Earlier today (March 3), the headliners for this year’s Glastonbury festival was revealed, and leading the iconic UK event are Elton John, Arctic Monkeys, and Guns N’ Roses. After the reveal, Glastonbury co-organizer Emily Eavis spoke about this year’s all-male headliners (although female musician Melissa Reese joined Guns N’ Roses in 2016).
She described the situation as a “pipeline” issue, saying to The Guardian, “We’re trying our best so the pipeline needs to be developed. This starts way back with the record companies, radio. I can shout as loud as I like but we need to get everyone on board.” She added, “It’s top of our agenda, and it probably makes it a bit harder because we’ve decided to make that important to us. To be honest, sometimes it’s easier to keep your head down.”
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
On the female headliner front, things are expected to look better next year: Eavis says they’re anticipating having two female headliners, with one confirmed and one nearly confirmed.
The full lineup is not yet here, but as The Guardian notes, there is diversity among the 54 acts listed on today’s poster: 52 percent of them are male and 46 percent are non-white or feature non-white members. Eavis noted she’s “entirely focused on balancing our bill,” adding, “It’s not just about gender, it’s about every aspect of diversity. […] We’re probably one of the only big shows that’s really focused on this.”
Find more info about this year’s Glastonbury festival here.
