Festivals 2025: Rod Stewart for Glasto legend slot
Rod Stewart will play the Sunday teatime legend slot at next year’s Glastonbury – his first performance at Worthy Farm since headlining the Pyramid Stage in 2002.
The singer is the first artist confirmed for the 2025 festival, which takes place from 25-29 June.
“I’m proud, ready and more than able to pleasure and titillate my friends at Glastonbury in June,” says the 79-year-old, who recently said he will be done with “large-scale world tours” when his current run of dates is complete.
The music legend has a number of shows locked in for 2025, including North American tours in February/March, Las Vegas residencies in March and May/June, a European tour in April/May and another North American tour in July/August.
The Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza concert, meanwhile, will return on 9 August with a headline set from The Script.
Also in the UK, Charli XCX is the first headliner revealed for Parklife, set for Manchester’s Heaton Park on 14-15 June. Also unveiled are Confidence Man, Interplanetary Criminal, DJ Heartstring, KI/KI, Girls Don’t Sync, Prospa, Chaos In The CBD, Antony Szmierek, Sim0ne, Bakey, Jodie Harsh and Gina Breeze, with the full programme to be announced in January.
Charli XCX is also curating her own festival, Party Girl, as part of AEG’s new Lido Festival at London’s Victoria Park on 14 June. Guest stars will include her Brat collaborators 070 Shake, A. G. Cook, Bladee, Kelly Lee Owens, The Dare and The Japanese House.
In addition, sustainability-led festival We Love Green will return to Paris, France, from 6-8 June with an exclusive French performance from Charli XCX, who will be joined by Magdalena Bay, Parcels, Horsegiirl, Spill Tab, Kavinsky and Air, among others.
Oslo’s Øya Festival (5-9 August) will star Chappell Roan, who will perform her first concert in Norway. The event has also announced Queens of the Stone Age, Girl in Red, Khruangbin, Fontaines D.C., Wet Leg, The Mary Wallopers, Kneecap, Anna of the North, Nilüfer Yanya, MJ Lenderman and the Wind, The Impossible Green and Anna Lille.
Pinkpop will be topped by Justin Timberlake, Olivia Rodrigo and Muse
Dutch institution Pinkpop (20-22 June) in Megaland, Landgraaf, will be topped by Justin Timberlake, Olivia Rodrigo and Muse. Also on the bill are the likes of Oscar and the Wolf, The Last Dinner Party, Korn, Biffy Clyro, Weezer, Bad Nerves, Girl in Red, Kaiser Chiefs, Confidence Man, Mika, Cypress Hill, Purple Disco Machine and The Warning.
Elsewhere in the Netherlands, Paaspop will host Faithless, Loreen, Son Mieux, UB40, Joost, Frenna & the Gang, Goldband and The Kooks, among others.
Pohoda (10-12 July) in Slovakia boasts Iggy Pop, Queens of the Stone Age and Fontaines D.C., alongside acts such as JPEGMAFIA, Deadletter, JME, Joey Valence & Brae, Blondshell, Bambie Thug, BSÍ, Barcelona Gipsy BalKan Orchestra and Maruja.
Back in the UK, Kasabian, Courteeners, Nothing But Thieves and Bloc Party head Truck Festival‘s 2025 edition at Hill Farm, Oxfordshire, from 24-27 July. The Last Dinner Party, Blossoms, Franz Ferdinand, Wunderhorse, Reytons, Hard Life, CMAT, Sports Team and Natasha Bedingfield are also on the bill.
Tramlines (25-27 July) in Hillsborough Park, Sheffield, will be headed by hometown favourites Pulp, who will also curate the opening day, Reytons and Kasabian. Other acts include Spiritualized, Franz Ferdinand, The Last Dinner Party, Baxter Dury, John Grant, Rizzle Kicks, Natasha Bedingfield, Jake Bugg, The Lathums, Sigrid and CMAT.
The team behind the UK’s oldest independent festival Towersey, which came to an end this year, are planning a new chapter with the launch of a boutique event Found Festival (22-24 August) at Claydon Estate, Buckingham. Billed as a place to discover “head-turners not headliners” the soon-to-be-released programme will comprise Americana, folk, country, roots, blues and world music.
