It’s the return of the biggest festival of them all this year to Worthy Farm as thousands descend on the fields of Glastonbury.
Before 2026’s fallow festival year, Glastonbury’s bewildering number of stages means there’s always a huge variation of performances, talks and interventions happening at once, despite The 1975, Olivia Rodrigo, Neil Young, Charli XCX and Noah Kahan playing the big headliner slots across the weekend.
If you’re asking for who I’d go see on the lineup if I was there – I would try catch Doechii, Busta Rhymes, Turnstile, Nilufer Yanya, Overmono, Caribou, Four Tet, TV On The Radio, Self Esteem, Horsegirl, Beth Gibbons, Kae Tempest, Chloe Caillet to name a few.
Meanwhile, the festival’s unique status in the festival calendar means that it operates unlike most commercial festivals with the vast majority of artists paying their way to play at the festival or if they get paid at it, it’s a significantly reduced rate than most other festivals.
The outsized clout of Glastonbury, and crucially its BBC coverage means that many acts who are making that decision to play – may spend money on travel and expenses et cetera only if they are guaranteed to get shown in the TV coverage, as it usually means a boon for their popularity post-festival, and an ability to sell tickets for their own headline shows.
Nadine Shah last year refused a slot at Glastonbury as the stage was not televised.
Smaller bands meanwhile may not even get a ticket to the festival as part of the deal, having to make their own way into Worthy Farm on a regular ticket before they play.
When the festival itself only officially books five stages directly (Pyramid, The Other Stage, West Holts, Park Stage and Woodsies), and allows external promoters to book the lineups of the umpteen other stages at the festival, the decentralised system leads to a shortage of available passes for acts playing (and often those bands who members over a regular amount have to hussle to get more tickets for their members.)
Who are the Irish acts playing Glastonbury in 2025?
Of course, no band has got more publicity around their Glastonbury set as Kneecap’s West Holt Saturday afternoon set comes after Mo Chara is on conditional bail pending a legal hearing around his UK terror charge that even buffoon Keir Starmer has waded in on.
This came after a private lobby of music industry Zionists wrote to the festival to try get Kneecap’s set cancelled.
We’ve been keeping a list of the Irish(including Northern Irish) acts who are playing the festival each year for a few years now with, 2024 featuring 27 acts, 2023 featuring 28 acts, and 2022 featuring 27 acts in total.
2025 so far has 33 Irish acts.
- Kneecap
- The Script
- CMAT
- Inhaler
- Sprints
- Gurriers
- The Coronas
- Liam O’Maonlai (Not Completely Unknown a celebration of the songs of Bob Dylan)
- Oisin Leech
- Lorraine Nash
- The Riptide Movement
- The Henry Girls
- Orla Gartland
- Ash
- Dea Matrona
- Max Cooper
- Annie Mac
- Sally C
- Kettama
- Bricknasty
- Biig Piig
- For Those I Love
- Spray
- Saoirse
- Tommy Holohan
- EMA
- Bambie Thug
- SEANCHOÍCHE
- Cliffords
- The Wran
- Chalk
- Swoose
- Caleb Kunle
There’s always more than the official list playing (like the long-running Underground Piano Bar) but this is who I’ve seen listed so far, you can always drop me a line via the comments below to let me know who else is playing that’s Irish this year.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
