Has Glastonbury misplaced its cool?

It was once the ultimate destination for hip partygoers to let their hair down and listen to the world’s hottest artists perform live.

Supermodels and their musician boyfriends would parade around Somerset’s Worthy Farm in hot pants and Hunter wellies, building up such a fuss that those without a ticket would watch BBC‘s coverage of the festival in their front rooms.

Revellers lucky enough to secure a ticket to Glastonbury Festival would embark upon a five-day holiday of booze-fuelled fun listening to the likes of David Bowie or Amy Winehouse with bragging rights for the entire summer period.

Today, the prospect is somewhat different. While the alcohol-enhanced fun might continue at Michael Eavis’s farm, people seem to care less, with music events like Taylor Swift‘s Eras tour overshadowing Glastonbury.

The buzz that once swarmed the festival is slowly fading, and in its place is talk of overpriced tickets, ‘sexist’ and ‘boring’ lineups, and musicians claiming they’ve turned down a performance slot at the festival because they’re not paid enough. 

YOUNG PEOPLE PRICED OUT  

Glastonbury has long been praised for its wealth of performances, but the experience comes at a premium price.

It has not always been that way, though, and when the festival started in the summer of 1970, under the name of Pilton Pop, Folk and Blues Festival, tickets cost £1, which also included free milk.

In 1990, Glastonbury gained momentum, the year marking the festival’s 20th anniversary and the adoption of its current name. A host of performances across theatre, rock and pop entertained 70,000 people, each paying £38, according to the V&A.

Fast forward to 1999, and Glastonbury had a capacity of 100,500, and cost £83 to enter. That year, Coldplay took to the stage – the band, headed by Chris Martin, is returning as a headline act this year.

In 2022, Glastonbury ticket costs surged by 20 per cent. The last time tickets went on general sale before then was in 2019, when they cost £280 plus a £5 booking fee, for what should have been the 2020 festival. It was subsequently cancelled for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Music fans blasted Glastonbury organisers for pricing out ‘ordinary people’ and making it a festival ‘exclusively for the wealthy’ after ticket prices for 2023 rose by nearly 20 per cent to £340. 

The criticism forced the festival’s organiser Emily Eavis to defend the price hike, putting it down to ‘incredibly challenging times’.

Today, the festival, which has a capacity of 210,000, costs an even higher £355 plus £5 booking fee, making it a pricey affair.

It is a cost that has made the festival unaffordable for many, forcing some to opt for smaller day festivals, as opposed to bigger events like Glastonbury.

It is a reality that has led festivalgoers to take to X, formerly Twitter, to complain. One said: ‘Just going to say it. Glastonbury is my idea of hell. Too expensive’.

A second added: ‘A basic ticket for #Glastonbury 2024 is £355 + £5 booking fee. No wonder it is full of old people and rich kids from London. The festival has become too greedy.’

‘Get that Glastonbury is a huge endeavour, that costs for everything are rising and that the festival industry as a whole is struggling after Covid but… it’s clear the festival is now almost exclusively for the wealthy,’ a third wrote.

Another agreed and said: ‘Didn’t try for Glastonbury tickets this year as it’s way too expensive now.’

It’s not just the cost of the tickets that has skyrocketed, but also the cost of food and drinks. Glastonbury revellers have already slammed the ‘criminal’ drinks prices at the festival after discovering they will have to shell out £6.75 for a pint of beer. 

The price list for this year’s five-day festival has been revealed and it has left many heading to Worthy Farm this week in a state of shock. An insider on the site is said to have taken a sneaky snap of the Village Inn bar that appeared on the X/Twitter account Glastobation. 

The prices have been branded ‘insane’ and ‘criminal’ with the starting price for a pint of beer £6.75, while a bottle of wine costs £30. They are a slight increase on last year’s prices of £6.50 and £29, respectively. 

A bottle of prosecco will set festivalgoers back £43.50, more than three times the amount for a bottle of Freixenet prosecco which retails at £12.  

