Who's headlined Glastonbury the most times? And other Glasto questions answered!

29 June 2024, 08:00

By Radio X

@RadioX

How many times have Coldplay headlined Glastonbury? Who's the youngest ever headliner? Find out everything you ever wanted to know about Glastonbury!

1. Who has headlined Glastonbury the most times?

   • Now that Coldplay are headlining the 2024 festival, they are the supreme champions of Glastonbury, with FIVE appearances topping the Pyramid Stage bill: they also headlined in 2002 (when they apparently replaced The Strokes), 2005, 2011 and 2016. The band also played the New Tent in 1999 and The Other Stage in 2000).

   

   • Bringing up the rear are The Cure, who headlined in 1986, 1990, 1995 and 2019.
   • Causing confusion is Elvis Costello, who has headlined in 1984 (as the Saturday night "special guest", 1987 and 1994 with his band The Attractions, but also topped the bill in 1989 with a solo set. He's also performed on the Pyramid Stage in 2005 and 2013 with The Imposters, but not as a headliner. Does he count? Only you can decide.

   

   Artists with THREE Glastonbury Pyramid Stage headline appearances are...

   • Arctic Monkeys: who headlined in 2007, 2013 and 2023 (if Alex Turner recovers from laryngitis)
   • Muse: who headlined in 2004, 2010, 2016 (they played Other Stage in 2000)
   • Radiohead: who headlined in 1997, 2003 and 2017 (they've also played the NME stage in 1994 and The Park Stage 2011)
   • Van Morrison, who headlined 1982, 1987 and 1989 and has made numerous other appearances since then.

2. How big is Glastonbury Festival?

   • Glastonbury takes place on 900 acres in the Vale Of Avalon, the site is over a mile and a half across and the perimeter is more than eight and a half miles long, according to the organisers.

   

3. What is the capacity of Glastonbury Festival?

   • 2023's Glastonbury has a capacity of 210,000 people, which is an increase on the 203,000 that attended in 2019.
   • That's not to say that's the biggest it's ever been. In 1994, it was estimated that 300,000 attended the event, but those were the days before the "wall" stopped many without tickets from getting in, so who knows what the real numbers are?
   • This technically makes Glastonbury the biggest town in Somerset for a few days, being twice as big as nearby Bath and two-and-a-half times bigger than Weston-super-Mare.

4. How many tickets to Glastonbury are sold every year?

   • Somerset Live calculates that 138,000 tickets are sold to music fans and festival goers, with 5,000 tickets going to local residents who can attend the Sunday.
   • The remaining 67,000 people are performers, technicians, security and all the other professionals and volunteers that make the festival happen.

   

5. Who was the first Glastonbury headliner?

   • Here's a tale. A young Michael Eavis (well, he was 34 at the time), was so impressed by the Bath Festival Of Blues in June of 1970 that he thought he'd have a go at putting on a similar event on his Somerset farm.
   • He contacted the manager of The Kinks, who agreed to appear at the newly-minted "Pilton Pop Folk & Blues Festival" in September of that year, but when they realised that the dairy farmer had no previous experience in show business and thought the event was going to be an embarrassment, they pulled out.
   • Thankfully the Boppin' Elf himself, Marc Bolan, stepped in at the last minute to save the day and the rest is history.

   

6. Who was the first female artist to headline Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage?

   • Glastonbury line-ups were not a precise art back in the early years of the festival. For example, while US singer Melanie is listed on 1983's Wikipedia page as being top billed on Friday night, she actually appears towards the bottom of the official festival poster. So we're not sure what time she actually appeared...
   • This means we can say that Suzanne Vega was the first "official" female headliner as she closed the Pyramid Stage on Friday night in 1989.
   • It wasn't a pleasant experience for the American singer-songwriter, however - she'd received death threats in the run up to the event and reportedly played her set wearing a bulletproof vest. Thankfully, the day ended without anyone being harmed.

   

7. Who was the first black artist to headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury?

   • The first black artist to officially headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury was New York blues legend Taj Mahal, who closed the festival on Sunday night in 1981.

   

   • The weekend also saw performances from New Order (billed as "formerly Joy Division"), space rockers Gong and Hawkwind, punk poet John Cooper Clarke and Brit reggae act Aswad... which is a pretty diverse line-up.
   • Glastonbury has a long tradition of showcasing blues, jazz, reggae and what they used to call "world" music in record shops which covers anything from Zimbabwean Chimurenga music (as practised by the Bhundu Boys) to Afrobeat (such as the pioneering Fela Kuti).

8. Who was the first black British artist to headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury?

   • Stormzy got himself into trouble when he claimed the achievement of being the first black British artist to ever top the bill on the Pyramid Stage in 2019 - he'd forgotten that Skunk Anansie topped the bill at the final Glastonbury of the 20th Century in June 1999.
   • Not only did the Britrock band include Deborah "Skin" Dyer on vocals, but another black member, bassist Cass Lewis. "No disrespect intended and MASSIVE salute to you," posted a sheepish Stormzy. Hear hear.
   

   SKUNK ANANSIE - LIVE @ GLASTONBURY 99 - WEAK

9. Who was the first black female artist to headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury?

   • Well that will be Skin from Skunk Anansie again, who beat Beyoncé by a comfortable 12 years, as she reminded everyone when Stormzy made his embarrassing mistake (see above).

   View this post on Instagram

   A post shared by Skunk Anansie (@officialskunkanansie)

10. Who was the first rapper to headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury?

    • Jay-Z caused a minor kerfuffle in certain quarters when he headlined in 2008. After Noel Gallagher unwisely said "I'm not having hip hop at Glastonbury, it's wrong", the rapper executed the perfect response by opening his set with a cover of Wonderwall. Take that, Noel.
    

    Jay-Z - Wonderwall/99 Problems (Glastonbury 2008)

11. Who is the youngest person to headline the Pyramid Stage?

    • This is an easy one - it was Billie Eilish, who was just the tender age of 20 when she topped the bill in 2022. It was her second appearance at the festival, after appearing on the Other Stage in the early evening in 2019.

    

12. Who is the oldest person to headline the Pyramid Stage?

    • Sir Paul McCartney topped the bill on the Pyramid Stage exactly a week after his 80th birthday on 25th June 2022. The former Beatle was rather taken aback when the crowd sang Happy Birthday to him, but it was a lovely moment. He also brought on Big Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Bruce Springsteen, which was pretty cool.

    

Thank you to the excellent UK Rock Festivals site for sharing indispensable knowledge about the early years of Glastonbury.