Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis has revealed that he didn’t necessarily have to dig deep into his wallet to get The Rolling Stones to sign on for the legendary UK festival this year.
Eavis told BBC Radio 4 that the band – who are making their debut at the festival after more than 50 years together – aren’t getting a special fee to headline the Saturday night of the event. In fact, they’re getting substantially less than what they normally charge.
“There’s a bog standard price for the headliner. We get the headliners for a tenth of the normal price. So they’re not being paid very much. Headliners are always good to us because they want to do it because they get TV and they get huge record sales straight after the show.”
Eavis added that signing the Stones felt like “winning the World Cup” – and there were plenty of hugs and jubilant celebrations in the Glasto office once they confirmed their appearance.
“We’ve waited a long time for the Stones to play. It’s their 50th year and this [show] is part of their 50th anniversary, so what a place to be.
“Of course it’s a thrill for us as well. It’s taken a long time to get confirmed. So we were all thrilled, obviously, we threw our hands in the air with joy and we hugged each other and everything. It’s like winning a football match really or winning the World Cup I suppose I should say. It really is a huge thing for us.”
The Rolling Stones will join Arctic Monkeys and Mumford & Sons as this year’s Glastonbury headliners following the gigantic first announcement earlier this week. Aussie acts Tame Impala, Xavier Rudd and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds are also on the bill.
Glastonbury 2013 takes place on 26th-30th June at Worthy Farm in Pilton, England. The event is sold out; however, a limited number of returned tickets will be put back on sale on 21st April.
