Glastonbury Festival organisers have revealed how much headliners get paid each year - and it may not be as much as people think. More than 210,000 people head to Somerset for the iconic event every year to see some of the world's biggest musicians perform.
This year, the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Guns N' Roses, Elton John, Lizzo, Lewis Capaldi and Lana Del Rey will feature in one of the most star studded line-ups in recent history. However, not every performer will be paid the same as Worthy Farm owners and Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis have revealed their act pay stricture.
Michael previously said: "I paid £200,000 for Paul McCartney and for Coldplay, and although it sounds a lot, they could have charged me far more." Emily has also spoke out of how the festival’s performers are typically paid a tiny fraction of what they’d usually expect from a major music festival.
Talking to BBC Radio 6, she explained: "We're not in the same bracket as everyone else when it comes to paying artists massive fees. We're really grateful for the bands that we get because they're basically doing it for the love of it.
"It's probably less than 10 per cent of what they'd get from playing any of the other major British festivals, [so] Glastonbury relies completely on goodwill."
Meanwhile, Bestival organiser, Rob Da Bank, offered a further glimpse of what Glastonbury pay. Talking to SomersetLive, he said: "They cap their budget and even the headliners don't get paid more than £500,000 I think, which is cheap for some of the headliners and they've had a lot of them. So, that's proof of it's huge, huge influence."
To put this into context, headliners at other UK festivals can earn upwards of £1million for their performances. Across in the US, Billboard reports Beyoncé was paid an enormous £3.2million for her Coachella performance in 2018, based in California.
For many acts, playing Glastonbury is for more than just the pay. As sets are broadcast live to millions on the BBC, it provides the kind of exposure that money can't always buy.
There is also the draw of being associated with a festival that is known for its green credentials and donation of millions of pounds to charity each year. Annually, Emily and her father Michael aim to donate over £2million to charitable causes through ticket sales at the Worthy Farm-held long weekend.
On George Ezra's podcast, Emily said: "Because of the TV and because of the exposure that they (acts) get, they do go on to do really well afterwards, so they'll sell records afterwards. So we're saying 'look, come and do this but even though there's a small fee, we can almost guarantee afterwards you'll make up for it'."
