Glastonbury Festival will be easy like Sunday afternoon

Soul legend Lionel Richie is the first act to be confirmed for Glastonbury Festival 2015. The main stage will be swaying to 'Dancing On The Ceiling', 'All Night Long', 'Easy', '3 Times A Lady', 'Hello', 'Sail On', and many more of the ex-Commodores singer's hits, as he makes his debut UK festival appearance in the Sunday teatime slot on the Pyramid Stage next summer.

The main Pyramid Stage on Sunday has also previously seen acts like Dolly Parton, Don McLean, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Johnny Cash, Shirley Bassey, Neil Diamond and Brian Wilson.

Said Emily Eavis, "We are over the moon. We've had some amazing performances in the Sunday teatime slot over the years, from Neil Diamond, Shirley Bassey, Paul Simon and many others. And, of course, Dolly Parton played an incredible set this year. So we felt very lucky to get the call from a true Motown legend asking to play next year. He's got so many amazing songs, to see him perform here on the farm is just going to be wonderful."

In an interview with the Western Daily Press, (here), Emily Eavis talks about booking Richie, and gives an in sight into next year's plans. "We had the first conversation about him following Dolly after the last festival. He has so many incredible songs in his back catalogue and is a brilliant performer. He also has some good banter and can be hilarious.

"We have had a run of good storytellers, but they have also had some amazing songs. The banter is a factor, but it's the whole package really. It's a real honour to have a singer at that level with all that music. Lionel Ritchie is a real legend. He has had hit after hit after hit and is still very good around the stage."

Emily, who runs the festival with her father Michael, and promoter husband Nick Dewey, said about the line-up and booking major acts, "There are lots of people who haven't played, and there are lots of new headliners on the way through.

"Nick and I do most of the bookings now and we were thinking about that realistically quite recently. We decided to make a list to see when we would run out and there are enough acts to keep us going for another ten years at least.

"We are in an a unique position because we can create those headliners by catching young bands as they come through.If we catch them at exactly the right time to put them in those slots it keeps things fresh and they go on to headline at other festivals.

"That's what we did with Kasabian, Kings of Leon in 2008 and Muse in 2004. We caught them at exactly the right point.”

Talking about the rumours of acts including Fleetwood Mac and the Foo Fighters playing in the main Saturday night slot. Emily reveals, "All I can say is all the rumours are wrong. It's still early days.”

This week Emily has been meeting with some of those who provide the entertainment away from the Pyramid Stage. She tells the local newspaper, "The festival is always evolving, always getting better. We have an enormous installation for the South East corner that we are really excited about and today I met some people who are putting another enormous sculpture right at the top of The Park area.

"I've also met with the people from Shangri La and they have come up with this amazing concept that is completely new for this year. Some Mexicans are coming over to do something really exciting in the circus fields.

"We are very lucky because all these amazing creative people from all over the world want to perform here. We are in a really, really, really good place right now. We could cover the whole county but we have to keep it within the fence."

Next year's sold out Glastonbury runs for five full days from  Wednesday 24th until Sunday 28th June 2015 across over a 1,000 acres of beautiful countryside at Worthy Farm, Somerset. As ever, entry includes a free programme. Once again, the Festival will be raising more than £2 million in funds for Oxfam, Wateraid, Greenpeace and and hundreds of other worthy causes, both local and international.

There are no other acts confirmed yet for 2015, the line-up will not be announced until spring next year. Expect something like 2,000 performances at over 100 venues including music, cabaret, theatre, circus, a fantastic Kidz area, poetry, green crafts and information, site art, decor, and loads, loads more ... much more than just the music, so make sure you check it all out!

As usual eFestivals will bring you the very best-sourced rumours, allowing festival-goers to see who is playing long before the bands are formally announced - keep your eyes on the Glastonbury 2015 rumours, updated as we receive information.

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