The BBC has announced details of a raft of programming specially curated to mark the 50^th anniversary of Glastonbury Festival next month.

The festival was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic in March, after revealing its full line-up. Organiser Emily Eavis was honoured at the Music Week Women In Music Awards last year. 

The Glastonbury Experience will broadcast across television, radio, BBC Sounds and online during the week in which this year’s festival was scheduled. Programming begins on June 22 and runs until June 29.

Three 90-minute shows airing at prime time on BBC Two on June 26, 27 and 28 head up the bill. These shows will celebrate the best of the BBC’s coverage of the festival, including footage of Amy Winehouse from 2007, Arctic Monkeys in 2013, Baaba Maal in 2005, Blur in 2009, Dizzee Rascal from 2010, The Rolling Stones from 2013 and more.

Jo Whiley and Mark Radcliffe will host on Friday, with Clara Amfo and Lauren Laverne guiding viewers through Saturday and Sunday. Whiley and Radcliffe will also introduce a programme dedicated to Glastonbury’s Sunday afternoon ‘Legends’ slot, which Diana Ross was due to play this year.

BBC iPlayer is to house a new Glastonbury pop-up channel with back-to-back live sets, as well as catch up viewings of all other programming.

We hope to still bring the magic of Glastonbury Festival to the audience at home

Alison Howe

Full sets from Adele, Beyoncé, David Bowie and more will be broadcast in full across BBC Two and BBC Four. BBC Four is also set to show a series of acoustic highlights including songs from Ed Sheeran, Kano, Dua Lipa and more. BBC Four will also show Julien Temple’s Glastonbury film, introduced by Edith Bowman.

Special radio broadcasts are planned across Radio 1, Radio 2, 6 Music, 1Xtra and Asian Network.

All programmes will be available to watch live and on-demand on BBC iPlayer, with radio broadcasts housed on BBC Sounds.

Jan Younghusband, head of music commissioning, BBC Television, commissioned the TV programming together with Charlotte Moore, BBC director of content, Cassian Harrison, channel editor, BBC Four, and Patrick Holland, controller, BBC Two. Howe and Mark Cooper served as executive producers.

Alison Howe, executive producer, BBC Studios said: “The team at BBC Studios have been producing the award-winning Glastonbury TV coverage for over 20 years and even though the programmes will be different this year, we will still be celebrating the world famous festival with many of the greatest and best-loved performances along with a handful of very special acoustic moments. We hope to still bring the magic of Glastonbury Festival to the audience at home.”

Read Jo Whiley, Clara Amfo and Steve Lamacq on why they love Glastonbury here.

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