Glastonbury‘s profits more than doubled to £5.9million last year.
The festival which returns to Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset from June 25 this year, brought in £5.9million in pre-tax profits for the year to March 2024 – up from £2.9million the year before, according to BBC News.
During the same period, the event also donated £5.2million to charitable organisations including Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid.
A spokesperson for the festival told the BBC “successful, dry Glastonburys in both 2023 and 2024” had helped to “rebuild the event’s vital financial reserves” after the event saw record losses during the pandemic, with the event called off in 2020 and 2021, “costing the festival millions”.
Companies House records show Glastonbury’s profits remain relatively small in comparison with its overall revenue, which was £68.4million, a 20 per cent rise on the year before. In 2023, a report commissioned to gauge the event’s economic impact found it also generated around £168million for UK-based businesses.
The company also spent £3.7million on buying land in June 2024.
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The figures come after Neil Young said that he had decided to pull out of Glastonbury 2025 as he feels it has become “a corporate turn-off”.
He added: “The Chrome Hearts and I were looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all time favorite 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 have not yet commented on Young’s comments, and it is not clear what requests the BBC had made to Young. NME have contacted Glastonbury for a response.
Young headlined the Pyramid Stage in 2009, after being scheduled to do so 12 years earlier, only to be forced to pull out through injury.
No acts have been confirmed for this year’s line-up so far – apart from Rod Stewart, who will play the Sunday afternoon Legends Slot. However, Nile Rodgers & Chic did self-confirm their return to the festival this summer.
A number of high-profile names have been speculated upon as possible headliners, with Young among them, and now it appears that the rock legend has confirmed that he had provisionally agreed to be on the bill, only to later change his mind.
Other rumoured headliners include Olivia Rodrigo, Sam Fender, The 1975, Taylor Swift and Stevie Wonder.
Tickets for Glastonbury 2025 sold out in November in just 32 minutes, with the festival making use of a new queuing system for tickets.
For those unable to secure tickets this week, re-sale tickets are usually made available in the spring. However, these tend to sell out quickly, too, with coach and ticket re-sale bundles selling out in just 18 minutes and general re-sale tickets selling out in 22 minutes this year.
2024’s festival saw Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA headlining, with other memorable sets from the likes of Shania Twain, Little Simz, Fontaines D.C. and IDLES.