Canadian rock singer and songwriter Neil Young has explained why he decided to pull out of the forthcoming Glastonbury 2025.
According to the legendary rocker, he pulled out of the UK festival because of BBC’s partnership with it. In late 2024, Young lamented that the state-owned media had taken “corporate control” of the famously anti-commercial, nonprofit UK festival, which neither hosts brand partnerships (besides with some media outlets) nor allows ads on-site, other than those of selected charities. But the BBC, said Young, “wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in. It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being.”
The singer who was a 2009 headliner of the festival before the BBC partnership began continued “one of [his] all-time favorite outdoor gigs,” but was now “a corporate turn-off.” His stand against one of the world’s most beloved festivals—which last year donated some $6.4 million to charities, The Guardian notes—is the latest in a series of objections to the music industry at large, notably taking issue with Spotify and Ticketmaster.
Rod Stewart, who will play the Sunday-afternoon legends slot is the only performer formally confirmed for the much-anticipated event.
