The Glastonbury line-up has been announced for 2023, making it the 53rd year running. The five-day festival is taking place this year between June 21st and 25th, at its normal location at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset. After a two-year break due to the pandemic, Glastonbury returned in 2022 with headliners Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, and Sir Paul McCartney. This year, the pyramid headliners are listed as: Arctic Monkeys, Guns NÔÇÖRoses and Sir Elton John whilst the West Holts Stage headliners are: Kelis, Loyle Carner and Rudimental. In 2018, festival organiser Emily Eavis has spoken about the ÔÇÿmale-dominated cultureÔÇÖ that Glastonbury reinforces from artist domination to the running of the festival. Since this, the festival has strived towards more ÔÇÿgender equalityÔÇÖ however, this year could be considered a total let down with the announcement of all-male headliners. Whilst there is a relatively gender-equal line-up including Aitch, Raye, Loyle Carner, Central Cee and Lizzo, who is apparently co-headliner, having all-male headliners is not striving towards dissembling a ÔÇÿmale-dominatedÔÇÖ culture within music festivals. Later after the announcement, Lana Del Rey spoke out about how she too is headlining this year, but her name wasnÔÇÖt placed among the headliners on the line-up poster. The Sun reported that she ÔÇ£feels let down being presented as an afterthought lagging behind the all-male trio.ÔÇØ The original rumours were that Taylor Swift was likely to play Glastonbury this year whilst also touring; Swift was set to headline Glastonbury in 2020, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst this was never confirmed, Eavis has told The Guardian that ÔÇ£another female artist was set to headline but unfortunately changed their touring plans.ÔÇØ This makes the rumours seem highly likely as Swift has just begun her highly anticipated ÔÇÿThe Eras TourÔÇÖ in the US. Eavis continues that she hopes this artist will play in the next five years and without any update on UK dates for SwiftÔÇÖs tour, perhaps this will be the plan for next year.
The pyramid headliners seem to be an interesting choice, Arctic Monkeys are first to headline on the Friday night. This marks their first time playing in ten years after playing in 2007 and 2013, this is sure to be exciting for fans. The Saturday pyramid headliner Guns NÔÇÖ Roses will make their Glastonbury debut as a headliner. Whilst this is extremely exciting for the band, it is interesting that they have taken the spot over Lizzo and Lana Del Rey to be the main headliner of this stage. It seems odd that an artist with such high popularity as Lizzo hasnÔÇÖt been made a headliner but rather a co-headliner. The announcement of Sir Elton John playing on the pyramid stage comes with the news that this will be his last ever gig in the UK after 50 years of performing. Eavis describes how she wrote him a letter convincing him to play the festival for the first time after noting that he had ÔÇÿfulfilled everything he needed to fulfilÔÇÖ aside from this. After the announcement of this being his final gig, Glastonbury is bound to be very celebratory of his career and honour the mark heÔÇÖs made in the music industry. The Telegraph reports that Sir Elton says, ÔÇ£there is no more fitting way to say goodbye to my British fans.ÔÇØ I think this will be great for both Glastonbury, Sir Elton John and the British public and will make a notable performance in history to wrap up his career. As the closing act on Sunday night, it is bound to be an emotional performance.
Words by Emily Williams
Sources for referenced articles:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/21602128/lana-del-rey-threat-glastonbury-line-up/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/02/sir-elton-john-headline-glastonbury/