Popstar Nadine Shah has made headlines after revealing her decision to decline an offer to perform at this year’s Glastonbury Festival due to insufficient pay. The Mercury-nominated singer took to her X account to address the swirling rumours about her appearance at the 2024 Worthy Farm event . Confirming that she turned down the gig, Shah wrote, ‘The rumours are untrue.
I am NOT playing @glastonbury I would have liked to but I wasn’t offered a televised stage so I declined. It’s too expensive a hit for me to take otherwise.’ She then shared a follow-up post, which read: ‘It’s just a reality that playing live is super expensive and if you can justify the costs (like being on telly and having a wider reach) then sometimes you take the hit.
Otherwise no, we’ve all bills to pay.’ Despite being perhaps the most iconic music festival in the world, Glastonbury is known for paying artists almost nothing in comparison to their usual fees. While this is due to organisers making large donations to charity, it still tends to disqualify smaller artists from performing.
Festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis said in an interview with BBC 6 Music’s Matt Everitt that in 2017 headliners Katy Perry, Radiohead, and Ed Sheeran were offered ‘less than 10 per cent of what they’d get paid from playing any of the other major British festivals.’ While the exposure Glastonbury offers often makes it worth the financial sacrifice for artists, performers who aren’t cover.
