Charli XCX, Raye, Olivia Rodrigo to headline Glastonbury alongside legends

LONDON – Britain’s iconic Glastonbury Festival unveiled its line-up on March 6, with new artistes Charli XCX and Olivia Rodrigo set to perform alongside veteran stars Neil Young and Rod Stewart.

Other big names on the bill include Raye, The Prodigy, Alanis Morissette and Snow Patrol, organisers said.

Stewart, 80, is due to perform the Sunday legend slot while Rodrigo, 22, will close the festival, which runs from June 25 to 29.

Young will headline for the second time despite

pulling out in January,

saying the festival has become “a corporate turn-off, and not for me like it used to be”.

The 79-year-old quickly had a change of heart and said he would be playing after all, blaming his decision on “an error in the information I received”.

Charli XCX, who picked up three Grammys in February, scooped five gongs at The Brit Awards, the annual celebration of British music on March 1. Brat, the 32-year-old artiste’s sixth album, a celebration of a relaxed, partying lifestyle, transformed her into one of music’s top stars in 2024.

Tickets for the 2025 Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in south-west England sold out within 35 minutes when they went on sale in November, with standard tickets priced at £373.50 (S$641).

Glastonbury attracted more than 210,000 fans in 2024, hosting 3,000 performances across some 80 stages. Many of the gigs were broadcast by the BBC, which has partnered the festival since 1997.

Glasto, as the festival is popularly known, was inspired by Britain’s 1960s counterculture and hippie movements, with its first iteration as the Pilton Festival in 1970.

Glam rockers T. Rex were the first headliners. Since then, it has attracted cult status and big names, from David Bowie and Paul McCartney to Stormzy and Elton John, who played his final British gig there in 2023. AFP