The Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis has said reports that Madonna, Dua Lipa and Coldplay have been confirmed to headline Glastonbury next year are untrue.
On Saturday evening, reports claimed the three acts were set to top the bill on the Pyramid stage at the festival in June.
Eavis denied the claims in an Instagram post on Sunday morning, writing: “As always, there is much speculation and excitement about who is playing at Glastonbury. We are working on the line-up day and night at the moment, but it’s still changing every day. The story about our confirmed headliners is untrue.
“As always, we love your enthusiasm and guesswork – but accurate news on headliners will be with you sometime in the new year!”
Were she to be confirmed, it would be Madonna’s first time performing at Glastonbury.
Dua Lipa has also never headlined the event. It would be the first time that two female artists have headlined in the festival’s history.
The Mail on Sunday reported that Madonna, 65, was understood to have agreed to close the festival on the Sunday night on the Pyramid stage. Lipa was said to be Friday’s headline act while Coldplay, who have headlined four times previously – in 2002, 2005, 2011 and 2016 – were reported to be playing on the Saturday.
Next year’s festival in Worthy Farm, Somerset, is scheduled to take place on 26–30 June.
Last year, the headliner lineup was all male with Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Sir Elton John performing.
Last month, Eavis, the daughter of Glastonbury’s founder, Michael Eavis, said the “legend” slot on Sunday teatime would go to a female artist. She also disclosed that a “really big” female US singer’s team had got in touch with her to say she was available, believed to be Madonna.
Eavis told Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw’s Sidetracked podcast: “2024 is still a little up in the air, and I thought it was taking shape, then last week I just got a call, and this is what happens if you wait a little longer, because often we’ll be booked up from July.
“This year we’re holding out for a little bit longer and last week I got a call from a really big American artist saying this person’s around next year, and I was like: ‘Oh my God, this is incredible.’ Thank God we held the slot.”
No performers for the 2024 festival have yet been officially announced.
Addressing the lack of female headliners, Eavis said: “I’ve always been really passionate about gender split [on festival lineups] and I think, actually, our problem was that I’d been so outspoken about it that having a year when there wasn’t a female sent people a bit mad – or some people.
“And we did have a female – she pulled out and we replaced them with Guns N’ Roses. But everyone knows that it’s top of my list.
“It is difficult with female artists because there aren’t enough headliners. But we’re also creating them. We’re putting the bands and female artists on smaller stages and bringing them through all the time. And who knows? Next year we might get two. And certainly, I can say that the legend is female.”
Earlier this week, Glastonbury festival moved its ticket sales for 2024’s event, originally due to begin on Thursday, back by two weeks.
Organisers said the decision was “to ensure that everyone who would like to buy a ticket is registered and therefore eligible to purchase one … it has come to light that some individuals hoping to buy tickets for 2024 have discovered after Monday’s registration deadline that they are no longer registered, despite believing they were.” The sale has now been moved “out of fairness to those individuals”.
Tickets will go on sale at 6pm GMT on Thursday 16 November for packages including coach travel. General admission tickets will go on sale at 9am GMT on Sunday 19 November.
