Neil Young Axes Plans To Perform At 2025 Glastonbury Festival

One of music’s most influential names will be absent from England’s Glastonbury Festival this year, with Canadian icon Neil Young announcing he won’t be performing at the long-running event.

Young shared the news via a short note on his website, explaining that his 2025 tour plans will no longer coincide with the June festival.

“The Chrome Hearts and I were looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all time favorite outdoor gigs,” Young wrote. “We were told that BBC was now a partner in Glastonbury and wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in.

“It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being. Thanks for coming to see us the last time!”

Young had previously performed at the 2009 edition of Glastonbury, having initially been booked to perform 12 years earlier at the 1997 festival before cancelling. Reportedly, his cancellation was due to having sliced his finger while making a sandwich.

“We will not be playing Glastonbury on this tour because it is a corporate turn - off, and not for me like it used to be,” Young added.

Currently, the exact nature of Young’s complaint is unknown. As Rolling Stone points out, the BBC’s long-time partnership with the festival resulted in their first-ever global broadcast of the event last year, but it’s unclear if this is related to Young’s absence.

Young hasn’t toured outside of the US and Canada as a solo artist since 2009 (though he has done so with the likes of Crazy Horse and Promise Of The Real since), having explained in 2022 that he would refrain from touring until he and his crew can make it completely environmentally sustainable.

"Nothing dirty with us,” he told The New Yorker. “We set it up; we do this everywhere we go. This is something that's very important to me; if I'm ever going to go out again. . . . and I'm not sure I want to, I'm still feeling that out."

"If I’m ever going to do it, I want to make sure that everything is clean,” he continued. “What was the last thing you remember eating at a show, and how good was it? Was it from a farm-made, homegrown village? I don’t think so. It was from a factory farm that’s killing us.”

Just after Christmas, however, Young revealed that he would however be taking to the road once again, performing across the US and Europe with his new band The Chrome Hearts in support of his forthcoming album, Talking To The Trees.

The full lineup of the 2025 Glastonbury Festival is yet to be revealed, with so far only Rod Stewart being announced for the festival, appearing in the annual Legends slot.