Glastonbury 2020: headliners, line-up rumours and more

17 December 2019, 12:58 | Updated: 2 January 2020, 17:51

Who is in the frame to headline the 50th anniversary Glastonbury festival? We look at the contenders and update you on the latest.

It’s official! Glastonbury festival will celebrate its 50th anniversary between 24-28 June 2020.

2019 saw Stormzy, The Killers and The Cure all topped the bill at the Pyramid Stage to great acclaim, and with some rumours saying that there may be a FOURTH headliner on the Thursday night, it’s time for us to wonder who could play Glastonbury 2020.

Get the latest speculation, detective work and gossip on who's rumoured to play the Somerset festival, and who's been confirmed so far...

1. CONFIRMED Taylor Swift

   

   Taylor Swift has become the second headliner to be confirmed for the festival.

   Taking to social media on Sunday 15 December, the Shake It Off singer shared an image of her holding up a poster from the Glastonbury Press, which read: "Sunday Night Taylor Made For Glastonbury!"

   See it here:

   View this post on Instagram

   I’m ecstatic to tell you that I’ll be headlining Glastonbury on its 50th anniversary - See you there! 💋

   A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Dec 15, 2019 at 8:58am PST

   In a post on the official Glastonbury website, Michael Eavis said: "I’m so pleased to announce Taylor Swift will be headlining the Sunday at Glastonbury 2020. She’s one of the biggest stars in the world and her songs are absolutely amazing.

   "We’re so delighted.”

   It's fair to say that a few hints were thrown out there about Taylor's appearance on the Pyramid Stage.

   In November, Emily Eavis revealed that the other Glastonbury headliners were male and a female and neither had performed at the festival before.

   If that wasn't convincing enough, Taylor Swift is going on a festival tour to support her Lover album, and has been confirmed for British Summer Time Hyde Park 2020 - which takes place just two weeks after Glastonbury.

2. CONFIRMED Paul McCartney

   

   Paul McCartney officially confirmed he'd be topping the Saturday night of the festival.

   The Beatles legend first took to Twitter on the morning of Monday 18 November, sharing an image of Philip Glass, Emma Stone and Chuck Berry - to represent each syllable of the famous Somerset Festival.

   pic.twitter.com/ATdjMoiehi

   — Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) November 18, 2019

   Later the same day, Glastonbury Festival confirmed the news, writing: "We are incredibly excited to announce that @PaulMcCartney will headline the Pyramid Stage on the Saturday night of Glastonbury 2020."

   READ MORE: What can we expect from Paul McCartney's Glastonbury 2020 set?

   We can't say the news was that much of a surprise.

   In April, Michael Eavis hilariously told a BBC reporter that he was talking to the former Beatle about playing Glastonbury for a second time “hopefully for the 50th. Don’t make a big thing of it though, will you?”.

   Well, we ARE making a big thing of it, since Macca soon responded to the rumours telling the BBC it's a "remote possibility".

   “People are saying that it would be good if I did it, so I’m starting to think about whether I can or whether it would be a good thing, explained the Hey Jude legend.

   “My kids are saying ‘Dad we’ve got to talk about Glastonbury’ and I think I know what they mean.

   'It’s starting to become some remote kind of possibility. It’s definitely not fixed yet but people are starting to talk about it."

   2020 also marks 50 years since Macca called time on The Beatles and started his solo career, so this could be a bit special. Ringo could even turn up.

3. CONFIRMED: Diana Ross

   View this post on Instagram

   We are delighted to announce that @DianaRoss will play the Sunday legends slot on the Pyramid Stage at #Glastonbury2020

   A post shared by Glastonbury Festival (@glastofest) on Oct 9, 2019 at 11:58pm PDT

   The Motown legend and Supremes singer Diana Ross has become the first act to be confirmed for the festival.

   Ross will be playing the coveted Sunday Legends slot on the Pyramid Stage, following in the footsteps of the likes of Barry Gibb, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie and Kylie Minogue.

4. RUMOUR: Guns N' Roses

   

   Guns N' Roses have announced the details of a European tour, which has led fans to believe that they could be making a stop at the Somerset festival.

   The Welcome To The Jungle rockers - who are currently in their classic line-up of Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan and Dizzy Reed - have confirmed live dates for 2020, which include a show at London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 29 May 2020.