Meanwhile, new one-day festival Rock the Castle (19 July) will showcase Welsh music at Cardiff Castle, featuring Funeral For A Friend, The Blackout, Punk Rock Factory, Casey, Dream State and Kill The Lights.
And Ireland’s All Together Now (31 July-3 August) returns to Curraghmore Estate, Co. Waterford for its sixth edition, with acts including Fontaines D.C., Bicep present Chroma, CMAT, Wet Leg, Michael Kiwanuka, Leftfield, John Grant and English Teacher.
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Øya taps Jack White to replace QOTSA as headliner
Norway’s Øya Festival has confirmed that Jack White will replace Queens of the Stone Age as headliner of its 25th anniversary edition.
QOTSA have cancelled a further slate of European festival dates due to frontman Josh Homme requiring “continued medical care” at home in the US.
As well as Øya (9 August), the band have pulled out of slots at Sweden’s Way Out West (8 August), Denmark’s Syd for Solen (10 August), Caberet Vert in France (15 August), Lowlands in the Netherlands (16 August), Belgium’s Pukkelpop (18 August) and Portugal’s Villar de Mouros.
“Due to continued medical care, it is under doctors’ orders that Josh Homme remain in their care in the United States,” says a statement posted on social media. “The Homme family and QOTSA are so grateful for the outpouring of well wishes and kind understanding during this time.”
The rock group previously cancelled a run of July festival dates earlier this month after announcing Homme needed to “return to the United States immediately for emergency surgery”.
Air will replace The Smile, who cancelled their August European tour after multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood was hospitalised
Jack White will headline the Friday night of Oslo-based Øya, which has also revealed that Air will replace The Smile on the bill on the same day. The French electronic music duo will play their debut album Moon Safari in full.
The Smile were also recently forced to cancel their August European tour dates after multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood was hospitalised with an infection.
Set for 6-10 August, Øya will also be headlined by PJ Harvey and Pulp, Janelle Monáe and Gabrielle. Other names performing include The Kills, Vince Staples, The National, Slowdive, Big Thief, Arca, Sampha and Idles.
Organisers say this year’s festival is close to selling out, with fewer than 1,000 day tickets remaining for Friday and 400 for Saturday, while week passes are already sold out.
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Festivals 2024: Electric Castle, Parklife, Sonar
The run-up to Christmas has brought with it another cavalcade of 2024 festival line-up announcements from across the world.
Massive Attack, Queens Of The Stone Age and Bring Me The Horizon will headline the 10th birthday of Romania’s “24-hour festival experience” Electric Castle, which takes place at Bánffy Castle in Transylvania from 17-21 July.
Spread across 10 stages, other acts confirmed include Chase & Status, DJ Shadow, Khruangbin, Sleaford Mods, Bonobo, Marc Rebillet, Priya Ragu and Kenya Grace in addition to DJ Diesel, aka NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal.
Elsewhere, in a European festival exclusive, Fisher and Chris Lake will bring their Under Construction show from America for the first time to the UK’s Parklife. The house music duo are the first headliner announced for the festival, which will be held in Manchester’s Heaton Park on 8-9 June.
In what is billed as an industry-first, weekend tickets have been reduced from £129.50 to £125 to make them “accessible to all”.
Also in the UK, BST Hyde Park has named Robbie Williams as its second headliner for 2024. The pop icon, who previously starred at the London concert series in 2019, will appear on 6 July.
“We’re extremely happy to have Lenny Kravitz back on the poster, after the pandemic forced us to cancel in 2020”
Portsmouth’s Victorious Festival will take place from 23-25 August, headlined by Fatboy Slim, Jamie T and Biffy Clyro. The star-studded bill also features Snow Patrol, Idles, Jess Glynne, Courteeners, Pixies, The Lathums, Holly Humberstone, Becky Hill, Wet Leg, Soft Play, The Snuts, Maximo Park, Lottery Winners, Lightning Seeds and Yard Act, among others.
