Glastonbury confirm Stones as Saturday headline act
The Rolling Stones were finally confirmed as headliners for this summer’s Glastonbury Festival after months of rumours, with Mumford & Sons and Arctic Monkeys.
Primal Scream, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and Elvis Costello are also among the big names with chart acts such as Professor Green and Dizzee Rascal.
The full line-up was announced on the Glastonbury website. As ever it has thrown up a few surprises, including country star Kenny Rogers, who is among the figures playing the main Pyramid Stage.
The Stones have not played Glastonbury before, but their name became linked to the event late last year when it emerged they were getting together for 50th anniversary shows. They will play the festival on Saturday, June 29.
Glastonbury, being staged over the final weekend of June, took a year off last year due to the Olympics and to allow the farmland to recover.
This year’s Glastonbury is already a sell-out with around 135,000 tickets going in the space of less than two hours. However there will be some resales next month.
Also appearing on the Pyramid will be Rita Ora, Jake Bugg, Rufus Wainwright and festival veteran Billy Bragg.
Big names on the Other Stage include Portishead – almost 20 years after they released their debut album Dummy – along with Smashing Pumpkins, Mercury Prize-winners Alt-J and John Lydon’s band PiL. The xx, The Lumineers, Alabama Shakes and Foals are included on the bill.
Elsewhere on the huge rural site in Somerset there will be performances by 1970s’ disco pioneers Chic, Tom Tom Club, rap stalwarts Public Enemy, Dinosaur Jr, The Horrors and Johnny Marr.
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger told fans via Twitter: “Can’t wait to play Glastonbury. I have my wellies and my yurt.”
But while his band is playing on the main stage, former bass player Bill Wyman is on the bill for the acoustic stage with his group Rhythm Kings.
However as he is in the area, he may be lining up a surprise appearance with his old bandmates like he did when the Stones played the O2 Arena in London in November.
Artists appearing on 11 of the biggest stages were announced with more than 190 acts listed on the poster which festival bosses posted online.
