A ticket to California‘s Coachella music festival was once on the wish list of teens around the globe.
Artists would likewise grab at the opportunity to take to on the three-day festival, with previous headliners including Gorillaz, Coldplay and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
But it appears that the event’s appeal is slowly fading, with Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar snubbing the chance to take the top spot at the festival’s 2025 rendition.
The rapper reportedly declined the offer because he was too busy to make time for the festival, while Rihanna no long needs the money or exposure, thanks to her booming Fenty empire, according to Bloomberg.
And it’s not just Coachella grappling with line-up issues or wider criticism from fans, with Glastonbury also coming under fire for, in the words of Noel Gallagher, being ‘a bit woke now’
Kendrick Lamar and Rihanna reportedly snubbed Coachella 2025, according to Bloomberg (pictured in 2018)
Last year’s California-based festival, which had Lana Del Rey and Blur on the lineup, saw legions of influencers flown out by brands to pose in the desert and promote their swimwear, hair, and clothing ranges.
But many ticketholders don’t even bother attending the event – now dubbed the ‘Influencer Olympics’.
Blur frontman Damon Albarn became increasingly frustrated with the ‘silent’ Coachella crowd during his band’s set, telling them: ‘You’ll never see us again so you might as well f****** sing it’.
He has been given sympathy by a member of Paul Weller’s touring band who told of similar indifference from crowds at Coachella – and branded it ‘not a music festival’.
Bass guitarist Andy Lewis, who played on Weller’s albums 22 Dreams and Wake Up The Nation as well as touring with him, posted on X, formerly Twitter: ‘Seeing the Blur thing at Coachella reminds me of when I played there with my old job.
‘Nobody really knew, or cared, who we were. The crowd were just having a great time, and making sure they were seen to be having a great time.
‘I got the impression it’s not a music festival, rather it’s a conspicuous consumption festival. A ‘we’re here and you ain’t’ festival.
‘Don’t get me wrong, nobody there was unpleasant, but I didn’t get the impression anyone cared about the music more than they cared about *being there*.’
Revellers have complained that the Californian music-festival has become a photo opportunity for influencers pictured: Paris Hilton with Kyle Richards and Kesha at Coachella
Glastonbury has also faced criticism for going ‘woke’, with the Worthy Farm event recently including a workout session hosted by Joe Wicks
Britpop band Blur played a 13-song set at the California-based music festival, including ’90s classics like Girls & Boys, Popscene and Song 2.
But the audience was less than enthusiastic, with their apathy becoming apparent to the band onstage.
Footage taken during the band’s set shows Damon becoming frustrated with the crowd as he asks them to sing back to him but is hit with near silence.
The singer became increasingly annoyed as he shouts ‘you can do it better than that’, before waving his hands in the air and vowing never to return, adding: ‘You’ll never see us again so you might as well f****** sing it’.
The crowd appeared to be comprised mostly of young Gen Z festivalgoers, while Blur hit its musical peak in the ’90s.
But while well known faces such as Love Island’s Maura Higgins and Millie Court posed up for pictures for this year’s fest, Coachella has faced its slowest sales year in a decade, according to the Los Angeles Times.
‘Influencer fatigue’ is setting in for music lovers who would typically attend Coachella, with 75 per cent of respondents of a recent US survey saying influencers are overshadowing Coachella’s musical purpose.
Meanwhile, 68 per cent of respondents said they are unhappy with the increasing presence of brands and social media influencers at the three-day event.
Famous influencers who posed up for Coachella also included YouTuber Saffron Barker, who was in partnership with White Fox boutique.
Last year, American singer Loren Gray claimed ‘a lot’ of influencers pretend to attend Coachella through posed photos but do not actually go to the festival.
She said: ‘Okay, I haven’t personally seen anyone talk about this but I think it’s hilarious, and I have to share it because it’s Coachella.
Influencers appearing at Coachella include Love Island star Maura Higgins (pictured)
Blur played a 13-song set at the California music festival, including 90s classics like Girls & Boys, Popscene and Song 2
Before the influencers: Music fans at Coachella in 2001, shortly after the festival began
‘Coachella’s like the Influencer Olympics right, it’s the place to be. But most influencers, or a lot of influencers, don’t even go to Coachella, and I think that this is such a wild fact.’
She added: ‘They’ll go out to the desert, get like an Airbnb, stay with someone, get their outfits, get their hair, get their makeup […] and they don’t go to the festival.’
It’s not just the performers that have expressed frustration at Coachella, with staff also hitting out at the festival’s working conditions.
