Glastonbury organisers hope to dispel taunts that this year’s festival was the “worst ever” by persuading rap sensation Eminem to headline next year’s festival.
Talks are already underway to persuade the US star to perform in 2025 after many of the 210,000 fans who attended last weekend’s event criticised the “terrible” headliners Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA.
A festival source said: ‘While many are putting on a brave face at the fact that the festival wasn’t exactly a success this year, they are already preparing for a bigger and better line-up next year.
Glastonbury is barely over, but bosses want Eminem. They hope he will be their salvation after so few people have come to see SZA. They have everything in their favour to get him to accept.
Eminem has headlined festivals in the UK before, including Reading and Leeds in 2017, but has never played Glastonbury’s main Pyramid Stage.
Eminem is set to perform at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in the US in 2018, but the legendary rapper could be set to perform at Glastonbury next year.
Eminem onstage during the 36th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2021. The rapper had previously performed in the UK, but not at Glastonbury.
To close out the weekend, SZA headlined Sunday night, but the performance was poorly attended and plagued by sound issues.
SZA’s show also struggled to attract the huge crowds seen during Coldplay’s headline gig the night before, with the small numbers being noted in the BBC’s coverage.
Glastonbury-goers have slammed the festival after a “disappointing” lineup, accusations of mime, technical issues and a “terrible” headline act left it mired in controversy.
Festival-goers were particularly scathing about the choice of American singer SZA for the Sunday night slot occupied by rock royalty Elton John last year.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, someone wrote: “Almost no one showed up for SZA. The organizers made a huge mistake.”
Coldplay, who headlined for a record fifth time, were branded “boring” for “repeating their same old hits” such as Yellow and Fix You.
The British band’s frontman Chris Martin felt “embarrassed” at being asked to headline once again and offered organisers the chance to find another option, The Mail on Sunday reported last month.
Emily Eavis, Glastonbury co-organiser and daughter of festival founder Michael Eavis, commented on this year’s line-up: “I think it reflects what’s going on in the music world at the moment. To be honest, there aren’t that many new rock artists to choose from.”