Glastonbury co-founder Emily Eavis has confirmed the Arctic Monkeys will headline the Pyramid Stage on Friday 23 June.
Earlier this week, the Sheffield rock band was forced to cancel their Dublin show in Marlay Park on Wednesday 21 June, after frontman Alex Turner was diagnosed with acute laryngitis.
The announcement promoted concerns that the Arctic Monkeys wouldn’t make it to Worthy Farm for their third time headlining the festival.
However, things began looking up for the band’s fans after a giant mirrorball was photographed at Glastonbury on Thursday 22 June.
The lead single from Arctic Monkeys’s seventh studio album The Car is titled “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball”.
Now, we have an official confirmation from Eavis that the show will go on as planned.
Broadcasting from the grounds of the festival at Worthy Farm, Zoe Ball asked during her BBC Radio 2 show if the band were still set to play, and Eavis replied “they’re on”, which was welcomed with applause.
“It was a little bit close there for a minute and we were thinking about whether we should have a serious back-up plan in place, but no, thankfully they’re on, so that’s great,” she added.
While opening the gates to festival attendees on Wednesday, Eavis had said she was confident that the Arctic Monkeys would play, but assured fans she has a “backup” plan in case something goes wrong.
On Thursday 22 June, music correspondent for the BBC, Mark Savage also tweeted that the Arctic Monkeys’s trucks were “parked up backstage and a giant mirrorball has been unloaded to the Pyramid stage”.
The Arctic Monkeys have previously headlined Glastonbury in 2007 and then 2013.
The other stars to take the Pyramid Stage this year are Guns N’ Roses and Sir Elton John.
Ahead of John’s final show at the festival, his husband David Furnish said the star would bring on “four collaborators of his choosing” during his two-hour set on Sunday 25 June.
Speaking to Sky News, Furnish declined to reveal the identity of these guests, explaining: “Sorry, I’m sworn to secrecy.”
Some people are speculating that John’s surprise guests might be Lil Nas X, Dua Lipa, or even Britney Spears.
John spoke about his forthcoming set in another interview earlier this week, saying: “When you put a setlist together, I always say it’s a bit like having sex. You start off really well, then you chill out a little bit, then towards the end of the show all hell breaks loose.”