Plus, Crowded House (17 June), Nick Mulvey (20 June), Jungle (27 June) and Underworld (29 June) are the first acts unveiled for the second edition of Berkshire’s On The Mount at Wasing.
Sónar Barcelona, set for 13-15 June, revealed its first 70 artists for next year, including Floating Points, Kaytranada, Jessie Ware, Ben Böhmer, Martinez Brothers, Charlotte de Witte, Toya Delazy, Kerri Chandler and Reinier Zonneveld.
In Germany, Jazzopen Stuttgart celebrates its 30th anniversary from 18-29 July with artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Sting, Sam Smith, Jamie Cullum, Lawrence, Lettuce and The Cat Empire. Plus, Hamburg’s MS Dockville hosts the likes of Jeremias, Disarstar, Mayberg, Lime Cordiale, Fuffifufzich, My Ugly Clementine, Zeck, Hak Baker, Art School Girlfriend and Uche Yara between 16-18 August.
Lenny Kravitz has also joined the bill of Tinderbox in Odense, Denmark, from 27-29 June. The rocker was originally scheduled for the 2020 edition, which was cancelled due to Covid.
“We’re extremely happy to have Lenny Kravitz back on the poster, after the pandemic forced us to cancel in 2020,” says festival CEO Brian Nielsen. “Lenny Kravitz is one of the most inspiring artists of our time and continues to put his mark on the global music scene. We can’t wait to see what kind of magic will appear when he takes the stage at Tinderbox next summer.”
“Skrillex has single-handedly cut through a lot of barriers and is bringing together people across generations, nations, and musical inclinations”
Denmark’s Roskilde has added Skrillex, Róisín Murphy, Aurora, SexyyRed, Noname, Yaeji, Bar Italia, Shovel Dance Collective, Rhiannon Giddens and Kara Jackson to its bill. The 52nd edition of the festival will feature more than 170 acts from 29 June to 6 July.
“Skrillex has single-handedly cut through a lot of barriers and is bringing together people across generations, nations, and musical inclinations,” says programme director Anders Wahrén. “Everything we’ve seen and heard from Skrillex in 2023 – and that sums up to quite a lot – serves as euphoric and indisputable proof of his musical ambitions and innovative technical wizardry. We’re excited for this to unfold at Roskilde Festival.”
Finland’s Sideways has announced Peggy Gou, Jungle, Fontaines DC and Derya Yildirim & Grup Simsek for 13-15 June in Helsinki, and DJ sets from Bou, Dimension, Hedex, Sub Focus and Wilkinson will headline the inaugural DnB Allstars Portugal in Portimao from 3-6 May.
Camila Cabello joins Scorpions and Ed Sheeran in topping Rock in Rio Lisbon‘s 10th edition, set for 15-16 & 22-23 June, while Imagine Dragons are the latest headliner unveiled for the 40th anniversary of Rock in Rio Brazil, scheduled for 13-22 September.
Norway’s Oya Festival, meanwhile, has bolstered its 25th anniversary lineup with bands including Queens Of The Stone Age, The Smile and The National from 7-10 August.
“We hope our festive festival helps bring a moment of joy to travellers this Christmas”
Over in the US, Foo Fighters, Noah Kahan, and Weezer will headline the 2024 edition of rock festival Shaky Knees. Taking place 3-5 May at Central Park in downtown Atlanta, the lineup features over 60 artists across four stages also including Queens Of The Stone Age, Arcade Fire, Girl in Red, Billy Idol, The Offspring, Portugal. The Man, Young the Giant and Interpol.
Cruel World will return to Brookside at The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on 11 May, starring Duran Duran, Blondie, Interpol, Simple Minds, Placebo, Soft Cell, Adam Ant and The Jesus and Mary Chain, while Skrillex, Rezz, David Guetta, Carl Cox, Armin van Buuren and Alesso are among acts lined up for EDC Mexico, which runs in Mexico City from 23-25 February.
