FOREVER YOUNG

After years of catering to millennial nostalgia or boomer rock, Glastonbury is finally taking the risk and putting Gen Z artists front and centre. Hallelujah, writes Roisin O’Connor

- Roisin O’Connor

Glastonbury’s 2025 lineup is probably not what many festivalgoers expected, but trust me, it’s a good thing. Regardless of your music tastes, organisers have managed to book some of the best and brightest across rock, rap, pop and jazz.

After some stadium-sized rock’n’roll? Check out Irish rock band Inhaler, whose impressive third album Open Wide came out last month, or Leeds band English Teacher, whose Mercury Prizewinning album This Could Be Texas was hailed by music critics as “one of the finest debuts of the decade”.

Florida rapper Doechii, with her sizzling charisma and tonguetwisting flow, is one of the most exciting breakout stars in years, bar none. Elsewhere, even the most po-faced of jazz snobs will have a ball watching Ezra Collective tear it up on stage, while pop devotees will find plenty to enjoy from Lola Young, Myles Smith, CMAT, Gracie Abrams and, of course, headliner Olivia Rodrigo.

In 2023, the future of Glastonbury Festival – and the wider live music scene in the UK – felt somewhat bleak. The usual air of fun accompanying the lineup announcement was gone, replaced instead by a defensive “we’re trying our best” from organiser Emily Eavis as it was revealed that the Pyramid Stage would be headlined by an all-male trio of Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Elton John.