Glastonbury announces lineup despite coronavirus threat

Glastonbury is going ahead with preparations for its 50th anniversary year despite coronavirus fears. The festival announced a wave of more than 90 artists including Friday-night headliner Kendrick Lamar.

The festival is still scheduled to take place between June 24-28 in Somerset. Being 15 weeks away, it would happen just after the government’s chief scientific adviser, placed the likely peak of the outbreak in the UK.

Emily Eavis, who heads Glastonbury festival along with her father Michael, said they were still “working hard” to deliver it, and were announcing the lineup “after much consideration given the current circumstances, and with the best of intentions … 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!”

Earlier this week, the festival put out a statement to say its team was “closely monitoring developments” in the spread of the disease.

The UK government is not currently planning to ban large-scale events, though Boris Johnson has warned of future events being cancelled because of the burden they would place on emergency services. In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has brought in a ban on gatherings of over 500 people starting Monday.

Other newly announced artists include: pop stars Camila Cabello, Mabel, Burna Boy and Robyn; soul legends The Isley Brothers and Candi Staton; and 90s rockers Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, Supergrass, Lightning Seeds, and Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds band, they will play the Pyramid before headliner Paul McCartney takes the stage on the Saturday night.

Thom Yorke brings his Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes electronic solo work, while Radiohead band member Ed O’Brien performs solo as EOB. Another regular Glastonbury performer, Jarvis Cocker, will appear with his band Jarv Is.

They all join the previously announced headliners Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift, plus Diana Ross playing the Sunday teatime “legend” slot.

You can find the full line-up on their website and further names will be announced closer to the festival.