Meanwhile, those who prefer spirits will have to pay out a minimum of £12.50 for a double and a mixer, with the maximum appearing to be a double spirit and Red Bull for £13.50.

An Aperol Spritz is the priciest cocktail at £12.50, with a Pornstar Martini costing £9.50. A 250ml Red Bull energy drink is priced at £4.75 alone – a 197 per cent increase on the £1.60 retail price. 

Others were left enraged by the £2.50 price for a can of water – although there are free water drinking points at the site.  

There are more than 100 bars on the festival site, with the Village Inn sitting to the left of the Pyramid Stage.  

X users have been left outraged over the inflated prices, with one writing: ‘£2.50 for a can of water is criminal.’

Another wrote: ‘Some of those prices are insane. 43 quid for a bottle of wine! You can buy a quality vintage for that money.’

A third posted a laughing emoji alongside a message that read: ‘£6 for a pint of Coke.’ 

Another raged: ‘Drink prices at events these days are ridiculous. They’ve basically doubled in about four years. I’m taking multiple cool boxes and frozen water bottles and will buy extra ice on Sunday. Last year only bought 3 drinks and had coldies all festie. No queues either!’

ARTISTS NOT PAID ENOUGH  

It’s one of the world’s biggest music festivals, but it does not offer equally big payouts to its performers. 

As a result, musicians have resisted the chance of playing the festival, fearing it would be too costly rather than rewarding. 

Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter Nadine Shah has performed at Glastonbury in the past but will not be there this year, and recently explained why on X.

She posted on June 4: ‘The rumours are untrue. I am NOT playing @glastonbury I would have liked to but I wasn’t offered a televised stage so I declined. It’s too expensive a hit for me to take otherwise.

‘It’s just a reality that playing live is super expensive and if you can justify the costs (like being on telly and having a wider reach) then sometimes you take the hit. Otherwise no, we’ve all bills to pay.’

She later added: ‘Most festivals do pay well though. I was offered literally a fifth of what I am offered for other shows this summer’.  

The world’s biggest headline music acts such as Taylor Swift and Madonna may also be snubbing the Glastonbury Festival for paying too little. 

The showcase Pyramid Stage performances will be by Dua Lipa on Friday, Coldplay – in their fifth Glastonbury headline appearance – on Saturday and SZA on Sunday following Shania Twain in that evening’s ‘Legends’ slot.

The festival is said to be struggling to secure top names – with the fees on offer a tenth of what artists can command elsewhere.

Yet while the payouts have been described as ‘hilarious’, PR chiefs have also highlighted how legendary performers are often tempted by the event’s prestige – and potential sales boosts from a higher profile.

Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Sir Elton John were the headliners last year, following Billie Eilish, Sir Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar in 2022.

Yet there is said to be frustration that festival organisers have been unable to tempt Taylor Swift, whose record-breaking Eras tour has hit the UK this month.

The US singer, 34, famed for such hits as Shake It Off and Bad Blood, played three sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium last weekend – with those in the crowd including Prince William, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who posed for a selfie with her last Friday. 

When Swift announced her UK tour dates last June, some noted how the weekend scheduled for this year’s Glastonbury appeared available.

She had previously agreed to headline the Pyramid Stage in 2020, only for the Covid-19 pandemic to intervene and put paid to that year’s festival.

Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis, daughter of the event’s founder Michael Eavis, said in 2022: ‘I think we’ve got Taylor next time she’s doing some touring.’

Yet this weekend Swift will be playing three nights at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium as part of her world tour, which has become the first whose ticket sales have grossed more than $1billion, or £790million.

And disagreements over the money on offer reportedly scuppered plans for Madonna to fill this year’s prestigious Sunday ‘Legends’ spot now taken by Canadian country-pop star Twain, the Telegraph reported.

Previous acts booked for that role have included Dame Shirley Bassey in 2007, Sir Ray Davies in 2010, Dolly Parton in 2014, Lionel Richie the following year, Kylie Minogue in 2019, Diana Ross in 2022 and Cat Stevens last year.

