Back on the Farm

On the 6th March 2025. Glastonbury announced it's first wave of acts for the festival. Including all three headliners. 

Topping the Pyramid Stage on the three days will be The 1975, Neil Young and Olivia Rodrigo. Neil Young had been announced earlier this year following claims that he in fact would not be playing the famous stage, before quickly retracting his statement. 

The 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo had both been really heavily rumoured. Olivia Rodrigo in particular had been the bookies favourite for a number of months.  Other rumoured artists had been  Taylor Swift, Sam Fender, Stevie Wonder and Rihanna (the latter with London stadium shows reportedly on the cards).

Oasis had also been heavily rumoured, however the band had denied they would be playing any festivals following the announcement of the Live 25 dates. 

With The 1975 it seemed like only a matter of time before they headlined, they have become one of the UK's best live music exports, rewritten the rule book on arena shows , and headlined numerous festivals both in the UK and abroad. 

Like them or loathe them. The bands headline slot is probably over due. I'm quite surprised that its taken this long. 

Across the festival there is numerous other huge acts. Rod Stewart will play the 'Legends' slot on Sunday. Charli XCX following her 'Brat' summer will headline the Other Stage on Saturday. With The Prodigy taking up duties on the same stage on Sunday, and Loyle Carner headling on Friday. 

Alanis Morrisette, Biffy Clyro, Noah Kahan, Wolf Alice, The Libertines, Blossoms, Wunderhorse, Franz Ferdinand, Inhaler, Kaiser Chiefs, Kneecap, Royel Otis, Snow Patrol, The Maccabees amongst countless others will take to the 100+ stages at the festival in June. 

It's worth mentioning that this is just the first wave of acts to play the famous festival. I've seen some people say it's the best in years. I have seen others say it's the worst. There has been a lot of polarising opinions. I guess I'm in neither camp. There's some brilliant people on the bill. However, after some of the headliners and acts of recent memory, I can see why some may be disappointed. 

I'll be tuning in definitely, we've still got the 'secret' sets to look forward to, and more and more acts across more and more stages will be announced in due course.

One thing I have seen and that may cause the festival some problems is the stage plans on Saturday. Neil Young is taking to the Pyramid and will pull a relatively large crowd. However, Charli XCX is taking to the festivals second stage. Doechii one of the worlds biggest up and coming artists will take to the West Holts stage on the same evening.

Charli XCX boasts over 32 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Doechii has 39 million whilst their headliner competitor Neil Young has around 6 million listeners per month on the streaming platform.

There is the potential for a mass exodus to both of these stage, and far less watching the headliner. Which could cause some safety concerns. I know that last year, the Other Stage had to closed whilst Avril Lavigne performed, if that happened then, I can imagine that the same will happen with Charli. Who many would argue should be to topping the Pyramid Stage herself.

The iconic festival set to take a year off in 2026, before returning in 2027.

What are your thoughts on the lineup so far? Anyone you think they should have had instead?

Thank you for reading 

Jack