And Trainline has announced TrainLive, the UK’s first “train station music festival”, which will take place in a London train station this Friday, 8 December, topped by Sugababes and featuring a range of up-and-coming local musicians. Tickets for the Sugababes performance can be won through a ballot hosted on the Trainline website, with ticket-holders to receive an email the morning of the event, revealing the secret location.
“We’ve always been committed to getting journeys off to a great start, by making it easy to find and buy great-value rail tickets,” says Sakshi Anand, Trainline’s VP of growth and UK general manager. “Now we want to get Christmas off to a great start too, by hosting our first ever music festival in a station. From new artists to our iconic headliners, we hope our festive festival helps bring a moment of joy to travellers this Christmas.”
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2023 lineups: Øya, Flow, Hurricane & Southside
Øya (NO), Flow (FI), Hurricane & Southside (DE), Paaspop (NL) and Welcome To Rockville (US) are the latest festivals to beef-up their 2023 festival line-ups.
Norway’s Øya festival has detailed its gender-balanced line-up for 2023, which includes Sigrid, FKA Twigs, Caroline Polachek, Amyl and the Sniffers, Devo, Håkan Hellstrom, Shygirl and TV Girl.
The Superstruct-backed festival, which will return to Oslo’s Tøyenparken between 8–12 August, will once again put sustainability at the forefront of its operation.
The site operates free of fossil fuels, with 98% of its power being renewable and all construction machinery is run on biofuel.
That approach is also applied to everything from recycling (75% of all waste is recycled, having been sorted by hand) to travel (98% of attendees arrive by bike, foot or public transport).
The Øya site operates free of fossil fuels, with 98% of its power being renewable
Superstruct’s Flow Festival has also revealed the first acts for next year’s edition in Helsinki, Finland, between 11 and 13 August.
FKA Twigs, Caroline Polachek, Suede, Devo, Amyl & The Sniffers, Shygirl, Jockstrap, 070 Shake and more will perform at the culture, music, arts and debate festival in the post-industrial area of Suvilahti.
In Germany, the 2023 editions of FKP Scorpio’s flagship festivals, Hurricane and Southside, are beginning to take shape.
Billy Talent, Muse, Die Ärzte, Kraftklub, Placebo, Casper, Peter Fox and Queens Of The Stone Age will top the bill for the twin events, which this year sold-out and attracted 150,000 attendees.
Southside and Hurricane will return to Neuhausen ob Eck and the Eichenring motorcycle speedway in Scheessel, respectively, between 16 to 18 June 2023.
Danny Wimmer Presents unveiled the line-up for its longest-running annual festival
In neighbouring country, the Netherlands, The Event Warehouse is putting the final touches on Paaspop 2023.
Limp Bizkit today (15 December) joined next year’s line-up which already included 90 names including Antoon, Armin van Buuren, Calum Scott and Danny Vera.
Davina Michelle, De Staat, dEUS, DI-Rect, Flemming, George Ezra, Goldband, Reinier Zonneveld, Rondé, S10, Son Mieux and Triggerfinger are also lined up for the festival, scheduled for 7–9 April 2023 at De Molenheide in Schijndel.
Also today, Danny Wimmer Presents unveiled the line-up for its longest-running annual festival, Welcome To Rockville (US).
Tool, Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, Pantera, Deftones, Rob Zombie, Godsmack, Queens of the Stone Age, Evanescence and Incubus are the first name to be announced for the 12th edition.
The event will return to Daytona International Speedway In Daytona Beach, Florida, between 18–21 May 2023. This year’s edition brought together 150,000 fans.
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Norway festivals cancelled, but small events to return
Concerts of up to 200 people will likely once again be permitted in Norway as of Friday 15 June, as the country’s live music sector begins its slow return to normality.
The first live events will return this week, with shows for up to 50 people permitted from this Thursday (7 May), providing a one-metre (3’3”) distance is kept between attendees. From 15 June, the government will also consider allowing events for up to 200 people should infection rates be kept under control, said health minister Bent Høie last week.
The concrete timetable for the lifting of restrictions on concerts – which follows a similar, much-talked-about announcement by Spanish authorities, where events of 30 people (in venues with over 90 capacity) may return from 11 May – welcomed tentatively by promoters’ association NKA, nevertheless comes too late for Norway’s large live events, with the country’s largest and best-known music festivals finally called off last week.
