GLASTONBURY

Slowthai Dropped From Glastonbury, Other Festivals Amid Rape Charges

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Northampton rapper Slowthai has been removed from the lineups of two major music festivals in the U.K. His removal follows recent news that he is now facing two rape charges. The rapper was scheduled to perform at England’s Glastonbury Festival in June, but his name has now been removed from the lineup poster. Slowthai also had scheduled performances at both Reading and Leeds Festivals in August. His name also no longer appears in those lineups. Slowthai is also scheduled to perform at various other music festivals across the U.K. in upcoming months, but it is unclear whether the rapper was dropped from those festivals as well.

Yesterday (May 16), news broke that the rapper has appeared in court, facing two charges of rape. He was charged with the oral and vaginal penetration of a woman without her consent in Oxford in September of 2021. The rapper was released on bail and is set to appear next month at Oxford crown court. In his recent court appearance, he only spoke once to confirm his name, date of birth, and address.

Read More: Slowthai Facing Two Rape Charges

Slowthai Says He’s Innocent

The rapper took to Instagram to defend himself shortly after the news broke. He wrote to his followers, “i am innocent and I am confident my name will be cleared.” Adding, “until then i will apply my energy to ensure this is concluded swiftly and justly.” He then asked his supporters not to “comment about this situation,” and to “respect the process and privacy of [his] family at this time.”

Slowthai released his third album, Ugly, in March of this year. Discussing the album, he said “People see you as a character. They don’t actually know who you are. You’re stereotyped as the nutter who gets in his boxers.” He continued, “I was doing that to show that you should be free at shows and enjoy yourself but you choose to see me as an idiot.” “It doesn’t matter what or who people think you are, you’ve just got to stay true and respect yourself,” he added. He called his “ugly” face tattoo, “a reminder to love myself, rather than put myself down constantly or feel the impression people have of me should determine who I am as a person.”

Read More: Who Is Slowthai?

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Glastonbury’s Co-Organizer Addressed The Lack Of Female Headliners In The Just-Announced 2023 Lineup

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Glastonbury Festival 2022
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Earlier today (March 3), the headliners for this year’s Glastonbury festival was revealed, and leading the iconic UK event are Elton John, Arctic Monkeys, and Guns N’ Roses. After the reveal, Glastonbury co-organizer Emily Eavis spoke about this year’s all-male headliners (although female musician Melissa Reese joined Guns N’ Roses in 2016).

She described the situation as a “pipeline” issue, saying to The Guardian, “We’re trying our best so the pipeline needs to be developed. This starts way back with the record companies, radio. I can shout as loud as I like but we need to get everyone on board.” She added, “It’s top of our agenda, and it probably makes it a bit harder because we’ve decided to make that important to us. To be honest, sometimes it’s easier to keep your head down.”

On the female headliner front, things are expected to look better next year: Eavis says they’re anticipating having two female headliners, with one confirmed and one nearly confirmed.

The full lineup is not yet here, but as The Guardian notes, there is diversity among the 54 acts listed on today’s poster: 52 percent of them are male and 46 percent are non-white or feature non-white members. Eavis noted she’s “entirely focused on balancing our bill,” adding, “It’s not just about gender, it’s about every aspect of diversity. […] We’re probably one of the only big shows that’s really focused on this.”

Find more info about this year’s Glastonbury festival here.

The Cost Of Kendrick Lamar’s Glastonbury Outfit, Crown Of Thorns Included, Was Apparently In The Millions

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Kendrick Lamar Glastonbury Crown Of Thorns 2022
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Kendrick Lamar made a splash at Glastonbury last weekend by showing up in a crown of thorns, presumably the same one he wore for the Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers album cover, for his performance. It’s a fancy piece of headwear and it turns out it was part of an overall pretty expensive outfit.

In a video from Glastonbury that’s been making the rounds, Lamar is asked how much the outfit costs and he deflects, saying, “I don’t even know, this sh*t ain’t even out yet. But it’s LV, though.” The interviewer then asks more specifically about the cost of the crown and one of Lamar’s associates chimes in, “Three.” The interviewer responds, “Three what?” The associate clarifies, “Three million,” and the interviewer’s excited reaction to that news got a big laugh out of Lamar.

Vogue previously noted the “custom titanium and pavé diamond crown is a collaboration between the rapper, his longtime creative collaborator Dave Free, and the jeweler Tiffany & Co.” that was “designed over the course of 10 months” and features “8,000 cobblestone micro pavé diamonds totaling more than 137 carats, and weighs around 200g.” It also apparently took “more than 1,300 hours of work by four craftsman to handset the diamonds.” The value of the crown was previously estimated at around $200,000.

Glastonbury Announces Its 2022 Lineup With Headliners Paul McCartney And Kendrick Lamar

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Kendrick Lamar Austin City Limits
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When it comes to Europe’s summer festivals, Glastonbury is the grandaddy of them all. Think Coachella, but bigger and across five days. Now Glastonbury has finally announced the long-awaited lineup for the June 22nd to 26th affair, and the festival also cemented the headlining slate with Kendrick Lamar and Paul McCartney.

McCartney and Lamar will be playing the grandiose Pyramid Stage, along with a previously announced performance from Billie Eilish. We’ll go ahead and take the Pepsi challenge on these headliners, because can this really be topped? Taking place at Worthy Farm in Pilson, Somerset, England for the first time since 2019, the camping festival had already been sold out before the lineup was ever announced. It’s a testament to the cultural significance of this massive gathering and the lineup is positively bonkers.

Also on the bill are legendary diva Diana Ross; pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo; Mercury Prize winner Arlo Parks; jazz fusion legend Herbie Hancock; Oasis leader Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds; a TLC reunion; indie-pop queens Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers, and St. Vincent; Little Simz headlining the smaller West Holts Stage; and a whole lot more. Glastonbury says that there’s still more artists to be announced, including more headlining and emerging acts.

Check out the full lineup poster above and visit the Glastonbury website for complete details on the fest, lineup, and a final ticket pre-sale opportunity.

Glastonbury Is Hosting A Big Livestream Concert With Coldplay, Damon Albarn, And Others

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It was announced at the top of 2021 that Glastonbury will not be hosting a festival this year (for the second year in a row) due to the pandemic. So, while thousands of people won’t be taking to the festival grounds this summer, they can enjoy a newly announced livestream concert that organizers are hosting.

“Live At Worthy Farm” is a ticketed livestream event that is set for May 22. As the name suggests, the show will take place at Worthy Farm and will feature Coldplay, Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn, Haim, Idles, Wolf Alice, Jorja Smith, Kano, Michael Kiwanuka, DJ Honey Dijon, and other currently unannounced performers.

This news shouldn’t surprise fans who have been following Glastonbury’s goings-on in recent months. In January, festival founder Michael Eavis said he wanted to do something to mark the festival’s anniversary: I would like to do something smaller somewhere around the anniversary date of when we started, which was the 18th of September 1970. I would like to consider possibly doing something around that time.” In December, Emily Eavis also noted, “We’re actually looking into the possibility of streaming some things from here if we can’t run the full show next year. We really want to get busy with planning some gigs — even if they’re to be streamed!”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.