2025 Headliners

[SwallowOrSleepOnTheWetSpot]

33 minutes ago, assorted said:

Again, this is me strictly doing uneducated fan fiction like most others here, but Swift is different than Madonna and Prince in that she was already booked once and now has a relationship with the festival and likely wants to do it when it fits - Madonna and Prince were acts the festival was chasing, not ones already caught.

 

In terms of her current show and it not fitting Glastonbury - agreed. But whatever she’s thinking in 2027 won’t be her current show, and I do believe she plans her life that far in advance, and I think she wants to to do Glastonbury at some point, so why not 2027? 

 

Regardless of if it’s because of Swift, I do think there’s a reason we don’t know yet why they pulled up the fallow year (maybe Michael health? A upcoming business deal? But something) and I assume we will eventually find out. 

 

But Taylor was also booked by a bunch of other European fests in 2020; would we argue that she'll likely want to play something like Roskilde or NOS Alive as well when it fits? I'm sure her team is still on good terms with Glasto but I wouldn't assume she'll make it a priority going forward.

 

 

[incident]

4 minutes ago, SwallowOrSleepOnTheWetSpot said:

But Taylor was also booked by a bunch of other European fests in 2020; would we argue that she'll likely want to play something like Roskilde or NOS Alive as well when it fits?

 

In short, yes.

 

Would definitely expect that other festivals will also be on the cards when she does choose to do something stripped back.

Edited August 21 by incident

[Suprefan]

4 minutes ago, incident said:

 

In short, yes.

 

Would definitely expect that other festivals will also be on the cards when she does choose to do something stripped back.

except the swifties are gonna hate the next show because it wont be 3 1/2 hours and only be 20 songs. Thats the corner she put herself into now. Nobody should really be doing that unless its your last tour or youve been doing it your entire career. And that production was pretty stripped back anyway. Compare it to the prior one and its not that elaborate. You couldnt have big elements because of the time constraints, costume changes and long setlist. If it was a big thing then its probably an extra 30 minutes in there with big production pieces.

 

Beyonce was 2 hours and 45 minutes if the full setlist was done during Renaissance for example. And that had insane production values.  If she cut the 3 song section its just under 2 1/2. 
 

Even Madonna's show had crazier production than Taylor's. She had a stadium show inside an arena. 
 

If she decided to hit up every festival at one point its gonna be a tipping point for some. Cause if her fees is ridiculous then prices will have to reflect. Obviously with Glasto itll have to be reduced but by whatever year it happens the ticket cost will have risen a bit anyway. At least there will be zero concern over region locking the stream of  the performance. Unless bbc decides to go full pay per view finally.

[Suprefan]

On 8/20/2024 at 12:33 AM, GrumpyRaver said:

Would be a great way to kill off the festival.

cant kill off a festival if its sold out before you book even one artist. Only way to see if the festival would struggle is if you announced a line up and then ticket sales afterwards. No blind sale at all. And have an open resale market for tickets too. The festival is going to keep moving into the direction of the dua's and sza's anyway because theyll have to. If they kept on going with just the old hat at the top of the line up youll have made sure the future wasnt going to go as well. Why should younger attendees go if all theyre gonna get is  the Billy Joels,  Guns N Roses and Foos every year. That gets boring. And sure, they could try an orchestra type thing on the Pyramid if they wanted to. They could try anything, but they wont. Somebody like them can only take a "risk" every few years when they know they have a Coldplay in their pocket.  If next year was Rihanna, Fred and Olivia youre gonna see the general public be pissed off til kingdom come. The "what happened to glastonbury" op ed's will be raining down  even more than what happened with Sza. Youre never going to make the core audience of the fest "happy" anyway. Only thing that will keep the complainers  at bay is Oasis right now. Emily shouldnt have to sit there and defend what was done anyway. Also, this year was a down year FOR EVERYONE. Nobody was immune from talent issues or oversaturation or costs and the like. Be grateful your favorite events still exist. Everyone only cares about the optics anyway. 