Bergenfest (scheduled for 10–13 June) and Tons of Rock (25–27 June), both owned by Live Nation, and Øya Festival, part of the Superstruct stable, will no longer take place in 2020, after the Norwegian government extended its ban on major live events until 1 September.
“For the larger industry players, events of up to 200 people will not even be close to being financially viable”
Large-scale live events are banned in most of continental Europe this summer to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Going further than Norway, the Netherlands has prohibited all festivals, concerts and club nights until 1 September, while in Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and Denmark a ban is in place until 31 August. Hungary has banned mass gatherings until at least 15 August, and Luxembourg and Finland until 31 July. France, meanwhile, has given mid-July as the earliest date when events could go ahead, while Austria has identified the end of June.
“While it is positive that there are now clear signs that society can gradually be reopened, at the same time it will be a long time until we can be together as normal,” comments Norwegian Live Music Association (NKA) head Tone Østerdal. “Our industry was among the very first to be shut down, and will most likely be among the very last to open completely. In the meantime, the focus must be to keep concert organisers and the rest of the players in the music industry afloat.
“For some of the smallest, allowing events for up to 200 people could represent such an opportunity, and I think we will see many positive initiatives going forward. At the same time, we should not underestimate what maintaining the infection prevention rules will require of promoters – and for the larger industry players, events of up to 200 people will not even be close to being financially viable.”
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“It’s important to be a role model”: Øya gears up for 20th year
Norway’s Øya Festival will next week mark its 20th anniversary with the biggest event to date, according to festival founder Claes Olsen.
Øya Festival (Øyafestivalen), held since 2014 in Tøyen Park, Oslo, has sold out every year since 2004, when it was headlined by the Streets and Air and attracted 38,000 visitors. For 2019’s event, on 6–10 August, the Øya team have boosted capacity to 20,000 per day at the festival site – with more than 100,000 visitors expected over the course of the event, including at Øyanatt (Øya Night) club shows at venues across Oslo.
“We’ve had record sales this year,” says Olsen, who reveals full-week tickets sold out before the summer. “Saturday day tickets, with Norwegian headliners Karpe, sold out before Christmas,” he adds, while “Wednesday, with the Cure, James Blake and Blood Orange, sold out months ago; Friday, with Robyn, Christine and the Queens and Girl in Red, sold out weeks ago; and we only have a few hundred tickets left for Thursday, with Tame Impala, Erykah Badu and Sigrid…”
Part of the increase in capacity for 2019 was necessitated by soaring artist fees – 30% over the last two years alone, reckons Olsen – but it has enabled the festival to book arguably its most impressive international line-up yet, complemented by a strong contingent of Norwegian talent.
Olsen, who is also Øya’s lead booker, attributes the festival’s run of back-to-back sell-outs to “believing in our own profile” – booking acts the team want to see, rather than “desperately chasing trends” – as well its progressive attitude towards the issues of the day, including sustainability and gender parity among staff and performers.
“It’s important to think about the future and not be too nostalgic about our history”
For the third year in a row, Øyafestivalen has a gender-balanced bill (49% women this year, 48% in 2017–18), which “proves that we can sell tickets with lots of amazing female acts all over the line-up”, says Olsen, who adds that 65% of the festival’s volunteers are female, along with more than half of its staff. (As is Øya’s CEO, Tonje Kaada.)
Olsen says that while festival bookers “spend a lot of time talking about this issue” (gender parity), it’s “not too difficult to manage it, or to sell tickets or anything. There’s still a long way to go, but we’re heading in the right direction – there are more and more female artists coming through and, especially among the Norwegian acts, there are a lot to choose from.”
