Neil Young had announced that he and his band would be boycotting the festival after it had come “under corporate control” of the BBC – but has now reversed his decision
A rock legend has reversed his decision to boycott Glastonbury after receiving “false info”.
Canadian musician Neil Young, 79, had announced at the end of 2024 that he would not be taking part in the iconic music festival. The festival’s line-up is yet to be fully revealed, with only Sir Rod Stewart confirmed to have secured a Legends slot – but the full line-up is expected to be released in March.
In a statement on his website on Tuesday (December 31), he slammed the BBC for its involvement in the festival, and said that the station’s hand in the production of the show was not what the band had signed for. However, in a U-turn, Neil has explained that there had been a mistake and instead he was not pulling out of the festival at all.
Posting a new update to his website, Neil penned: “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!”
Festival organiser Emily Eavis was thrilled to see that Neil would be making his return to the festival – despite not having been officially announced. Taking to her Instagram account, she beamed: “What a start to the year!
“Neil Young is an artist who’s very close to our hearts at Glastonbury,” Emily added. “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.”
Previously, Neil had slammed the BBC for bringing Glastonbury “under corporate control” – despite the fact that the BBC has partnered with the festival on Worthy Farm in Somerset every year since 1997. In 2009, Neil hit out at the broadcaster after his set was cut down for television audiences, despite being a headline act.
After having performed for two hours for tens of thousands of music revellers, the BBC opted to only show parts of the setlist. In a statement responding to Neil’s criticism at the time, the BBC said it had spent a “couple of months” in negotiations with Neil’s management about broadcasting the performance.
In total, just five songs were played to the viewing audience at home – a decision that was made whilst Neil was performing on the Pyramid stage. Then-executive producer of the BBC’s coverage of the festival Mark Cooper said that Neil’s team liked to maintain a degree of privacy for the rockstar’s music.
“They believe in the live event and retaining its mystery and that of their artist,” Mark explained at the time. “You probably won’t find too many Neil Young performances available freely on TV or online; he generally prefers the audience to find his albums.”
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