After two years of Covid-enforced cancellations, Glastonbury Festival, the biggest and most prestigious festival in the UK, is set to return this summer.
The four days at the end of June as usual has a packed line-up and also has the traditional superstar headliners, with this year’s headliners including both the youngest and oldest ever to take centre-stage at Worthy Farm.
Here’s a look at this year’s headliners and some other notable names who will be performing this year.
Billie Eilish
Taking the Friday evening slot will be the youngest ever headliner, American singer Billie Eilish.
Still only 20, Eilish had a meteoric rise as a teenager that saw her become a global superstar by the age of 17, take a clean sweep of the four main Grammy awards at 18 and co-write and perform the theme song of the 25th James Bond film, ‘No Time To Die’, at 19.
It was at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, with the release of her debut album ‘When we fall asleep, where do we go?’, that her superstardom truly took off and she performed on the Other Stage at the festival that year.
However, this will be her first appearance as a headliner.
Sir Paul McCartney
Part of the most famous band of all time and to some perhaps the greatest singer-songwriter in history, McCartney will have turned 80 by the time he takes to the Pyramid stages on 25 June this summer.
In a career spanning 60 years, he has cemented his place in British culture with his solo career, his work with Wings and of course his years in The Beatles that saw him produce classic songs such as ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Let It Be’.
He has played Glastonbury once previously in 2004 and was due to perform in 2020, with this set on the Saturday set to be a rejigged version of what was in the offing then.
Here’s hoping it could also become a modern classic at the festival.
Kendrick Lamar
American rapper Kendrick Lamar has performed at festivals in this country before, but this year will be his first time at Glastonbury when he takes the Sunday evening slot.
The last 10 years have seen him become one of the biggest rappers in the world and seen him described as one of the most influential in recent years.
He has had three number one albums in the US, the last of which, ‘DAMN’, was a particularly big success and featured the songs ‘DNA’ and ‘Humble’ that became big hits in the UK in 2017.
Diana Ross
The final headliner from this year’s Glastonbury is Diana Ross, who will serve as Sunday’s ‘Teatime Legend’.
In a career span similar to that of McCartney, she first made her name in the 1960s when she was part of the group The Supremes.
Ross was a central part of classic songs such as ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ and ‘Baby Love’, with the band earning their status as the most successful artists to come out of the famous Motown label of the 1950s and ‘60s.
Since leaving The Supremes in 1970, she has also had a successful solo career and her performance at Glastonbury is unsurprisingly one to look out for – following in the tradition of many other memorable legend slots.
Looking elsewhere around the line-up, too, there’re plenty of other artists whose appearances are worth mentioning.
If rock and indie is your thing, some notable names include Foals, Glass Animals, Wolf Alice, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and one of the UK’s brightest young stars Sam Fender.
Meanwhile, big global names Doja Cat and Olivia Rodrigo will both be making their first Glastonbury appearances and some other names to look out for include newcomers Little Simz, Griff and Arlo Parks.
The festival is scheduled to take place from 22–26 June, with live coverage across the BBC for those of us who aren’t fortunate enough to get tickets ourselves!
Feature Image Credit: Jaswooduk, via Wikimedia Commons.