Thomas Hearts was among the former employees who have laid bare the grueling conditions at the festival.
He described working as a merchandise vendor at the event as ‘torturous hell’ before slamming the lack of organisation, limited breaks, and absence of team morale.
Thomas took to the r/Coachella subreddit after working at the festival in 2022, writing: ‘It was absolute torturous hell.
‘During the three-day festival I worked a total of 33 hours in the merchandise tent, standing on my feet for hours on hours in front of a never-ending line.
‘By the end of day one I could hardly stand. Each step hurt so bad. It only got more painful as the weekend progressed.’
Thomas claimed that team leaders were handing out ibuprofen to workers who were in pain with some shifts running until 2am.
He also argued that there was ‘no organisation’ and said that team members ‘routinely went over five hours working without a break during our shifts’ and alleged that their timesheets were edited to ‘fix’ it.
Thomas said that ‘staff camping was a nightmare’ and added that he wished ‘there was more solidarity among staff’ because he felt there was ‘unnecessary tension.’
And Coachella isn’t the only festival facing backlash, with some revellers also hitting out at Glastonbury.
Supermodels and their musician boyfriends would parade around Somerset’s Worthy Farm in hot pants and Hunter wellies, building up such a fuss that those without a ticket would watch BBC‘s coverage of the festival in their front rooms.
Those lucky enough to secure a ticket to Glastonbury Festival would embark upon a five-day holiday of booze-fuelled fun listening to the likes of David Bowie or Amy Winehouse with bragging rights for the entire summer period.
Today, the prospect is somewhat different. While the alcohol-enhanced fun might continue at Michael Eavis’s farm, people seem to care less, with music events like Taylor Swift‘s Eras tour overshadowing Glastonbury.
Glastonbury has long been praised for its wealth of performances, but the experience comes at a premium price.
It has not always been that way, though, and when the festival started in the summer of 1970, under the name of Pilton Pop, Folk and Blues Festival, tickets cost £1, which also included free milk.
In 1990, Glastonbury gained momentum, the year marking the festival’s 20th anniversary and the adoption of its current name. A host of performances across theatre, rock and pop entertained 70,000 people, each paying £38, according to the V&A.
Fast forward to 1999, and Glastonbury had a capacity of 100,500, and cost £83 to enter.
In 2022, Glastonbury ticket costs surged by 20 per cent. The last time tickets went on general sale before then was in 2019, when they cost £280 plus a £5 booking fee, for what should have been the 2020 festival. It was subsequently cancelled for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Music fans blasted Glastonbury organisers for pricing out ‘ordinary people’ and making it a festival ‘exclusively for the wealthy’ after ticket prices for 2023 rose by nearly 20 per cent to £340.
The criticism forced the festival’s organiser Emily Eavis to defend the price hike, putting it down to ‘incredibly challenging times’.
Today, the festival, which has a capacity of 210,000, costs an even higher £355 plus £5 booking fee, making it a pricey affair.
It is a cost that has made the festival unaffordable for many, forcing some to opt for smaller day festivals, as opposed to bigger events like Glastonbury.
It is a reality that has led festivalgoers to take to X, formerly Twitter, to complain. One said: ‘Just going to say it. Glastonbury is my idea of hell. Too expensive’.
A second added: ‘A basic ticket for #Glastonbury 2024 is £355 + £5 booking fee. No wonder it is full of old people and rich kids from London. The festival has become too greedy.’
The price hike of Glastonbury tickets has led to backlash on X, formerly Twitter, with many disappointed
‘Get that Glastonbury is a huge endeavour, that costs for everything are rising and that the festival industry as a whole is struggling after Covid but… it’s clear the festival is now almost exclusively for the wealthy,’ a third wrote.
Another agreed and said: ‘Didn’t try for Glastonbury tickets this year as it’s way too expensive now.’
It’s one of the world’s biggest music festivals, but it does not offer equally big payouts to its performers.
As a result, musicians have resisted the chance of playing the festival, fearing it would be too costly rather than rewarding.
Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter Nadine Shah has performed at Glastonbury in the past but did not this year, and recently explained why on X.
She posted on June 4: ‘The rumours are untrue. I am NOT playing @glastonbury I would have liked to but I wasn’t offered a televised stage so I declined. It’s too expensive a hit for me to take otherwise.
‘It’s just a reality that playing live is super expensive and if you can justify the costs (like being on telly and having a wider reach) then sometimes you take the hit. Otherwise no, we’ve all bills to pay.’
