Glastonbury 2020: is the festival going ahead?

Glastonbury Festival has released its full 2020 line-up, despite concerns that the spread of coronavirus will lead to the event being cancelled.

US rap star Kendrick Lamar was one of 90 names added to a line-up that includes Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, and Diana Ross.

Is the festival going ahead?

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Organiser Emily Eavis shared a new poster of the line-up yesterday, saying she was releasing it “with the best intentions” given “the current circumstances”.

“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!”

“As things stand we are still working hard to deliver our 50th anniversary Festival in June,” said Eavis.

Government advice is not yet to close all public events, although it is likely the UK will see events cancelled as part of social-distancing measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“The coronavirus outbreak has already affected several tours and festivals, with acts like The Who, BTS, Miley Cyrus and Madonna having cancelled or postponed shows,” says the BBC.

When is the Glastonbury Festival due to take place?

Glastonbury 2020 is due to take place from 24 to 28 June.

How much are tickets?

Standard weekend tickets are priced at £265, plus a £5 booking fee per ticket, up £17 per ticket from 2019.

A deposit of £50 is needed upon booking, with the balance due in April. Under 12s are usually free and do not need a ticket. If you opt for a ticket with transport included, the full cost of the coach journey is required when you book.

How can you get a ticket?

With difficulty. Glastonbury Festival 2020 coach and ticket packages went on sale at 6pm on Thursday 3 October and sold out in just 27 minutes. General tickets went on sale at 9am on Sunday 6 October and sold out in just 34 minutes, as a record 2.4 million fans tried to secure entry.

As the official festival website states, “no other site or agency will be allocated tickets”, and with all tickets for the festival being “individually personalised to the named ticket holder and strictly non-transferable”, getting into the festival using a resold or passed-on ticket is not possible.

For those without a ticket, however, all is not lost. There will be a re-sale for unwanted and unsold tickets on 16 April for coach and 19 April for general, after the line-up has been announced.

Who is performing?

Assuming it goes ahead, Kendrick Lamar, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross and Taylor Swift will headline Glastonbury’s 50th anniversary festival.

Kendrick Lamar will headline the Friday night slot, with Lana Del Rey scheduled to play the set before Lamar on the Pyramid stage.

Paul McCartney will headline on Saturday, with Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds playing the Pyramid stage before he comes on, reports The Guardian.

Diana Ross fills the Sunday teatime “legend” slot, while Taylor Swift will headline on Sunday night.

Headlining the Other stage will be Pet Shop Boys, Dua Lipa and Fatboy Slim.

Other major artists due to appear at the festival include: Camila Cabello, Mabel, Burna Boy and Robyn, along with Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, Supergrass, Lightning Seeds and Thom Yorke.