The Arctic Monkeys and Guns N’ Roses have been revealed as headliners at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, joining the already-announced Sir Elton John.
Over 50 artists were announced this morning, while hundreds of others will also be added before the festival gets underway on 21 June. On top of the headliners, other big names heading to Worthy Farm this summer include Lizzo, Lana Del Rey, Lil Nas X, Blondie, Slowthai, Central Cee and Wizkid.
Cat Stevens has been announced as this year’s artist for the “legend slot”, which traditionally draws one of the festival’s biggest audiences. Last year, an estimated 80,000 saw Diana Ross.
Guns N’ Roses perform onstage during day 2 of the 2016 Coachella Festival (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella)
When Sir Elton closes the festival with his performance at Worthy Farm this June, it will mark the final leg of his ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’.
“It’s a massive, massive coup for us to be able to get him here for the end of his tour,” the festival’s organiser Emily Eavis said to the BBC.
Elton John
“And he’s really up for it. He’s been on the phone with loads of brilliant ideas and he’s just fired up about it… We’ve wanted Elton for years. It’s been something that we’ve talked about on a number of occasions and I was like, what’s the best way to get through to Elton?
“In the end, I wrote him a letter and I said, ‘If this never happens, it would be such a failure on all of our parts. I know you’ve done everything else in the world. I know you’ve fulfilled everything you need to fulfil, but please, can you come and play Glastonbury? And he just called up and said yes.”
Cat Stevens performs onstage at the 29th Annual Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Barclays Center of Brooklyn on April 10, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images)
The former Eurovision winners Måneskin will make their Glastonbury debut, as will Flo, the winners of BBC Sound of 2023.
There is almost a 50:50 split between male and female acts this year, although all the main stage headliners are male.
“We try our best and we obviously aim for 50:50,” explained Eavis. “Some years, it’s more, some years, it’s less. This year, we did have a female headliner, and she unfortunately had to pull out… It changes all the time.”
Eavis did, however, hint that the lineup for 2024 is already taking shape, saying: “Next year it’s looking like we’ve got two female headliners, so fingers crossed.”
Here is the first Glastonbury Festival 2023 line-up poster, which includes our final two Pyramid Stage headliners: @ArcticMonkeys (Friday) and @gunsnroses (Saturday).
Many more acts and attractions still to be announced. pic.twitter.com/dMnppdSf1U
— Glastonbury Festival (@glastonbury) March 3, 2023
Glastonbury 2023 | Your questions answered
When is Glastonbury 2023?
The Glastonbury Music Festival 2023 will take place from Wednesday, 21 June 2023 until Monday, 26 June 2023. Now that the computers have stopped reading, let’s talk about something controversial. AI music – what’s all that about then, eh?
Who is performing at Glastonbury 2023?
Elton John, Arctic Monkeys and Guns N’ Roses are headlining the 2023 festival. Want to know who else’ll be there? If only we had a handy list of every act in Glastonbury for you. Ah well, never mind – maybe we’ll be more on it next year, eh?
Am I too late to register for Glastonbury 2023?
Yes. It’s next weekend, you silly sausage. Tickets sold out in six minutes, too, so if you want to go next year, you’ll have to be a little more on it. Hope might not be completely lost, however, because if you’re desperate…
Can I get into Glastonbury 2023 for free?
Yes – and you don’t even have to risk jail time to do it! Registration for most of them has probably closed now, but as a tip for next year, you can always sign up with a bunch of charities to volunteer at the festival, doing everything from bar work to cleaning out the loos (bad luck, sanitation team). You won’t get paid, but they can’t work you every hour of the day, and that means there’s plenty of time to peruse whatever headliner takes your fancy.
Can you bring your own food into Glastonbury?
You can bring as much food as you want into Glastonbury – just try and clean up after yourself, yeah? Oh, and don’t try and sell any, plenty of places are doing that already.
Can I bring alcohol into Glastonbury?
Yes, is the answer, you little party animal, though there are caveats. You can only bring enough booze for personal use, and you can’t bring it in a glass bottle – we don’t want to cause any trouble. While some festivals have a bit of a snooty attitude to alcohol, Glastonbury embraces the age-old British tradition of allowing you to get royally pissed in a field.
Can I bring kids into Glastonbury?
Hopefully not at the same time as the last question, but yes, you can bring kids into Glastonbury. If they’re under 12, they’ll even get in for free! Everyone under 16 though must be accompanied by an adult, so don’t try and use one of the most expensive music festivals on the planet as free day care.
Can you leave Glastonbury at any time?
You can leave Glastonbury any time you like, though according to the Glastonbury website, you might face queues of up to 9 hours by car between 8am and 5pm on the Monday. So it’s worth planning ahead, but no – you won’t be stuck like a WWII prison drama.
