Glastonbury Festival 2020: Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar set to headline 50th edition of iconic music event
It's official. It's been announced that Taylor Swift will close out the 50th edition of the legendary Glastonbury Festival with a headlining slot on Sunday, June 28, 2020. She will be joined on the Pyramid stage by fellow pop icons Paul McCartney and Diana Ross - the latter will be performing earlier in the tea-time legends slot.
Swift, who has won 10 Grammys and 29 AMAs, and was this year voted Artist of the Decade by the American Music Awards and Billboard's Woman of the Decade, was understandably ecstatic about the announcement and took to Instagram to share the good news with her 124 million followers.
The 30-year-old American pop star will be the sixth solo female headliner in the festival’s 50-year history. She's set to kick off her Lover Fest tour on June 20 in Belgium, so it will be a conveniently short trip to Glastonbury founder Micheal Eavis's Worthy Farm, the site of the five-day festival which will take place at the end of June next year.
In a time when most music festivals are either canceling or postponing their events in light of the recent coronavirus outbreak, it was recently announced that the popular rapper Kendrick Lamar will be the Friday night headliner for this year's Glastonbury Festival, which will be held from June 24-28.
Other confirmed big-name acts include FKA twigs, Burna Boy, Robyn, Thom Yorke, Ed O'Brien (as EOB), Camila Cabello, and Caribou, among others. Lovers and patrons of the legendary annual music festival are all hoping that the current global pandemic will cool down by June.
"No one has a crystal ball to see exactly where we will all be 15 weeks from now, but we are keeping our fingers firmly crossed that it will be here at Worthy Farm for the greatest show on Earth," read a note from festival organizer Emily Eavis. We fervently hope so too!
Here's all you need to know about the storied Glastonbury fest which has seen hundreds of mega-stars perform on its various acclaimed stages since 1970:
When are the festival dates?
The 50th edition of the Glastonbury Festival will be held over five days from Wednesday, June 24 till Sunday, June 28 in 2020.
What will be happening?
Glastonbury is one of the biggest, most-beloved music festivals in the world, and hundreds of thousands of people flock to the UK every year to catch the biggest musical acts in the world perform on its celebrated triangular Pyramid stage - the hallowed main stage is the centerpiece of the festival and was built as a one-tenth-sized replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza – it is an iconic symbol of British music culture, and has hosted numerous headliners such as David Bowie, Echo and The Bunnymen, Radiohead, Blur, Muse, Oasis, Johnny Cash, Bjork, Rage Against the Machine, The Cure, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Adele, Kylie Minogue, Jay-Z and Stormzy.
But there are other main stages as well, such as Other, Park, John Peel, West Holts, Silver Hays, Avalon, Acoustic, Glade, and Sonic, just to name a few. There are also fairgrounds, artists, jugglers, acrobats, fire-eaters, nightclub districts, political debates and comedians, fields full of healers, tarot readers, masseurs, jewelry makers, bread bakers, kids entertainment, charity campaigners and a whole lot more. It is essentially a massive living, vibrant, cultural cosmopolis that makes Worthy Farm its home for one long weekend.
Who will be performing?
Glastonbury has traditionally been tight-lipped about who will be performing at the festival, but as of now, we know that Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney will be headlining and that Diana Ross and Aerosmith will also be doing sets. Emily Eavis, founder Michael Eavis's daughter has also mentioned that the Other Stage will feature “Pyramid level headliners,” so we can expect a plethora of huge music talent to be present. Kendrick Lamar, Madonna, The 1975, Foals, Green Day, Queen with Adam Lambert, Wolf Alice, Coldplay, and Twenty One Pilots are currently being touted as likely candidates for one of the main stages.
Who's behind this operation?
We have dairy farmer Michael Eavis to thank for this. The festival has been held on his farmland called Worthy Farm, in Somerset, England since 1970. His daughter, Emily Eavis, alongside her husband Nick Dewey, who has previously managed bands like the Chemical Brothers, is the co-organizer of the festival along with her father and has taken over full responsibility for booking the massive festival's line-up.
Where can you get tickets?
If you wanted to buy a ticket to the festival, you might be out of luck. Glastonbury Festival 2020 tickets with coach packages went on sale on October 3 and sold out in just 27 minutes! The general tickets then went on sale on October 6 and sold out in a mere 34 minutes. A resale for unwanted and unpaid tickets will take place in April 2020, but you must be registered in order to be eligible for that. So far a whopping 2.4 million people have already done so! The price of the £270 general ticket includes the booking fee, festival entry, five nights camping, a free program and mini-guide, onsite newspaper, mobile charging points, and firewood. A portion of the ticket price is also donated to Oxfam, Greenpeace, WaterAid and hundreds of other worthy causes, while funds are also used to improve the site’s infrastructure and environmental impact.
Where can you watch it?
If you can't make it to the festival in person, no problem. You'll still be able to catch it live. BBC TV will provide general broadcast reportage for the festival. Radio coverage over the festival weekend is on 6Music, Radio 1, Radio 2, 1Xtra, and Radio 5 Live. TV coverage is live on BBC2, with concert specials on BBC4. There is also coverage on interactive TV (using the ‘red button’) and in the new media sphere. And on the web, over 80 sets from individual artists will be streamed live on bbc.co.uk/glastonbury
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Catching a show at Glastonbury is a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience. The good news is that an amendment to Worthy Farm’s current license means that a further 7,000 people will be allowed to go to Glastonbury in 2021, provided they get there by public transport. This will give next year's festival a total capacity of 210,000, so if you play your cards right, you might just be one of the few lucky ones who get to snag a ticket to one of the world's greatest music festivals! Here's some helpful tricks and tips that might get you a headstart for next year. Best of luck to you!