Headliners: Coldplay, Dua Lipa, SZA
Coverage starts: Monday, June 10, 2024, with the festival itself running June 26-30.
UK coverage: BBC iPlayer
Outside the UK: Nord VPN
This year’s Glastonbury festival takes place between Wednesday, June 26 and closes out on the evening of Sunday, June 30 and features a massive lineup of hundreds of artists including this year's Pyramid Stage headliners Coldplay, Dua Lipa and SZA.
While the gates swing open on Wednesday to allow fans into the Worthy Park site to set up their festival tents, the music doesn't really start until the Thursday, with the vast majority of artists playing throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you're not at the festival in person, these are days you will be able to watch coverage at home.
If, like me, you weren't lucky enough to score a ticket - and with Glastonbury 2024 selling out in record time, I'm sure I'm not alone - there’s no need to panic as you’ll be able to watch live coverage and selected sets from a wide variety of artists when it all kicks off. We tell you how in this how to watch Glastonbury guide.
How to watch Glastonbury 2024 in the UK
The BBC has become the main channel for all things Glastonbury over the years - and 2024 is no different. And, although the main event runs from June 26 - 30, the network will begin their coverage of the Worthy Farm event early from Monday, June 10 and extend it though July 14. As if that wasn't enough, the BBC have announced the creation of the brand new Glastonbury Channel II for 2024.
BBC director of music Lorna Clarke explains: “The BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury is one of the biggest jewels in the BBC’s pop crown and we’re evolving our programming to bring audiences many ways to enjoy the festival across our platforms – it’s their Glastonbury on the BBC.
“This year will see the debut of Glastonbury Channel II, a welcome addition to our multiple BBC iPlayer streams, giving viewers a rolling round-up of the key moments from each day.
“We’re also proud that for the second year, Pyramid Stage – Signed returns, with performances from Glastonbury’s most iconic stage in British Sign Language, bringing the Glastonbury experience closer to all viewers."
Clarke adds: “This is in addition to over 90 hours of live performances from the five main stages on BBC iPlayer, extensive coverage on TV, 90 hours of radio broadcasts live from the festival, plus much more to discover on BBC Sounds – including Sidetracked By Glastonbury, presented by Annie Macmanus and Nick Grimshaw, which will also be available on BBC iPlayer from the first week of June.
“I would like to thank Emily and Michael Eavis once again for allowing us this exclusive access to Glastonbury, as only the BBC can bring the nation together to enjoy their unique festival.”
If you're based in the UK, you'll be able to access all this content through the BBC iPlayer, while audio coverage will also be available via the BBC Sounds app.
If that's not enough, the BBC Music YouTube channel has a great playlist of key performances from last year's festival and more.
How to watch Glastonbury 2024 outside the UK
With so much going on in the build-up to the festival, the weekend itself and the afterparty, there's a good chance you might miss some of it if you're on holiday. In that case, you can use a VPN service such as NordVPN, our current top pick, instead, so you can still get your Glastonbury fix. It’s not a difficult process and you can get up and running in minutes – and right now it's available at a great price and with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
To use, simply click on the link, download the file and install the VPN. Open it up on your device – smartphone, tablet or laptop – click on a server location, pick the stream and you'll be ready to relive all the Glastonbury action.
Glastonbury 2024: Where to start
While Glastonbury is rarely a festival for heavier guitar bands, if your tastes are eclectic you'll find plenty to enjoy across the weekend.
Headliners Coldplay are still great value, particularly when they bust out hits from their first three albums. Avril Lavigne will be bringing early-2000s pop-punk vibes to the Other Stage, some of the Louder team are excited to catch The Streets revive their alt-UK hip-hop for a geed up crowd when they hit the Other Stage.
But with the vast majority of stages, artists and times now confirmed on the official Glastonbury website, there's going to be plenty to dive into.
I'm particularly keen to see New Model Army, Billy Nomates, PJ Harvey, Idles, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Snuts, The Last Dinner Party, The National, James, Heilung, Corinne Bailey Rae, Sleaford Mods, Kim Gordon, Orbital, The Breeders, Otoboke Beaver, Johnny Flynn, The Go! Team and Pillow Queens.
Thankfully, the BBC will be covering loads of action so you should be able to pick and choose from a selection of live and recorded sets to watch at your leisure. It's also fun just to jump into live stream to see what's happening - and I've discovered new artists by doing this in the past.
The Glastonbury app
With so much going on over the Glastonbury festival weekend, keeping track of artists, stage times and lining up your viewing schedule is akin to spinning plates on a roller coaster.
Thankfully, the Glastonbury team have teamed up with Spotify to release Vodafone’s official Glastonbury app on iOS and Android.
Through the app, you can design your own personal festival calendar so you don’t miss anything, while Spotify integration provides recommendations of artists to check out based on your listening habits.
Spotify is also home to the official Glastonbury 2024 playlist and the massive Spotify Glastonbury 2024 hub which is crammed full of content based on this year’s artists.
The app has a handy map of the festival site that lets you share your location with close friends, has a link to the Worthy FM radio station, has all the latest line-up news, travel info, where to buy food, general advice and where you can recycle plastic, cans, paper, wood and organic waste on the site.
Glastonbury weather forecast
When deciding what items to pack before heading off to the festival, a weather check is pretty much essential. While the festival won’t take place until later this month, the long-range forecast is looking mixed according to Somerset Live.
The Met Office tell the website that for the period between June 18 and July 2 that: ”Signals are weak, as is common for this time of year, regarding prevailing weather patterns during the last couple of weeks of June and into the start of July. As is typical, all areas can expected to see some spells of drier, sunnier weather but there will also be showers or longer spells of rain at times."
As we get closer to the festival, we'll have the latest forecast. Let's just hope the rain stays away.
List of the BBC's Glastonbury 2024 channels
Glastonbury Channel Live: The BBC's main festival channel highlighting the best performances, highlights and special guests.
June 28-30 from 12noon until late.
Glastonbury Channel II: A new channel introduced for 2024, the second main Glastonbury channel is the place to watch some of the most talked about performances across the long weekend.
June 28: 6pm-midnight; June 29/30: 10am-late.
Pyramid Stage Signed: Following last year's successful and much talked about debut, the Pyramid Stage Signed returns and will broadcast sets from the mai stage in British Sign Language.
June 28-30 - various times throughout the day.
Classic Glastonbury Channel: A huge selection of celebrated Glastonbury sets from down the years, featuring artists including Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Ed Sheeran and Dave. It'll also be home to documentaries and compilations.
Starts June 10 - runs through the festival weekend.
Five main stage live streams: Tailor your Glastonbury experience to suit your mood and skip between the five main festival stages: Pyramid, Other, West Holts, Woodsies and The Park. In addition, performances on the Pyramid Stage will be live in Ultra High Definition.
June 28-30 - varying times throughout the festival weekend
Glastonbury Highlights Channel: This is the channel to watch to catch up on all the performances you missed throughout a 24-hour stream.
July 1- 14 - midnight-midnight
How to rewatch Glastonbury 2023
Glastonbury 2023 came to a triumphant end late on the Sunday evening of last year's festival with an epic, hit-strewn set for the ages from Elton John - widely believed to be his last on UK soil, but with so much going on across the Worthy Farm site, it was pretty hard to see everything the festival had to offer.
Luckily the BBC iPlayer has archived dozens of live performances that’ are still available to watch for a limited time, so if you were there and want to relive full sets, explore new artists or just want to have a mix of things to watch over the weeks to come, you can do just that.
