The BBC Sets The Record Straight About Why Neil Young's Glastonbury Set Won't Be Aired

A BBC spokesperson has spoken out about why Neil Young’s upcoming set on Glastonbury’s iconic Pyramid Stage this weekend will not be airing on the broadcaster.

Earlier this week, the BBC unveiled its initial scheduling plans for this year’s festival, and it didn’t take long for fans to spot one pretty big omission.

While Neil will be headlining on the Pyramid Stage on Saturday night, he was notably not mentioned in the BBC’s schedule. Instead, it was implied that they’d be airing Charli XCX’s headlining set on The Other Stage on television, which raised eyebrows from some critics, as it looked like the US star and his backing band The Chrome Hearts were being “snubbed” in favour of the 360 singer.

However, on Thursday evening, the BBC confirmed that this was actually Neil’s request.

“On Saturday on BBC iPlayer, our Glastonbury Channel and five streams for the main stages will bring a range of live performances to audiences,” a BBC rep told HuffPost UK.

“At the artist’s request, we won’t be live streaming Neil Young’s set. Our plans, including those for our TV highlights shows and on-demand coverage, continue to be finalised right up to and during the festival.”

It’s worth pointing out that, back in January, Neil shared a post on his website in which it appeared he prematurely announced himself as one of the Glastonbury headliners of 2025.

Days later, though, he claimed that while he and the Chrome Hearts had “initially been “looking forward to playing Glastonbury”, which he described as “one of my all time favourite outdoor gigs”, he’d since changed his mind about the booking.

“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,” Neil wrote. “It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being.”

He added: “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.”

Neil then made a u-turn on this less than a week later, claiming there’d been “an error in the information” he’d received about Glastonbury, and has such he’d “happily” reversed his decision, and would be headlining after all.

The 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo will be closing the show on the Pyramid Stage on Friday and Sunday, respectively, with both of their sets airing on the BBC.