Glastonbury 2025: The six biggest talking points from the line-up

The Glastonbury line-up has finally arrived and we’ve had confirmation that it’s The 1975, Neil Young and Olivia Rodrigo who will take top billing down on Worthy Farm.

Neil Young will headline for the second time after making his debut in 2009, while it’s the first time at the top of the Pyramid for both Rodrigo and The 1975, although both have played major sets there in the past.

But what does it all mean? Could new material be on the way from our headliners? And who’s making waves further down the bill? Here’s our six biggest talking points.

The 1975 finally get their headline moment (and a new album?)

The last time The 1975 played at Glastonbury was nine years ago. At the time, they were riding a wave on the back of their I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It album and laid waste to the Other Stage. Every year since then, they’ve been on the list of rumoured headliners, yet three studio albums came and went with no headline set for Matty Healy and co.

2025 is finally their time, with a Friday night set on the Pyramid Stage that’s sure to be high on drama. Though nothing is confirmed, it also looks likely to coincide with the band’s sixth album, or a lead single at the least. In front of a prime-time audience on the BBC, it could be one of the great Glastonbury moments.

Olivia Rodrigo steps up

Since Stormzy headlined in 2019, Glastonbury has given headline platforms to artists in increasingly early stages of their career. Stormzy was followed by Billie Eilish and SZA with Pyramid Stage-topping slots after only two studio albums, and Olivia Rodrigo continues the trend in 2025.

With ‘Drivers License’, ‘Good 4 U’, ‘Vampire’, ‘Get Him Back’ and more, the singer certainly has the hits to pull it off, and her star turn on the Other Stage in 2022 – when she decried the repealing of Roe vs. Wade and welcomed Lily Allen to duet on ‘Fuck You’ – indicates that she understands the power of a Glastonbury moment and will pull out all the stops and surprises. 

Indie sleaze down on the farm…

Glastonbury has always dealt with nostalgia in the best possible way – you need only look at the pop-loving crowds who shut down the West Holts stage when Sugababes played last year. This year, it’s time for a mega indie sleaze revival. A recently reunited Maccabees will play on the final day, just months before their big comeback gig at All Points East, while The Libertines and Kaiser Chiefs will also tear it up over the weekend.

It’s the kind of stuff to send sales of skinny jeans and Trilby hats into the stratosphere again. Is that the sweet smell of youth we detect again? Ah, nostalgia…

American rock and metal continues to get its flowers

When Metallica headlined Glastonbury in 2014, it heralded a new era for heavier rock bands being welcomed at Worthy Farm. Since then, the likes of Bring Me the Horizon, Turnstile and Gojira and more have all graced the legendary festival, with a dedicated metal stage also launching in 2017.

On 2025’s line-up, the festival continues to give the harder and heavier end of rock its dues despite traditionally steering away from the genre. Turnstile return once again after a headline-making 2022 set on the Woodsies Stage, while Deftones and Weezer will return to the farm for the first time since the ‘90s. With more rock and metal sure to be added to the line-up on fringe stages, it’s a continuation of the much-needed diversification of genre on the festival’s bill.

Wait, are Wolf Alice on their way back?

Take a cursory glance at the second rung of Sunday’s line-up and you’ll notice Wolf Alice‘s name sticking out after nearly two years of radio silence from the Camden band. We can only presume that this means that new music is on the way and, to be quite honest, we can’t fucking wait. Little is known about the anticipated follow-up to 2021’s Blue Weekend but we *do* know they’ve been in the studio after finishing their deal with old label Dirty Hit and joining Columbia instead.

We can only hope that their journey to Worthy Farm is a little smoother too, after their 2022 Pyramid Stage slot saw them embark on a Planes, Trains and Automobiles-esque quest to make it by the skin of their teeth after getting stranded in the US. We can’t wait to see what Ellie, Theo, Joff and Joel have got up their sleeves.

JADE makes her Glastonbury debut!

Jade Thirlwall is no stranger to Glastonbury as a punter and there’s every chance you may have seen her watching close mates and video-cameo buddies Fontaines D.C. play a huge headline set on the Park Stage last year.

But 2025, remarkably, marks the first time she’s ever played the festival. Her solo debut ‘Angel Of My Dreams’ was one of last year’s very best and she’s since proved her live mettle with incredible performances at the Rolling Stone UK Awards and, more recently, the BRITs.

Expect that tune to be belted back at her down on the farm and, we hope, a barrage of bops from a solo album that may have emerged by then…