Singer Nadine Shah (pictured in July 2019) said she had to turn down Glastonbury because it’s ‘too expensive’
Nadine Shah slammed the festival on X, formerly Twitter, and claimed she was offered just ‘a fifth’ of the amount of money she gets for other shows
She later added: ‘Most festivals do pay well though. I was offered literally a fifth of what I am offered for other shows this summer’.
The world’s biggest headline music acts such as Taylor Swift and Madonna may also be snubbing the Glastonbury Festival for paying too little.
The showcase Pyramid Stage performances were by Dua Lipa on Friday, Coldplay – in their fifth Glastonbury headline appearance – on Saturday and SZA on Sunday following Shania Twain in that evening’s ‘Legends’ slot.
The festival is said to be struggling to secure top names – with the fees on offer a tenth of what artists can command elsewhere.
Yet while the payouts have been described as ‘hilarious’, PR chiefs have also highlighted how legendary performers are often tempted by the event’s prestige – and potential sales boosts from a higher profile.
Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Sir Elton John were the headliners last year, following Billie Eilish, Sir Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar in 2022.
Yet there is said to be frustration that festival organisers have been unable to tempt Taylor Swift, whose record-breaking Eras tour hit the UK this summer.
Many had hoped to see Taylor Swift there but she played in Dublin, having performed three sell-out shows at Wembley Stadium in London this summer
Negotiations reportedly fell through for a Glastonbury headline appearance by Madonna, seen here performing at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last month
The US singer, 34, famed for such hits as Shake It Off and Bad Blood, played three sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium – with those in the crowd including Prince William, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who posed for a selfie with her last Friday.
When Swift announced her UK tour dates last June, some noted how the weekend scheduled for this year’s Glastonbury appeared available.
She had previously agreed to headline the Pyramid Stage in 2020, only for the Covid-19 pandemic to intervene and put paid to that year’s festival.
Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis, daughter of the event’s founder Michael Eavis, said in 2022: ‘I think we’ve got Taylor next time she’s doing some touring.’
Yet when Glastonbury was on, Swift played at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium as part of her world tour, which has become the first whose ticket sales have grossed more than $1billion, or £790million.
And disagreements over the money on offer reportedly scuppered plans for Madonna to fill this year’s prestigious Sunday ‘Legends’ spot now taken by Canadian country-pop star Twain, the Telegraph reported.
Previous acts booked for that role have included Dame Shirley Bassey in 2007, Sir Ray Davies in 2010, Dolly Parton in 2014, Lionel Richie the following year, Kylie Minogue in 2019, Diana Ross in 2022 and Cat Stevens last year.
Sir Paul McCartney is said to have been paid £200,000 for his 2022 Glastonbury performance
Kylie Minogue played the ‘Legends’ slot at Glastonbury in 2019 and was joined on stage by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, whose band will headline this year for the fifth time
The festival site at Worthy Farm, near Pilton in Somerset, now covers 900 acres
Other summer festivals can call upon the financial backing of heavyweight sponsors, such as BST in Hyde Park with the support of American Express.
Glastonbury tends to award the most prominent advertising space to charities including Greenpeace, Oxfam and Water Aid.
Michael Eavis was quoted as previously saying in 2017: ‘We’re not in a situation where we’re able to just give people enormous amounts of money.
‘So we’re really grateful for the bands that we get, because they’re basically doing it for the love of it.
‘There’s a bog-standard price for the headliner. We get the headliners for a tenth of the normal price. So they’re not being paid very much.’
David Bowie was paid about £20,000 for playing the Pyramid Stage at the 2000 festival
The Arctic Monkeys, fronted by Alex Turner, headlined the main stage on Friday night last year
Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis, seen shielding from the sun after opening the gates to begin this year’s festival, previously spoke of hoping for Taylor Swift to appear
Sir Paul is said to have received £200,000 for his headline performance in 2022, with Sir Elton getting £250,000 the following year.
Music PR specialist Alan Edwards tells in his new memoir I Was There: Dispatches From A Life In Rock And Roll how his client David Bowie played the Pyramid Stage in 2000 in front of 250,000 people.
He writes: ‘It was hilarious, it was about £20,000 or something and even then it wasn’t a lot of money.
‘David was always an artist and he was driven by what he felt was the right thing and what he wanted to do, rather than what the payday was. He didn’t even ask. It was a cool thing to do. Glastonbury has got that wonderful legacy.’
When Glastonbury unveiled its headline acts in 2023 – Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses, Elton John and Lizzo – it made heads turn, but not for the right reasons.