[Steve G]

Pyramid Headliners 

 

Sam Fender, Pulp 

Beyonce, Sabrina Carpenter 

Paul Mcartney, Noah Kahan 

 

Other Stage 

Charli XCX 

Kasabian 

Paramore 

 

Legend set - Andrea Bocelli 

 

Edited August 21 by Steve G

[SwallowOrSleepOnTheWetSpot]

1 hour ago, incident said:

 

In short, yes.

 

Would definitely expect that other festivals will also be on the cards when she does choose to do something stripped back.

 

But Taylor's also said in the past that she prefers her own shows with her own fanbase that know all the lyrics, in lieu of casuals. Don't forget that her planned European festival tour in 2020 was because she wasn't big enough yet for stadiums in mainland Europe (look at how she skipped it during the Reputation era), and not because she happened to like these particular festivals so much.

Edited August 21 by SwallowOrSleepOnTheWetSpot

[clarkete]

On 8/20/2024 at 10:17 AM, incident said:

 

While that's technically true, wasn't it a bit more along the lines of "they were designated as headliner in order to justify that it was an Arts festival rather than a Music festival, and so in reality were more of a post-headliner thing".

 

But the headliners they followed were I believe 7pm Friday and 9pm Saturday, so a fair bit earlier.  I loved it and some of it seemed genuinely crazy. 

 

 

 

 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

6 hours ago, clarkete said:

 

But the headliners they followed were I believe 7pm Friday and 9pm Saturday, so a fair bit earlier.  I loved it and some of it seemed genuinely crazy. 

 

 

 

 

 

Found this blog post on it. Is it yours? Mentions it was the first time they had called it ‘The Glastonbury Festival Of Contempory Performing Arts', is that right? 

 

https://patrickmaginty.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-glastonbury-festival-memories_6.html?m=1

[clarkete]

29 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

 

Found this blog post on it. Is it yours? Mentions it was the first time they had called it ‘The Glastonbury Festival Of Contempory Performing Arts', is that right? 

 

https://patrickmaginty.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-glastonbury-festival-memories_6.html?m=1

 

No, well found though, it's nice to find a little flavour of the old days. 

 

Don't think I agree with all their Happy Mondays perspective though, there seemed to be a big influx of young lads from Manchester and as with the times, if a proportion of folks get in for nowt then it's quite likely some of them will see if there's owt worth nicking - I always mention that year I went up the green fields and saw a young Manc lad flogging a car stereo for ten or twenty quid - as now it wasn't the sort of place you saw someone sat down flogging something with a makeshift cardboard sign 😋

[4AssedMonkey]

I honestly don't think Taylor Swift will headline in the upcoming years, regardless of the previous commitment she made.  Her star has risen so much since 2019-20 that the chance has gone.  And I know we all think Glastonbury is amazing and has global significance, but I really don't expect billionaire megastars to give two f**ks about it these days.

[mufcok]

I assume if The Spice Girls were to be booked, that would be the Legends Slot? Headliner would be a stretch.. surely?

[Steve G]

11 hours ago, Steve G said:

Pyramid Headliners 

 

Sam Fender, Pulp 

Beyonce, Sabrina Carpenter 

 Harry Styles, Noah Kahan 

 

Other Stage 

Charli XCX 

Kasabian 

Paramore 

 

Legend set - Andrea Bocelli 

 

 

[gfa]

15 hours ago, Suprefan said:

except the swifties are gonna hate the next show because it wont be 3 1/2 hours and only be 20 songs. Thats the corner she put herself into now. Nobody should really be doing that unless its your last tour or youve been doing it your entire career. And that production was pretty stripped back anyway. Compare it to the prior one and its not that elaborate. You couldnt have big elements because of the time constraints, costume changes and long setlist. If it was a big thing then its probably an extra 30 minutes in there with big production pieces.

