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David Huntley

The amount Glastonbury headliners get paid as festival comes to an end

As this year's Glastonbury Festival finally comes to an end, many who watched it over the weekend may have wondered how much they actually get paid to play.

This year's festival line-up has featured feature some huge acts, including Guns N' Roses, Bondie and Arctic Monkeys. Elton John, played his final UK gig after taking to the Pyramid Stage on Sunday night.

Sheffield's Arctic Monkeys, headlined on Friday after fears they wouldn't be able to perform because lead singer Alex Turner fell ill with "acute laryngitis". Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based rock band Guns N' Roses, known for their 1988 hit Sweet Child o' Mine, performed on Saturday at 9.30pm for a two hour set.

Read more: Man dies at Glastonbury festival after 'medical incident'

For these artists it's no doubt one of the biggest gigs of the year, but they might not be paid as much as you think. According to the Mirror Online, here's how the fees for performing at Glastonbury work.

How much do Glastonbury headliners get paid?

Glastonbury is one of the biggest festivals of the year, with hundreds of thousands of people flocking to see the biggest international stars in the world.

They've had some massive headliners over the years, including David Bowie, Beyoncé and Adele.

You might assume playing such a huge gig would mean the musicians are being compensated with a pretty hefty sum, so you might be surprised to learn that it's not as much as you'd think.

Festival co-organiser Emily Eavis, youngest daughter of the festival's founder Michael Eavis, confirmed that artists get paid 10% less than what they are typically paid by other festivals.

That is because Glastonbury prefers to donate £2 million to charities every year, which dispels the myth that some headliners are paid £1million, as the number is likely much lower.

In 2017 interview with BBC Radio 6, she explained: "We're not in a situation where we're able to just give people enormous amounts of money.

"So we're really grateful for the bands that we get because they're basically doing it for the love of it."

Sir Paul McCartney (PA)

Founder Michael once revealed that Coldplay and Paul McCartney were both paid around £200,000 for past headline sets.

He said at the time: "I paid £200,000 for Paul McCartney and for Coldplay, and although it sounds a lot, they could have charged me far more."

The exact number each 2023 headliner gets paid will be kept under wraps, but in an interview with Metro, music consultant specialising in live music venues and festivals Lyle Bignon, said: "The likes of Elton John and Guns N' Roses, who have decades of global fame behind them, can likely command higher prices running into the £250,000+ range."

In an interview with Somerset Live, Bestival organiser Rob Da Bank revealed that Glastonbury's budget is under £500,000 per headliner.

He said: "They cap their budget and even the headliners don't get paid more than 500 grand, I think, which is cheap for some of the headliners and they've had a lot of them."

Why does Glastonbury pay less than other festivals?

Although there's no bigger UK festival than Glastonbury, it doesn't pay its headliners more than others. For other UK festivals, headliners can earn upwards of £1million, according to Billboard.

The reason is that Glastonbury aims to raise money for charity, which means headliners are paid significantly less.

Each year the festival raises funds for charities including Oxfam and Greenpeace, which means that they have a smaller budget, no doubt made even smaller by the cost of living crisis.

But it's not the money that draws huge performers to Glastonbury, it's the festival's reputation and acts can rake in huge amounts of money after performing.

Emily told George Ezra's podcast: "Because of the TV and because of the exposure that they 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'."

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