Canadian rockstar Neil Young has posted a confirmation that he and his Chrome Hearts band will not play the upcoming 2025 Glastonbury.
Neil Young has given his fans an unhappy start to the year with news that he won’t be playing at the Glastonbury music festival in June.
On his website, Young wrote that he’d been in the process of signing up for a headline slot and was “looking forward to playing Glastonbury”. However, the ‘Harvest Moon’ singer then explains that he was “told that BBC was now a partner in Glastonbury and wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in”.
“It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being,” Young wrote. The 79-year-old then stated: “We will not be playing Glastonbury on this tour because it is a corporate turn-off, and not for me like it used to be.”
Young previously played Glastonbury in 2009 when he headlined the Pyramid Stage alongside Bruce Springsteen and Blur.
Notably, the BBC took over coverage of Glastonbury in 1997 from Channel 4 as its exclusive broadcast partner.
When Young performed in 2009, fans noticed that his performance wasn’t fully broadcast on the BBC as with the other two headliners. This was the result of months of negotiations between the corporation and the rockstar’s management.
“Neil’s management agreed to let TV and radio broadcast five songs as they watched and listened to his performance. They believe in the live event and retaining its mystery and that of their artist,” the BBC responded at the time.
“They have decided to make one song available online over the weekend to give a flavour of his set. That’s ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ and that’s their decision.”
The BBC has declined to comment now on Young’s post.
Neil Young has confirmed through his website that the Chrome Hearts European tour is still coming in 2025. However, he has also written that the previous tour submitted had to have dates cancelled due to “indoor shows”.
“Indoor shows may be too risky on a health level and we don’t want to have to cancel any shows because of health concerns this summer,” Young wrote.
Tickets to this year’s Glastonbury Festival sold out in just over half an hour. Set for 25-29 June, the full line-up is yet to be revealed, although the festival has already confirmed Rod Stewart will play the Sunday legends slot.
Nile Rodgers has also self-confirmed in a speech that he and his band Chic will also be playing at the Worthy Farm event in June.