   Interestingly, their shows - which also see the band play Pinkpop Festival on 21 June and Dublin's Marlay Park on 27 June - leave a perfect space for the band to play Glastonbury Festival, which takes place from 24-28 June next year.

5. RULED OUT: Elton John

   

   It all looked so promising for Elton John to headline the Pyramid stage, with the Rocketman film doing huge business at the box office and Elt on his farewell tour.

   The piano man is also the right vintage for the 50th anniversary - he had his first hit, Your Song, weeks after the very first Glastonbury festival.

   However, the Tiny Dancer singer announced new North American dates this week, which appear to directly clash with the famous festival.

   The #EltonFarewellTour has just added five NEW American shows! 🇺🇸 Sign up to access the fan verified ticket pre-sale 👇
   
   Sign up: https://t.co/Z8QlwaH8GD ✨ pic.twitter.com/3APyxAySqv

   — Elton John (@eltonofficial) October 23, 2019

   Though Glastonbury is set for some surprises in it's 50th year, we're not sure if Thursday and Wednesday is a bit of a stretch.

6. RULED OUT: Led Zeppelin

   

   This would have been the ultimate booking for Michael Eavis. Led Zep are pretty much one of the only remaining rock bands to have never played Worthy Farm, but at the Cheltenham Literary Festival in October 2019, Emily Eavis confirmed that the legends WOULD NOT be playing in the 50th year.

   Their last live appearance was in 2007, when Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were joined by the late John Bonham’s son Jason to play the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at The O2 in London (Ertegun was the head of Atlantic, Zeppelin’s label) - 20 million applications were received by the venue to see this reunion.

7. RULED OUT: Fleetwood Mac

   

   “They’ll have to bring their price down,” said Michael Eavis recently about the ongoing rumour that the British-American soft rock colossus would grace the Pyramid Stage, and Emily Eavis has confirmed that Fleetwood Mac will NOT be playing in 2020.

   Everyone thought that it might happen in 2019, but t’was not to be. Lindsey Buckingham, who was a key member during the Rumours/Tango In The Night eras, left the band this year and was replaced by Neil Finn of Crowded House.

8. UNLIKELY: The Stone Roses

   

   They bailed on playing the festival in 1995 and never came back… but we think the ship has sailed on this one, to be honest. In September 2019, John Squire revealed that the band - himself, Ian Brown, Reni and Mani - formally split in 2017.

9. RUMOUR: Madonna

   

   She’s set to kick off 2020 with her Madame X tour, so there’s no reason why she couldn’t bring her latest extravaganza to the Pyramid Stage. She has nothing booked in her diary after Paris shows in March. If Kylie can do it, Madge can.

10. RUMOUR: The 1975

    

    Matty Healy has been saying on several occasions that his band are “almost ready” to play Glastonbury… and maybe 2020 will be the time. Recent live shows have had huge huge production values, so they could turn some heads at the Pyramid Stage.

11. RUMOUR: Arctic Monkeys

    

    Is it too soon for a return visit for Alex Turner and his space cadets? Glastonbury wasn’t held in the year of Tranquility Base, but we could imagine that a 50th anniversary headline slot could be quite impressive.

12. UNLIKELY: Oasis

    

    Bookies have slashed odds on a reunion between the Gallagher brothers full stop, never mind playing Glastonbury, following the recent Twitter shenanigans that saw their relationship sour even further. But a lot can happen in a year, can’t it?

13. RUMOUR: Ariana Grande

    

    Glastonbury is now home to the BIG pop acts, giving them a stage that the whole world is keeping an eye on. Grande is one of the most successful performers around at the moment, this could happen.

14. RUMOUR: ABBA

    

    The reclusive Swedish pop titans played their last live show to a paying audience in Japan in March 1980, but only Michael and Emily Eavis could have the power to rouse them from their retirement. They played privately together in 2016 and have announced that two new songs would be released in November 2019, with some virtual reality “abbatars” performing the songs in a “digital entertainment experience”. If this happens, rather than the real thing, this will be all kinds of woeful.

15. UNLIKELY: The Smiths

    

    Johnny Marr bowling on stage at the end of The Killers’ headline set to play This Charming Man with Brandon Flowers on vocals was a major, major highlight of Glastonbury 2019, so let’s start this rumour right here. HOWEVER: a) Morrissey would need to repair his relationship with certain other band members and b) embark on a pretty extensive charm offensive over the next year to get everyone back in his good books.