Other summer festivals can call upon the financial backing of heavyweight sponsors, such as BST in Hyde Park with the support of American Express.

Glastonbury tends to award the most prominent advertising space to charities including Greenpeace, Oxfam and Water Aid.

Michael Eavis was quoted as previously saying in 2017: ‘We’re not in a situation where we’re able to just give people enormous amounts of money.

‘So we’re really grateful for the bands that we get, because they’re basically doing it for the love of it.

‘There’s a bog-standard price for the headliner. We get the headliners for a tenth of the normal price. So they’re not being paid very much.’

Sir Paul is said to have received £200,000 for his headline performance in 2022, with Sir Elton getting £250,000 the following year.

Music PR specialist Alan Edwards tells in his new memoir I Was There: Dispatches From A Life In Rock And Roll how his client David Bowie played the Pyramid Stage in 2000 in front of 250,000 people.

He writes: ‘It was hilarious, it was about £20,000 or something and even then it wasn’t a lot of money.

‘David was always an artist and he was driven by what he felt was the right thing and what he wanted to do, rather than what the payday was. He didn’t even ask. It was a cool thing to do. Glastonbury has got that wonderful legacy.’

FANS COMPLAIN ABOUT LINE-UP 

When Glastonbury unveiled its headline acts in 2023 – Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses, Elton John and Lizzo – it made heads turn, but not for the right reasons. 

Fans of the festival claimed that the line-up was sexist due to a lack of female headliners.  

It was a decision that caused the Guardian to brand the festival a ‘blokefest’, ‘sloppy’ and ‘slapdash’. 

While the top row of the famous poster only had one woman present – Lizzo – there were other female names down below, including Lana Del Rey, Blondie and Mahalia. 

This year, festival organisers seemed to have listened to the criticism, because Dua Lipa, SZA and Shania Twain are Glastonbury’s main acts of 2024. 

Regardless, this year’s line-up received criticism for another reason – being too ‘boring’, with fans claiming the line-up is ‘the worst ever’. 

Fans were unimpressed by the announcement, with many underwhelmed by Coldplay – who have headlined Glastonbury four times prior – while others were surprised by the addition of SZA, who has never scored a UK number one. 

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, many expressed their disappointment at the line-up and their annoyance that rumours Madonna was set to appear weren’t realised. 

Annoyed festivalgoers shared: ‘Interesting Glastonbury line up. Very disappointed Madonna said no. Also who the hell is Sza?’; ‘Thought SZA was one of the Wu Tang Clan #glastonbury’; ‘Coldplay again? Jesus. And, sorry, who is Sza? Genuinely.’ 

‘I’m now old to the point where #Glastonbury has announced a headliner who I’ve never heard of in my life. It’s over.’; ‘Sorry but that #Glastonbury line-up….’; ‘I’ve never heard of one of the Glastonbury headliners #Glastonbury’;

‘Never in the history of #Glastonbury has there been a more underwhelming set of headliners. Imagine wading through two foot deep mud to be greeted by a Coldplay headline set’; ‘That’s gotta be the worst #glastonbury line up like ever’;

‘What is that lineup? I genuinely haven’t heard of 70% of these acts.’; ‘That might just be the worst #Glastonbury lineup I’ve ever seen. Thoughts and prayers to those who managed to get a ticket.’

‘Good God that’s the worst Glastonbury line up ever’; ‘What a downgrade from last year #glastonbury’; ‘Never heard of SZA? #glastonbury’; ‘That is an awful line up. The headliners are embarrassing #Glastonbury’ 

While fans may not be impressed with the headliners, it marks the first time in the event’s history that female acts have taken two of the three headline slots.

Other acts on this year’s line-up include Brit Award-winning rapper Little Simz and Afrobeats star Burna Boy, making his Pyramid Stage debut.

Big names like LCD Soundsystem, PJ Harvey, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Kiwanuka, Janelle Monae, Paul Heaton, Keane, Paloma Faith, Olivia Dean and Ayra Starr will also be hitting the stage. 

