Glastonbury's top earners and how headliners compare to other festivals

23 June 2023 , 07:00

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Glastonbury's top earners and how headliners compare to other festivals

Glastonbury may be one of the biggest festivals in world music, but in terms of the money on offer for star names it lags massively behind.

The Somerset super show is renowned internationally and has had some huge headliners over the years - but it's not the cash that reels them in.

The likes of David Bowie, Dolly Parton, Beyoncé and Adele have all taken to the stage with some epic performances over the years.

Elton John will play for the final time in the UK there this weekend - but by music industry standards, it's not exactly a huge earner.

If you think artists are being paid a hefty sum for taking to the Pyramid Stage, you are in for a surprise.

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Glastonbury Festival bosses don't pay the stars as much as you think (PA)

Headline stars at UK summer festivals can usually earn upwards of £1million per set.

America's biggest music celebration Coachella reportedly paid Beyoncé $4million (£3.2million) back in in 2018 and the fees just seem to be going up.

The exact amount of money that each headliner gets paid at Glasto isn't usually divulged but it is understood to be capped at £500,000.

Co-organisers and father and daughter duo Michael and Emily Eavis have previously mentioned in interviews the cost of getting some of these big acts to take to the Worthy Farm stages.

Coldplay earned £200,000 for the set back in 2016 (Redferns)

Michael revealed that Coldplay and Paul McCartney were both paid around £200,000 for past headline sets in the past few years - and explained that legends are not always motivated by money when it comes to Glasto.

He said: "I paid £200,000 for Paul McCartney and for Coldplay, and although it sounds a lot, they could have charged me far more."

Back in 2017, Emily spoke of how the festival’s performers are typically paid less than 10 per cent of what they’d usually get for other performances around the world.

Glastonbury relies "completely" on the goodwill of stars like Adele (Getty Images)

"We’re not in the same bracket as everyone else when it comes to paying artists massive fees," she previously told the BBC.

"So we're really grateful for the bands that we get because they're basically doing it for the love of it.

"It's probably less than 10 per cent of what they'd get from playing any of the other major British festivals," she added: "Glastonbury relies completely on goodwill."

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Paul McCartney "could have charged a lot more" to play the Pyramid Stage (Getty Images)

It has been claimed that nobody get paid more than £500,000.

Bestival organiser Rob Da Bank previously told Somerset Live that the organisers won't go a penny over the Glastonbury budget.

"They cap their budget and even the headliners don't get paid more than 500 grand," he said.

"Which is cheap for some of the headliners and they've had a lot of them. So, that's proof of its huge, huge influence.”

Sam Elliott-Gibbs