Neil Young dumps Glastonbury in BBC protest

Folk legend Neil Young has pulled out of this year’s Glastonbury music festival, alleging it has fallen under ‘the corporate control’ of its partner, the BBC.

Neil Young says Glastonbury has become a ‘corporate turn-off’. Picture: Michael Tran/FilmMagic

Folk legend Neil Young has pulled out of this year’s Glastonbury music festival, alleging it has fallen under “the corporate control” of its partner, the BBC.

The 79-year-old musician, once a member of the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, said he had been “looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all-time favourite outdoor gigs”.

But Young said the “BBC … wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in” at the festival in late June in southwest England.

“It seems Glastonbury is under corporate control,” the US-­Canadian singer-songwriter claimed on his website.

“We will not be playing Glastonbury on this tour, because it is a corporate turn-off, and not for me like it used to be.”

Neither the festival organisers nor the BBC commented.

The full official lineup for the world-famous festival has not yet been announced.

But ­rumours had swirled that Young and his group, The Chrome Hearts, would be taking to the stage at the festival’s home at Worthy Farm, in Somerset.

Young, who last played Glastonbury in 2009, did not give specific details of what the BBC’s demands had been.

In 2009, fans accused the BBC of not broadcasting the whole of his set.

The BBC said at the time that it had spent “months” negotiating with Young’s team over what it could screen of his show.

Tickets for this year’s festival sold out within 35 minutes when they went on sale in November, with standard tickets priced at £373.50 ($745).

The Young row comes as Glastonbury reported that profits more than doubled last year. The festival brought in £5.9m in pre-tax profit for the year to last March, up from £2.9m the year before, according to accounts filed with Companies House.

This year’s event will see evergreen British rock star Rod Stewart play the coveted legends slot, more than two decades after he headlined the festival.

Glastonbury attracted more than 200,000 fans in 2024, hosting 3000 performances across some 80 stages. Many of the gigs were broadcast by the BBC.

AFP