Thirteen-member boyband Seventeen are set to become the first K-pop band to perform on the Pyramid Stage.

Heading up the Other Stage will be IDLES, Disclosure and The National, with The Streets, Two Door Cinema Club, Avril Lavigne and breakout stars The Last Dinner Party also set to play on the festival’s second-biggest platform.

FESTIVAL HAS GONE WOKE  

This year’s Glastonbury festival is one of the wokest ever, as Gen Zers shun the usual warm-up DJ sets and bands for political debates after a series of group workout sessions.

As the sun rose above Worthy Farm  this week, hundreds of people were seen taking part in organised runs or a 30-minute workout session, led live by exercise guru Joe Wicks, instead of heading straight for the stages or alcohol tents.

Health conscious Gen Zers were also seen shaking up the festivities with cold outdoor showers, stretches and even a group jog.

The organised run, which saw around 200 people take part, stretched for around 5km as joggers pounded through the fields while others (millennials) slept off their hangovers.

And then rather than the customary ‘baby wipe’ bath, young people could be seen having showers near their tents, to ensure they feel and look fresh for the day.

Gen Z attendees – known for their health conscious lifestyles including drinking less booze than their millennial counterparts – didn’t head straight for the beers either.

Crowds then gathered for Joe Wicks’ Glastonbury workout this morning – a 30 minute HIIT exercise class.

Alternative health solutions are also being widely promoted: including a tent charging £15 for attendees to lie upside down in an attempt to help ease back problems. There is even a stand where people are offered free hugs. 

After defying an attempted ban to stop the screening of a Jeremy Corbyn film on Thursday, many at Worthy Farm will line up to watch speeches from MPs, left-wing speakers and even Just Stop Oil.

Lawyer and head of The Good Law Project, Jolyon Maugham, is also due to speak at the festival.

At the  site, which has long been at the heart of talks by politicians, activists and community leaders, this year’s attendees will hear from experts on climate change, industrial action and the Grenfell fire.

VIP BAR TURNED INTO ‘FEMME QUEER’ SPACE

Glastonbury’s rabbit hole was an area most attendees were on a mission to visit, having heard rumours of celebrities like David Beckham and Kate Moss partying in the ‘secret area’. 

The festival has hosted two different rabbit holes for the past 17 years, one easy to find, and another on the trickier side to locate.

Those lucky enough to find the VIP location entered a festival within a festival filled with debaucherous fun, dancing, and secret sets.

However, this year, festival organisers revealed that the rabbit hole will not be returning this year.

Instead, two new areas – a ‘queer wonderland’ called Scissors and the Wishing Well – will take its place.

The festival revealed the changes on X, writing: ‘Further round the field, is the Park’s second new fun house: Scissors! 

‘An utterly delicious femme-queer venue where anything can (and does!) happen. Head to Scissors for a cut, or just come along to enjoy some of the daily talks, then slip out the back to discover a queer wonderland. 

‘Relax in the beer garden and play pool, or catch a movie in Flick Shack. With nightfall comes a twilight roster filling Kiki’s nightclub, where kaleidoscopic walls will keep you dancing til dawn. 

‘These two new venues replace the legendary Rabbit Hole, which we bid a fond farewell to after 17 years.’

The wishing well is more elusive, described as: ‘A place in which to ignite your deepest desires and unfurl your wildest wishes. 

‘Re-awaken all that inspires you, because at The Wishing Well – where dreams are made – hope springs eternal!

Scissors and the Wishing Well has left the drinking and dancing associated with the rabbit hole in the past. Instead, revellers can use the spaces to relax or get a free hair cut.

Scissors will also host speakers to discuss issues like queer vulnerability, with Ruby Rare, who features on E4’s Sex Rated, joining a panel of speakers on Thursday afternoon. 

Despite it coming at the cost of waving goodbye to the rabbit hole, there’s no doubt the new spaces will be welcomed by attendees.