Young says that the festival is under ‘corporate control’. As a Glastonbury regular, I know just how ridiculous that is
We’re only two days into 2025 and rumours of who will headline Glastonbury this summer are already rife. The 1975, Rihanna, Sam Fender, Olivia Rodrigo and Stevie Wonder are apparently all gearing up to take a top Pyramid Stage slot – despite only three nights being available.
One rumoured act who won’t be making the pilgrimage to Worthy Farm this June, however, is Neil Young, who has refused a spot on the line-up because he believes Glastonbury to be “under corporate control”.
On New Year’s Day, 79-year-old Young wrote on his website, Neil Young Archives (which he seems to have fashioned as his very own digital newspaper), that he and his band The Chrome Hearts had been “looking forward” to playing Glastonbury until a certain broadcaster got involved. “We were told that the BBC is now a partner in Glastonbury and wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in,” reads the statement. “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.”
He couldn’t be more wrong. As someone who has been to Glastonbury as a punter many times, the idea that Glastonbury is under “corporate control” sounds utterly ridiculous.
Most festivals run on money from companies setting up a tent in their muddy fields, ones who “activate” their brands and hand out samples in the hope that just one person will be more likely to buy a bottle of Smirnoff or a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses. Manchester’s Parklife even has a Nando’s.
Logos of corporate sponsors are everywhere – on the sides of stages, on flags, on your disintegrating cardboard pint cups. It’s a jarring reminder that while, yes, it’s a celebration of music, it’s mostly a money-making exercise – and it’s your money they want.
Glastonbury could not be more different. Sure, there’s a big Co-op and a Vodafone tent where you can charge your phone, but that’s about as far as it goes. There aren’t any brand “experiences” or freebies being handed out. The only logos on display at the stages are those of the charities that the festival supports: Water Aid, Greenpeace, Oxfam.
The only things on sale are products like glittery capes, artisanal woodwork crafts and novelty wigs from small businesses – not international conglomerates.
You can even take your own food and drink anywhere, unlike other festivals where you must surrender your own sustenance at the “arena” entrance and spend money within its confines, lest you pass out from hunger.
It’s pretty clear that Neil Young hasn’t ever taken the time to walk around Glastonbury and see for himself just how free it really is from “corporate control”. The cliché of it being its own small city is entirely true. In fact, it becomes another world entirely – one where McDonalds and Starbucks and Tesla don’t exist. It’s a holiday from consumerism.
We can only speculate as to what Young really means by “under corporate control” by the BBC, but I imagine it’s a tussle over the broadcast of his performance. When he last played Glastonbury in 2009, the BBC only put five of his songs on the TV, rather than the whole two-hour set that most headliners agree to.
If that’s the case this time around and Young has pulled out because he didn’t want his performance on television, then his reasoning is even sillier than it sounds. One of the very best things about Glastonbury is its lack of elitism – the ticketing system is more egalitarian than it’s ever been, and the BBC’s incredible effort in broadcasting as much as the festival it can means that even those who don’t get tickets can still enjoy the music at home. It’s something to celebrate, not rail against.
Back in 2009, Young’s team said they “believe in the live event and retaining its mystery and that of their artist”; but in our current age of social media, where Young’s performance will be posted whether he likes it or not, that line of thinking is antiquated and elitist. It forces you to ask what he is really afraid of – the world thinking he’s lost it?
Glastonbury is the one festival that’s bigger than its headlining artists. If Neil Young doesn’t understand what it stands for, then perhaps he doesn’t belong on the Pyramid Stage anyway.
