Playlist: The best emerging artists at Glastonbury 2025
There is a statistic, somewhere out there, that says that Glastonbury is actually the world’s best value for money festival.
If you take all the top acts and add up the price of one ticket to see them all individually, you’re saving yourself thousands if you managed to win the digital wars to get the ‘golden glasto ticket’. But there’s something more valuable than that: bragging rights. Nothing beats being able to say that you knew an artist before they were big, or being able to boast that you saw a future headliner play a small stage.
Every year, Glastonbury offers just that. Thousands of people play at the festival each June, and in that batch, there are inevitably going to be some budding heroes who will no doubt grace the bigger stages of the Pyramid, the Other, or the Park later on.
Honestly, all my best Glastonbury moments have come from them. Last year, Thursday ended up being my favourite day of the festival as we simply wandered around, checking out which spots already had a lineup going and then just stuck around to see. It’s where I discovered some of my favourite new acts, catching Pushpin and Enjoyable Listens at the Hive, or seeing Sleaze in Strummerville. Moments like this are not only musically strong, but they’re moving and exciting, especially watching people play the festival they likely spent a lifetime dreaming about being on the lineup of. It guarantees good energy as bucket list moments are coming true right in front of your eyes.
This year is no different. The lineup across the board is incredibly strong as well, and that rings true of the smaller stages and the earlier time slots. The various competitions that surround the festival also seemed to do a great job of spotting talent. The yearly Emerging Talent Competition crowned Westside Cowboy, meaning they really need to be on your to-see list if you want to see some Glastonbury-endorsed future stars. But even on smaller stages, Bread and Roses picked Thwack! as the winner of their yearly competition and clearly had a good ear there too, selecting another one to lock into your schedule.
If you want bang for your buck, and by that I mean the most new music per number of steps you’ve dedicated to finding it, I’d head up to Strummerville on Thursday night. Last year, Fat Dog had the ground shaking there, and the area always feels like a mini festival within a festival as it posts perhaps the best emerging talent lineup on site. I say go there on thursday because then you’ll get a strong run of Skydaddy, then later, the incredible Jeanie and the Whiteboys and Heartworms.
From each of the furthest corners of the spanning site, there is always something for everyone. That’s reflected in the exciting new music on site. Looking for pure psyche-punk chaos? Go see Femur. Looking for beautiful, tear-jerking poetry? Go see Jacob Alon. Even if you’re after some Welsh language fun, both Mermaid Chunky and Melin Melyn can give you that. When I say there’s something for everyone, I really am not kidding.
Punk, pop, folk, indie, rock and roll, electronica, post-punk, art-pop, spoken word—whatever. Sure, the big names might be able to bring you that, but go seek out these acts for future bragging rights.
The best emerging acts at Glastonbury 2025:
- Westside Cowboy – ‘Shells’
- Gurriers – ‘Des Goblin’
- Melin Melyn – ‘Vitamin D’
- Jasmine.4.t – ‘Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissocitation’
- Antony Szmierek – ‘The Great Pyramid Of Stockport’
- Chloe Slater – ‘Fig Tree’
- GIRLBAND! – ‘21st Century Suffragette’
- Luvcat – ‘Lipstick’
- Mermaid Chunky – ‘Ceili’
- Jacob Alon – ‘Confession’
- Alien Chicks – ‘Steve Buscemi’
- Cliffords – ‘My Favourite Monster’
- Divorce – ‘Lord’
- Chloe Foy – ‘Complete Fool’
- Chalk – ‘Bliss’
- Moreish Idols – ‘All In The Game’
- Adult DVD – ‘Doomsday Prepper’
- Femur – ‘Watch Me, Watch You’
- Jeanie and the White Boys – ‘Big Udder Blues’
- Heartworms – ‘Just To Ask A Dance’
- Skydaddy – ‘Mushrooms’
- THWACK! – ‘Margaret Thatcher Blood Snatcher’
- Men an Tol – ‘NW1’
