Image copyright Getty Images Dua Lipa, the Pet Shop Boys and Mabel will all play the Glastonbury Festival this summer – provided it isn’t cancelled because of the coronavirus.
More than 90 names were added to the line-up on Thursday, joining headliners Taylor Swift and Sir Paul McCartney.
US rap star Kendrick Lamar will top the bill on Friday, with Supergrass, Lana Del Rey and AJ Tracey also due to play.
Emily Eavis said organisers had “fingers firmly crossed” the event would go ahead in June.
She said she was releasing a poster of the line-up “with the best intentions” given “the current circumstances”.
“As things stand we are still working hard to deliver our 50th anniversary festival in June and we are very proud of the bill that we have put together over the last year or so,” she said.
“No one has a crystal ball to see exactly where we will all be 15 weeks from now, but we are keeping our fingers firmly crossed that it will be here at Worthy Farm for the greatest show on Earth!”
The coronavirus outbreak has already affected several tours and festivals, with acts like The Who, BTS, Miley Cyrus and Madonna having cancelled or postponed shows.
In the US, April’s Coachella festival has been delayed, while music industry showcase South By Southwest, was scrapped altogether.
The Country To Country festival, due to take place in London, Dublin and Glasgow this weekend, was also postponed at the last minute on Thursday night. Rescheduled dates will be announced “in the coming days,” organisers said.
With more disruptions expected, shares in concert promoters Live Nation dropped by 16.6% on Wednesday, representing a single-day loss of more than $1.8bn (£1.4bn).
Glastonbury’s team are hoping their festival can go ahead if the spread of the virus slows down.
However, if there is a government-imposed lockdown in the run-up to the festival, it could impact their ability to build stages and prepare the Somerset site for the arrival of 175,000 ticket-holders on 24 June.
The acts announced on Thursday did not constitute Glastonbury’s full line-up, but flagged up some of the festival’s biggest bookings for 2020.
Among them were former headliners Manic Street Preachers, Happy Mondays, Sinead O’Connor and Skunk Anansie, alongside festival stalwarts Dizzee Rascal, Primal Scream and Elbow.
Suzanne Vega, the festival’s first-ever female headliner, will also return to Worthy Farm – 31 years after playing the Pyramid Stage in a bullet-proof vest, after her band received death threats.
Brazilian Tropicalia legend Gilberto Gil will make his first appearance since playing Glastonbury’s inaugural festival in 1970. The musician was actually been living in the Eavis farmhouse at the time, whilst exiled in the UK.
Gender balance
US R&B stars TLC will make their debut, while Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds will play immediately before Paul McCartney’s Saturday night headline slot.
Pop icon Diana Ross has already been announced to play the Sunday afternoon “legend slot”; while festival favourites Dua Lipa, Pet Shop Boys and Fatboy Slim will headline The Other Stage – Glastonbury’s second-biggest arena.
Fifty-two per cent of the acts announced so far are female or bands featuring a mix of genders, after Eavis pledged to achieve a gender-balanced line-up “as soon as possible”.
“Our future has to be 50/50,” she told Radio 1’s Newsbeat earlier this year.
“It’s a challenge. Everyone’s finding it hard – but the acts are there,” she said, adding that Glastonbury’s former line-ups had “always been male-heavy”.
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