Neil Young Confirms 2025 Glastonbury Appearance Days After Saying He Would Not Play U.K. Festival

First, he was out — before officially being in — and now Neil Young will perform at Glastonbury 2025. The veteran rocker retracted a statement shared days ago that indicated Young and his band The Chrome Hearts planned to back out of the long-running music festival held in Somerset, England.

Young took to his Neil Young Archives website on December 31 to post a note regarding his at-the-time unannounced return to Glastonbury. The multi-day music festival was founded in 1970 and has been co-sponsored by the BBC since 1997. Glastonbury is staffed largely by volunteers and the festival regularly donates substantial profits to charities.

The original message from Young took aim at the involvement of the BBC, calling Glastonbury a “corporate turn-off,” “now under corporate control” and “not the way I remember it being.”

“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,” Young, who performed on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury in 2009, wrote. “Hope to see you at one of the other venues on the tour.”

On Friday, January 3, Young posted another message to his website that backtracked on his prior statement and confirmed he will return to perform with The Chrome Hearts at Glastonbury this summer.

“Due to an error in the information received, I had decided to not play the Glastonbury festival, which I always have loved,” Young wrote. “Happily, the festival is now back on our itinerary and we look forward to playing! Hope to see you there!”

The festival and Glastonbury organizer Emily Eavis confirmed Young’s participation in the 2025 festival.

“What a start to the year!,” Eavis wrote. “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.”

Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts made their debut at Farm Aid 2024. Young was joined by famed keyboardist Spooner Oldham, guitarist Micah Nelson and the Promise Of The Real rhythm section of bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony LoGerfo.

Along with Neil Young, fellow veteran rocker Rod Stewart is the other confirmed act on the 2025 Glastonbury lineup. Stewart will play the Sunday teatime legend set. Glastonbury 2025 will be held June 25 – 29.