Music icon Neil Young has pulled out of Glastonbury Festival 2025 after claiming it has lost its identity and is now under “corporate” control.
The 79-year-old singer-songwriter, widely considered one of the greatest and most influential to have ever lived, was due to play the festival as one of the legends named on this year’s lineup.
However, despite lots of excitement around the veteran being given the nod over others from what has largely been seen as a pop-leaning pool (at least according to the detractors) in recent years, Young has now decided to drop out of the festival.
Neil Young’s latest ‘NYA Times Contrarian’ post explains the decision to drop out of Glastonbury.Neil Young in 2023 Credit: Screenshot (via Neil Young website)/Per Ole Hagen (via Flickr)
“The Chrome Hearts and I were looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all-time favourite outdoor gigs”, it reads. “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.”
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For context, the BBC has been partnered with Glasto since way back in 1997 and Neil Young has already headlined the festival back in 2009, so this shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise.
“It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being. Thanks for coming to us the last time!”, he continues. “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.”
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The message concludes with him hoping to catch fans at other venues and a simple “LOVE Neil – Be well”, but the tenor of the somewhat abrupt update is that the ever-opinionated and long-celebrated protest song-writer clearly believes the BBC‘s influence over the festival has now grown too strong.
Known not only as ‘Shakey’ and the ‘Godfather of Grunge’ but as one of the pioneering anti-establishment figures of a generation, the Canadian was previously in the headlines for demanding Spotify remove his music after taking issue with Joe Rogan’s anti-vax messaging on his show.
All that to say, the solo artist co-founding member of supergroup, Buffalo Springfield, is no stranger to taking on big business and companies if he feels he has good reason. Meanwhile, Rod Stewart will be performing in the coveted ‘Legends’ headliner slot at teatime on Sunday, 29 June.
Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts are looking set for a European tour this summer but if he’s taking on corporations and concerts under umbrella control, it seems unlikely we’ll see him at too many festivals or the likes of Co-op Live.
The better question is: do you agree – has Glastonbury Festival become too corporate and sanitised, or do you think it still upholds the same core values it had when it first popped up on Worthy Farm in 1970?
Featured Images — Ross Belot (via Flickr)/The Manc Group
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After All 2026 – the affordable grassroots music festival happening in Northern Quarter
Danny Jones
Grassroots music event After All Festival is returning to Manchester this weekend, with rising local artists and affordable tickets.
Now well over half a decade since it was founded, All All Fest takes place in the heart of the Northern Quarter, and this year they’re proving that their slow and steady approach to backing the best new up-and-coming bands at core intimate venues is more important than ever.
With plenty of previous acts having impressed in recent years, we’re looking forward to seeing how 2026 stacks up in comparison to its predecessors.
Increasingly prolific native group Dirty Laces are set to headline the whole thing, Manilla Times are locked in, and Bolton’s very own James Holt also stands out on the lineup, just to highlight a few.
As the festival continues to grow in size and popularity, they have obviously had to scale things up even further this year.
That being said, beloved live music spot and Manc institution, Band on the Wall, is among the chosen arts spaces for this latest iteration.
BoW will be offering up their 500-capacity main room to the organisers for the very first time, serving as the de facto main stage of After All Fest 2026.
Joining them will be the Rose and Monkey next door, as well as cult favourite pub, Gullivers on Oldham Street, who have a long history of supporting local musicians and the arts in general.
And would you look at that, now you’ve got all the stage splits and set times, too.
Labelled by Dead Records’ Rob Fiddaman as “one of the UK’s most exciting new music festivals”, homegrown DJing legend Dave Sweetmore has also described it as “unique in so many ways”, hailing it as a “brilliant event with a great atmosphere to discover new music.”
Having been ourselves on multiple occasions since its inception in 2019 – both as Audio North off-duty and as punters before then – we can’t recommend it highly enough.
The latest edition takes place at 12 noon onwards this Saturday until 2am on Sunday, 17 May, and while the cheapest early bird tickets (£16.50) are long gone, general admission tickets are still available, with prices starting from just £20. Grab yours HERE before they sell out.
It’s not the only live music event worth being a part of this month…
Global girl group Katseye add Manchester to huge new world tour
Daisy Jackson
Katseye have announced a major arena world tour for this year – and the global girl group are coming to Manchester for the first time.
The pop superstars will be performing at the Co-op Live as part of their WILDWORLD TOUR, which is taking them right across the UK, Europe and North America.
Katseye formed through The Debut: Dream Academy, which narrowed 120,000 applicants down to just six talented singers and dancers – though the group will be touring as a five-piece this time (Manon Bannerman has taken a hiatus from the band).
The Los Angeles-based global girl group, formed by HYBE and Geffen Records, merges K-pop dance training with Western pop sounds, with members hailing from across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and beyond.
The group is currently made up of Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, Sophia Laforteza, and Yoonchae Jeung.
Katseye have not yet released a full studio album but have achieved major commercial success with songs like Gabriella, Pinky Up, Gnarly, and Internet Girl.
The group have already performed a major slot at Coachella, as well as taking the stage at the GRAMMY Awards this year where they were also nominated for two awards (including Best New Artist).
Katseye will be releasing their third EP, WILD, this summer ahead of their world tour, which reaches Manchester in September.
Tickets will first be on sale via a Weverse Artist Presale from 11am on Wednesday 20 May, followed by the Katseye.World presale from 3pm.
Fans can also register for presale access by pre-ordering Katseye’s new EP WILD or by signing up – no purchase necessary.
General sale will begin at 3pm on Thursday 21 May HERE.
Katseye WILDWORLD Tour – UK and European dates
1 September – Dublin, Ireland – 3Arena
3 September – London, UK – The O2
6 September – Manchester, UK – Co-Op Live
9 September – Paris, France – Accor Arena
11 September – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Ziggo Dome
Danny Jones -
2nd January 2025 