 

Beyonce was 2 hours and 45 minutes if the full setlist was done during Renaissance for example. And that had insane production values.  If she cut the 3 song section its just under 2 1/2. 
 

Even Madonna's show had crazier production than Taylor's. She had a stadium show inside an arena. 
 

If she decided to hit up every festival at one point its gonna be a tipping point for some. Cause if her fees is ridiculous then prices will have to reflect. Obviously with Glasto itll have to be reduced but by whatever year it happens the ticket cost will have risen a bit anyway. At least there will be zero concern over region locking the stream of  the performance. Unless bbc decides to go full pay per view finally.

I'm sure taylor swift is really going to struggle after selling 7 wembleys if she cuts her show down to 2 hours.

 

she might only be able to do 6 next time around

 

they better order in some more cash registers!

[beau1]

On 8/20/2024 at 10:17 AM, incident said:

 

While that's technically true, wasn't it a bit more along the lines of "they were designated as headliner in order to justify that it was an Arts festival rather than a Music festival, and so in reality were more of a post-headliner thing".

 

Certainly the Festival has in recent years considered The Cure (playing before Archaos) to count towards their total of 4 headline appearances.

The Cure were always the headliner in 1990. They played a full headline set - far longer than any other headliner that weekend and were the big name ticket selling act after their stellar 1986 headline show.

 

Like you say, Archaos were never the headliner or ticket seller in real terms. It's no different to how some European festivals have a late night act (usually dance) after their headliners. Those acts could never be regarded as headliners. It's not about who performs last on the stage. 

[fraybentos1]

14 minutes ago, gfa said:

I'm sure taylor swift is really going to struggle after selling 7 wembleys if she cuts her show down to 2 hours.

 

she might only be able to do 6 next time around

 

they better order in some more cash registers!

Don't think he's saying that. It's a fair point to consider how does a person follow up a greatest hits tour when they're in their mid 30s. Anything else will seem insignificant in comparison 

[clarkete]

13 minutes ago, beau1 said:

The Cure were always the headliner in 1990. They played a full headline set - far longer than any other headliner that weekend and were the big name ticket selling act after their stellar 1986 headline show.

 

Like you say, Archaos were never the headliner or ticket seller in real terms. It's no different to how some European festivals have a late night act (usually dance) after their headliners. Those acts could never be regarded as headliners. It's not about who performs last on the stage. 

 

They did a tightrope walk before the cure too.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230620123902/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/glastonbury-2023-kanye-west-wild-stunts-pyramid-stage/

[gfa]

58 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

Don't think he's saying that. It's a fair point to consider how does a person follow up a greatest hits tour when they're in their mid 30s. Anything else will seem insignificant in comparison 

Not sure but its not like it won't be popular

 

Plenty of acts have followed up greatest hits tours - really don't see how its an issue that effects glasto

[Superscally]

16 hours ago, SwallowOrSleepOnTheWetSpot said:

 

But Taylor was also booked by a bunch of other European fests in 2020; would we argue that she'll likely want to play something like Roskilde or NOS Alive as well when it fits? I'm sure her team is still on good terms with Glasto but I wouldn't assume she'll make it a priority going forward.

 

 

She genuinely loves the festival and goes (or did) as a posh punter.

[Superscally]

2 minutes ago, gfa said:

Not sure but its not like it won't be popular

 

Plenty of acts have followed up greatest hits tours - really don't see how its an issue that effects glasto

...but it wasn't a greatest hits tour. It was an Eras tour. Greatest hits still to come... 😉

[gfa]

2 minutes ago, Superscally said:

...but it wasn't a greatest hits tour. It was an Eras tour. Greatest hits still to come... 😉

fraybentos words not mine!