Fans of the festival claimed that the line-up was 𝓈ℯ𝓍ist due to a lack of female headliners.
It was a decision that caused the Guardian to brand the festival a ‘blokefest’, ‘sloppy’ and ‘slapdash’.
While the top row of the famous poster only had one woman present – Lizzo – there were other female names down below, including Lana Del Rey, Blondie and Mahalia.
This year, festival organisers seemed to have listened to the criticism, because Dua Lipa, SZA and Shania Twain are Glastonbury’s main acts of 2024.
Regardless, this year’s line-up received criticism for another reason – being too ‘boring’, with fans claiming the line-up is ‘the worst ever’.
Fans were unimpressed by the announcement, with many underwhelmed by Coldplay – who have headlined Glastonbury four times prior – while others were surprised by the addition of SZA, who has never scored a UK number one.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, many expressed their disappointment at the line-up and their annoyance that rumours Madonna was set to appear weren’t realised.
Glastonbury Festival’s 2024 line-up was branded ‘the worst ever’ by disappointed fans who have slammed the ’embarrassing’ bill
Taking to the Pyramid Stage this summer was Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA (pictured) with Shania Twain playing the ‘Legends’ Sunday slot
It marks the first time in the event’s history that female acts have taken two of the three headline slots, including Dua Lipa (pictured)
Coldplay members (L-R) Jonny Buckland, Chris Martin, Will Champion and Guy Berryman will be taking to the Pyramid Stage for a fifth time
Annoyed festivalgoers shared: ‘Interesting Glastonbury line up. Very disappointed Madonna said no. Also who the hell is Sza?’; ‘Thought SZA was one of the Wu Tang Clan #glastonbury’; ‘Coldplay again? Jesus. And, sorry, who is Sza? Genuinely.’
‘I’m now old to the point where #Glastonbury has announced a headliner who I’ve never heard of in my life. It’s over.’; ‘Sorry but that #Glastonbury line-up….’; ‘I’ve never heard of one of the Glastonbury headliners #Glastonbury’;
‘Never in the history of #Glastonbury has there been a more underwhelming set of headliners. Imagine wading through two foot deep mud to be greeted by a Coldplay headline set’; ‘That’s gotta be the worst #glastonbury line up like ever’;
‘What is that lineup? I genuinely haven’t heard of 70% of these acts.’; ‘That might just be the worst #Glastonbury lineup I’ve ever seen. Thoughts and prayers to those who managed to get a ticket.’
‘Good God that’s the worst Glastonbury line up ever’; ‘What a downgrade from last year #glastonbury’; ‘Never heard of SZA? #glastonbury’; ‘That is an awful line up. The headliners are embarrassing #Glastonbury’
While fans may not be impressed with the headliners, it marks the first time in the event’s history that female acts have taken two of the three headline slots.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter , many expressed their disappointment at the line-up and their annoyance that rumours Madonna was set to appear weren’t realised
This year’s Glastonbury festival was one of the wokest ever, as Gen Zers shun the usual warm-up DJ sets and bands for political debates after a series of group workout sessions.
As the sun rose above Worthy Farm, hundreds of people were seen taking part in organised runs or a 30-minute workout session, led live by exercise guru Joe Wicks, instead of heading straight for the stages or alcohol tents.
Health conscious Gen Zers were also seen shaking up the festivities with cold outdoor showers, stretches and even a group jog.
The organised run, which saw around 200 people take part, stretched for around 5km as joggers pounded through the fields while others (millennials) slept off their hangovers.
Glastonbury returned in June – but Gen Zers prioritised their health over a good time
Health conscious Gen Zers were also seen shaking up the festivities with cold outdoor showers, stretches and even a group jog
Bend and stretch! Festival-goers got ready for a day of music with a group exercise class on Friday morning
And then rather than the customary ‘𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢 wipe’ bath, young people could be seen having showers near their tents, to ensure they feel and look fresh for the day.
Gen Z attendees – known for their health conscious lifestyles including drinking less booze than their millennial counterparts – didn’t head straight for the beers either.
Crowds then gathered for Joe Wicks’ Glastonbury workout this morning – a 30 minute HIIT exercise class.
Alternative health solutions were also being widely promoted: including a tent charging £15 for attendees to lie upside down in an attempt to help ease back problems. There is even a stand where people are offered free hugs.
At the site, which has long been at the heart of talks by politicians, activists and community leaders, this year’s attendees heard from experts on climate change, industrial action and the Grenfell fire.