As for staff, Olsen says even 20 years ago, “as a group of friends doing the festival voluntarily alongside other jobs, it was important [to us] to be a professional organisation and always recruit the best people – and naturally lots of them were female. But you need to be conscious of it and not overlook it; it’s important to be a positive role model and get new people on board, rather than scaring them away from getting into the music industry…”
On sustainability, meanwhile, the festival has been run on completely renewable energy since 2009, and all food is organic, with almost 40% of the 100,000 portions of food sold being meat free. Additionally, all food packaging is compostable, all beverages are served in reusable cups – a reduction of 90% in plastic use since 2016 – and over 60% of the festival’s waste is reused for new products.
The event’s “environmental- and climate-friendly operations, food and drink that’s gone far beyond sausages and beer, and social consciousness in addition to all the music” were among the factors that impressed Superstruct Entertainment, James Barton’s private equity-backed festival group, enough to invest in Øya in 2018, Olsen’s fellow co-founder, Linn Lunder, told DN.
“We always recruited the best people, and naturally lots of them were female. But you need to be conscious of it”
How has that deal – which saw Øyafestivalen and Superstruct invest in each other, with Olsen and Lunder acquiring an ownership interest in Superstruct – affected, positively or otherwise, Øya 2019? Not much, according Olsen, who says the first year has been “mainly been getting to know each other better, with new festivals coming aboard”.
However, he expects the Superstruct network – which now includes Denmark’s Down the Drain, Flow Festival in Finland and several ex-Global events in the UK, among others – to include “more collaboration in future years”, especially in coordinating artist booking.
Other than handing out a big 20th birthday cake to the first people on site, Olsen says Øya’s 20th year – unlike, say, Glastonbury’s 40th, which saw festival founder Michael Eavis join Stevie Wonder for an impromptu rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ – will be a low-key affair.
“We’re keeping it a little bit quiet; we don’t have it on the posters or the ads, for example,” he says. “We feel like it’s important to think about the future and not be too nostalgic about our history – and I don’t think people really care that much about it when they’re buying tickets anyway. Besides, every festival is better than the last year anyway…”
Øya Festival 2019 takes place Tuesday 6 to Saturday 10 August.
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Market report: Norway
If money doesn’t make us happy, then how do we explain Norway, which is both the world’s happiest country and, thanks to its oil wealth, Europe’s second richest?
Maybe money isn’t such a curse after all. Or maybe Norway’s diverting live scene keeps those rich kid blues at bay. The smallest Scandinavian nation by population, with the fiddliest coastline, it houses a disproportionately deluxe live market, with all the international shows and domestic touring talent a nation of 5.2m people could reasonably expect, and a festival scene that is thoroughly embedded in its culture.
“Festivals have taken over Norwegian social life now,” says Torbjørn Heitmann Valum, CEO of Norske Konsertarrangører, the country’s live business trade body. “That’s all people do in the summer: they go to a festival, meet up with friends and see bands.” Events such as Norwegian Wood, Øya, Findings, Picnic in the Park and OverOslo, which all take place in the capital, are among the prominent evidence of this, but in the summer, Norway is swarming with festivals from top to bottom – not just national ones, but regional and local ones, too, in virtually every town.
“That’s all people do in the summer: they go to a festival, meet up with friends and see bands”
Likewise, Oslo is the prime destination for most international artists, but second and third cities Bergen and Trondheim have their moments too, and Norwegian music is strong and varied enough that the country’s live business could, if pushed, run on little else. Once famous solely for A-ha, Norway’s talent machine these days produces a far broader range of artists than before.
“Yes, it’s a really good time,” says Atomic Soul’s Peer Osmundsvaag. “I remember growing up thinking Norway was probably the most rubbish country in the world, with only A-ha…”
These days, artists are breaking out of Norway all over the place. Notable names include hit-making DJ Kygo, pop twins Marcus & Martinus and X Factor offshoot Astrid S; diverse singer-songwriters such as Susanne Sundfør, Maria Mena, Anna of the North and Aurora; and indie-rockers Kakkmaddafakka – part of the so-called New Bergen Wave, which follows the original wave in the 1990s that produced Röyksopp, Kings of Convenience and Annie. Norwegian artists even occasionally manage to get noticed in Sweden, which would once have been unheard of.
Read the rest of this feature in the digital edition of IQ 73:
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