 

3 minutes ago, Superscally said:

She genuinely loves the festival and goes (or did) as a posh punter.

worth noting there is some disconnect between the two

 

booking agents less likely to care as they get x% of her fee, which will be sh*t all for glasto for example

[Iphigenia]

20 hours ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

 

The principle of having musical artists headlining the festival, of course. There's performing arts at the festival of course, but not on the Pyramid as headliners - not since, like, forever. They also have people dressed as seagulls at the festival, but I can't see them choosing a street artist, no matter how popular, to end the night on the main stage either.

 

I remember Corbyn, I was there. He was on for ten minutes before Run the Jewels. Incidentally, the crowd didn't change much from the end of his speech to them performing. I don't know if that's ground-breaking to have a politician talking on stage for ten minutes either or equals the festival being at the forefront of any zeitgeist exactly.

 

 

21 hours ago, stuie said:

it’s a festival of performing arts but the Pyramid is a music stage.  No one disagrees SZA didn’t work out but there’s no need to move away from musical artists.

 

Do you know that music IS a performing art? If the Glastonbury organisers was as narrow-thinking as some people on here, the festival as we know it wouldn't be here today. The classical and theatre markets are huge, and filled with very talented people.

 

And as for "moving away from musical artists" goes, the Pyramid Stage already does that regularly. 

 

All I'm saying is, it's worth a try with one Pyramid headline slot, especially if they're starting to book traditional headliners that are missing the mark anyway. There's nothing to lose. It would take that "Pyramid Headliner" pressure off the organisers, and they know their loyalists (a lot of whom are on here (sycophants?)) would praise the festival no matter what. Worst case scenario? Another SZA.

 

Having said that, it wouldn't be a big risk. There are acts out there that are huge despite being out of the typical festival-goer's realms of comprehension. 

Edited August 22 by Iphigenia
and if it puts off those people who come to Glastonbury just to hear people play repetitive drum track records, so much the better 😂

[stuie]

21 minutes ago, Iphigenia said:

Do you know that music IS a performing art? If the Glastonbury organisers was as narrow-thinking as some people on here, the festival as we know it wouldn't be here today. The classical and theatre markets are huge, and filled with very talented people.

 

And as for "moving away from musical artists" goes, the Pyramid Stage already does that regularly. 

 

All I'm saying is, it's worth a try with one Pyramid headline slot, especially if they're starting to book traditional headliners that are missing the mark anyway. There's nothing to lose. It would take that "Pyramid Headliner" pressure off the organisers, and they know their loyalists (a lot of whom are on here (sycophants?)) would praise the festival no matter what. Worst case scenario? Another SZA.

 

Having said that, it wouldn't be a big risk. There are acts out there that are huge despite being out of the typical festival-goer's realms of comprehension. 

I’m very aware of all performing arts, thanks. Aside from a couple of guest speakers, please explain the history of non-musical artists and the Pyramid stage. I’m intrigued. 
 

 

[charlierc]

19 hours ago, incident said:

 

In short, yes.

 

Would definitely expect that other festivals will also be on the cards when she does choose to do something stripped back.

I think that'll be a few years down the line. 2025 would be a real sight of her essentially going "Pop culture is nothing without me!" but I thought there was talk Eras was ending at the end of the year and that she had non-musical projects lined up for 2025.

[stuie]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

I think that'll be a few years down the line. 2025 would be a real sight of her essentially going "Pop culture is nothing without me!" but I thought there was talk Eras was ending at the end of the year and that she had non-musical projects lined up for 2025.

I’m no mega fan so I don’t know, but I’ve been thinking along the lines of ‘where do you go when there’s nowhere left to go?’ She’s probably the biggest pop star in the world, nothing left to achieve in that sector after this hyper-tour is complete. Change of direction? Movie star? 

[UncleJunior]

27 minutes ago, stuie said:

I’m no mega fan so I don’t know, but I’ve been thinking along the lines of ‘where do you go when there’s nowhere left to go?’ She’s probably the biggest pop star in the world, nothing left to achieve in that sector after this hyper-tour is complete. Change of direction? Movie star? 

 

She’s been planning to direct a film for a while, after an EGOT.