Glastonbury 2025: Neil Young cancels due to the BBC’s “corporate control”
Legendary folk-rock pioneer Neil Young will no longer be performing at the Glastonbury Festival in 2025, citing the BBC and “corporate control” as his reason for pulling out.
Although Young had not yet been formally announced on the line-up for Glastonbury 2025, with Rod Stewart being the only confirmed guest thus far, the former Buffalo Springfield musician was heavily speculated to headline when he announced plans for a string of open-air dates around Europe for the summer. Now, posting an open letter on the Neil Young Archives website, Young confirmed those rumours.
“The Chrome Hearts and I were looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all-time favourite outdoor gigs,” the musician wrote. The key word of that sentence was “were”, as Young went on to confirm that his scheduled performance at Worthy Farm has now been cancelled. Young’s choice to pull out comes from the festival’s relationship with the BBC, writing, “We were told the BBC was now a partner in Glastonbury and wanted us to do a lot for things we were not interested in.”
Continuing, Young shared, “It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being. 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.” Concluding, “Hope to see you at one of the other venues on the tour.” That tour, incidentally, has not yet been formally announced.
The BBC has had a partnership with Glastonbury Festival since 1997, the same year that the musician was set to play the festival for the first time, before cancelling as a result of food poisoning. Young eventually performed at the event in 2009, but only a short portion of his Pyramid Stage slot was broadcast by The Beeb at the time.
Young’s announcement leaves a number of unanswered questions that may not become clearer until the festival takes place in June. For instance, he did not give an insight into exactly what the BBC had requested of him and the Chrome Hearts that caused such offence or why their partnership with the festival has become problematic for Young since he last played Glastonbury.
The cancellation of Neil Young’s slot at the festival will undoubtedly cause some headaches for the organisers. Given that the festival’s line-up is usually announced around March, the organisers do not have long to find a replacement that can match up to the legendary nature of Young.
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