Glastonbury Defies Coronavirus Fears To Reveal Line-Up With Kendrick Lamar, Lana Del Rey

The world’s biggest greenfield music festival, Glastonbury, is defying coronavirus fears. The English event has just released its line-up for this year and says it currently plans to go ahead in 15 weeks’ time—while it will be closely and responsibly watching the coronavirus situation.

The Glastonbury headliners are Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar. Also added to the bill are Lana Del Rey, Dua Lipa, the Pet Shop Boys and Mabel. Almost 100 names were added in the most recent announcement. Among acts already announced, Diana Ross will perform in the Sunday “legend slot.” Lana Del Rey, who recently cancelled concerts after losing her voice, will be making a return to the festival.

The June event’s organizers will responsibly be watching the health news but they are hopeful that things will be returning to normal in the summer. Earlier, the organizer of the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals moved them to October from April. The Tribeca film festival has been postponed from April to a date yet to be confirmed. The virus pandemic, as it now is, has already shuttered events on Broadway. BTS, Madonna, Stormzy, Green Day, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Slipknot and Madonna have all cancelled or delayed shows. The industry event South By Southwest (SXSW) was canned and Warner Music delayed its $1 billion IPO as Covid-19 clouded the share outlook. While nobody knows how the situation will pan out, analysts say that music worldwide may lose $5 billion, a similar amount to the movie industry. Shares in music companies such as Live Nation are under strain.

Glastonbury’s closest outdoor rival is probably Coachella, though the Somerset event starting June 24 and running to June 28 has 175,000 attendees and covers a 1,100-acre site with more than 100 stages and thousands of acts taking part. “Glasto” is broadcast worldwide and its headliners see their streaming and sales surge immediately after each summer festival.

A statement on the festival’s official website from organizer Emily Eavis says: “So, after much consideration given the current circumstances, and with the best of intentions, here is the first list of musical acts for Glastonbury 2020.

“As things stand we are still working hard to deliver our 50th anniversary Festival in June and we are very proud of the bill that we have put together over the last year or so. No one has a crystal ball to see exactly where we will all be 15 weeks from now, but we are keeping our fingers firmly crossed that it will be here at Worthy Farm for the greatest show on Earth!

“As always this is just a taste of what is to come, we plan to announce many more artists and attractions, area by area, over the coming weeks leading up to the full line-up in May.”

Britain stepped up its response to the virus today, though the government’s chief scientific adviser said the outbreak may not peak for as much as 14 weeks or more. The country has not imposed the restrictions seen elsewhere, such as nations which have banned gatherings of more than 100 people, closed schools or restricted movements of people or flights.