Neil Young reverses his Glastonbury ‘boycott’
Neil Young has announced he will play this year’s Glastonbury Festival, just days after saying he had turned down a slot because of the BBC’s involvement.
The 79-year-old had announced that he and his band would not play the event because the BBC “wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in”.
But in a new post on his website, the rock legend wrote: “Due to an error in the information received, I had decided to not play the Glastonbury Festival, which I always have loved.
“Happily, the festival is now back on our itinerary and we look forward to playing. Hope to see you there!”
Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis welcomed the decision and said Young would be among the headliners.
“What a start to the year!” she wrote on Instagram.
“Neil Young is an artist who’s very close to our hearts at Glastonbury. He does things his own way and that’s why we love him.
“We can’t wait to welcome him back here to headline the Pyramid in June.”
It is not known whether the change of heart means Young’s 2025 Glastonbury set will be televised.
The BBC has been Glastonbury’s exclusive broadcast partner since 1997, and broadcasts more than 50 hours of coverage every year.
However, the last time Young played the festival in 2009, he only allowed the BBC to show a short portion of his two-hour headline set.
The corporation said at the time it had spent a “couple of months” negotiating with Young’s management over televising the performance.
In the end, his team only agreed to let five songs be broadcast, a decision that was made as Young was playing on the Pyramid Stage.
“They believe in the live event and retaining its mystery and that of their artist,” explained Mark Cooper, the then-executive producer of the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage.
“You probably won’t find too many Neil Young performances available freely on TV or online,” he added. “He generally prefers the audience to find his albums.”
In his initial post on Tuesday, the star lashed out at what he described as the BBC’s “corporate control” of Glastonbury, and said the festival “is not the way I remember it being”.
Artists are not forced to hand over broadcast rights when they play the event, and often contracts are signed at the last minute.
BBC News has contacted Glastonbury and BBC Music for clarification.
