The Pop Corporation

There’s people who will go to war for Glastonbury, telling you that there’s just nowhere like it. In terms of size, that’s arguably true. However, scope aside, once you’ve been to a bunch of festivals, it’s hard to see what makes it so special, aside from the countless people telling you how special it all is.

It is still overpriced food and lousy toilets with a bunch of bands playing outdoors, all told.

Neil Young and his latest band were set to play the festival this year, but he’s had a change of heart. Reassuringly grumpy behaviour from Young, there.

Young had confirmed he was on the bill, but now, writing on his website Neil Young Archives he’s decided to pull out and have a dig at the famous festival in the process.

He writes: “The Chrome Hearts and I were looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all time favourite outdoor gigs. 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,” he continued. “Thanks for coming to see us the last time! 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. Hope to see you at one of the other venues on the tour.”

Glastonbury, like most festivals, is heavily sponsored indeed. Over the years, it has seen sponsorship from Vodafone, Carlsberg, Land Rover, Barbour, Budweiser, Trainline, but has heavily featured a number of charitable organisations too, such as Oxfam, WaterAid, and smaller, local charities.

Either way, Glastonbury will crack on with its huge amount of musical acts (and terrible clown stuff), and be all over the BBC come summer with or without Neil Young. He gets to stick to his principals and they get to have a lot of people waft their large flags around and whatnot. Same as it ever was.

It is worth mentioning that Neil didn’t last play the festival in the ’80s or ’90s when things were very different. He played in 2009, when it was pretty much the behemoth that it is today, so y’know.

UPDATE

Ol’ grumpy arse has now changed his mind on the whole Glastonbury thing, saying on his blog that he’d received “an error in information”.

“Happily, the festival is now back on our itinerary and we look forward to playing! Hope to see you there!” he wrote. He did not explain what the error was, because… well… why would he? He’s Neil Young. Suck it up.

Festival organiser Emily Eavis said of the whole thing: “What a start to the year! – Neil Young is an artist who’s very close to our hearts at Glastonbury. He does things his own way and that’s why we love him. We can’t wait to welcome him back here to headline the Pyramid in June.”