The festival announcement season is upon us. Not just in terms of Christmas trumpeters, but in terms of the next festival season: the summer in Europe. If you’ve never gone to a giant music festival, there’s always Coachella, SXSW, Lollapalooza, and that other one in Nashville. But the grand-daddy of them all is Glastonbury in the UK. And today, U2 announced they’d be headlining it.
Festival organizer Michael Eavis started up the festival 40 years ago, after being inspired by a Led Zeppelin show. At that time, it was free and the headliner was T. Rex. Over the years, the festival has swelled to a record 134,000 people, all packed together in the mud, all there to enjoy some of the world’s top acts. Last year, those included The Prodigy, Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, Nick Cave, Ray Davies, and Neil Young.
Every year since the mid-1980s U2 has been rumored to play the festival, and those rumors have never come to fruition. But now, U2 will come to fruition.
Myself, I watched U2 come to fruition when they played the Rose Bowl, and all I could think about was how ridiculous and awesome the stage setup was. It was like Bono was parading around on the side wall of a giant metallic castle that could light up and make you tea.
Comments
charlie
November 24th, 2009 - 2:17:56 PM
how to prove your festival is no longer relevant, even after forty years, selecting U2 as your festival's headliner. in 2009. yawn.
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