying “the only good Tory is a dead Tory” and “up Hamas, up Hizbullah”. Commons leader and cabinet minister Lucy Powell said in parliament: “I’m sure that no one in this House would want to see them playing at Glastonbury”.
The group’s Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh was later charged with a terrorism offence, with Met police saying he aroused “reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organisation”. He is due in court on June 18th. The group have already been axed from Glasgow’s TRNSMT festival, but an appearance at London’s Wide Awake festival went ahead.
Meanwhile, installed in a plum spot at 6.15pm on the Pyramid stage on Saturday night, after John Fogerty and before Raye and Neil Young, is an act called Patchwork – unlikely to be the “alternative country fusion” band from British Columbia or Tennessee’s “occult emotional hard-core” outfit of the same name. In 2023, Glastonbury hosted a similarly unheard-of band called the Churnups playing on the Pyramid stage, who ended up being Foo Fighters.
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Glastonbury organisers said they would not provide any further information about Patchwork. There are also “to be announced” slots on late afternoon Friday on the Pyramid stage, Friday morning on the Woodsies stage (which has previously hosted secret sets from Kasabian and the Killers) and Saturday evening on the Park stage (Pulp and Jack White have been secret guests there in the past).
Over on the Tree stage, a previously announced artist listed with a seemingly random stream of glyphs is likely to be Four Tet, who curates a Spotify playlist under the same name.
New artist additions to the Other stage include drum’n’bass legends Fabio & Grooverider opening on Friday, playing tracks in symphonic arrangements with the Outlook Orchestra, plus pop artists Rizzle Kicks and Good Neighbours, and singer-songwriters Nadine Shah and Louis Dunford.
Glass Beams and CA7riel & Paco Amoroso are among those added to West Holts, while Jalen Ngonda, Ichiko Aoba, Horsegirl, John Glacier and Geordie Greep join other new names on the Park stage.
Most of the other big stages had already announced their full line-ups – including a range of Hollywood names doing Q&As and talks at the Pilton Palais cinema, namely, Paul Mescal, Andrew Garfield, Tilda Swinton, Ncuti Gatwa, Jodie Comer, Taron Egerton, Margot Robbie, Edgar Wright and Jesse Armstrong.
Actor Dominic West and TV presenter Alice Roberts will dispense wisdom at the Free University of Glastonbury, while debaters at the Speakers Forum include MPs Ellie Chowns and Clive Lewis, plus names such as Dale Vince, Asif Kapadia and Owen Jones.
And there is the usual range of WTF-provoking artist names further down the bill, this year including Twat Union, Psycho-Acoustic Goat, Spambiguous Intentions, Formidable Vegetable, DJ Fart Eater doing a back-to-back set with DJ Stink Bomb, and an experience entitled Oedipussi: Choose Your Own Drag Adventure.
Glastonbury organisers have also announced details for a series of events to open the festival, including a rare Wednesday night event on the Pyramid stage entitled Look to the Skies.
This is the first theatre and circus show on the Pyramid since 1990, involving “a breathtaking aerial odyssey, with high-wire walkers, acrobats and incredible circus performances”.
It will complement the usual opening ceremony at the Green Fields, where a “flame of hope”, made up of “15 sacred flames from around the world” will be “honoured with a thousand voices who will unite in a powerful mantra for peace to create a collective sense of unity, love and purpose”, concluding in a firework display.
Then, on Thursday afternoon at 12.30pm, “the Green Fields ask you to join them in the Sacred Space to create the Biggest Mantra for Peace ever seen at Glastonbury festival – to demonstrate compassion and solidarity with those living in conflict and create a moment of reflection and celebration of peace, hope and unity”.
Ticket holders will now pore over the line-up to spot any big clashes, including two of the most talked-about names in global pop: Charli XCX and Doechii, playing on different stages at the same time on Saturday night.
The full line-up for Glastonbury 2025 is available on the festival’s website. This year’s app will go live later in the week. – The Guardian
