Glastonbury Festival’s Emerging Talent Competition is taking entries this from Monday for a week
Glasto is on the bucket list of every band going and each year but while plenty of bands get there through their booking agents, reputations, streaming numbers or knowing a guy who runs one of the smaller bars, there is a way for emerging bands to put themselves into the mix.
How do you play Glastonbury?
The Emerging Talent Competition (ETC) which runs every year is a competition open to new UK and Ireland-based acts of any musical genre the chance to compete for a slot on one of the main stages at this year’s Festival.
The winner will also be awarded a £5,000 Talent Development prize from PRS Foundation if they win the competition.
Two runners-up will also each be awarded a £2,500 PRS Foundation Talent Development prize.
Last year, one of our favourites Caleb Kunle made it to the final, and ended up playing the festival.
In 2019, Nialler9 picked the eventual winner of the Emerging Talent Competition in Marie White, who played the festival and later, signed a deal with Universal Music Publishing Group so the ETC is not some two-bit Punch and Judy show down on the seafront at Margate.
How do you enter the Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition?
Acts from any musical genre can enter the 2025 competition FOR ONE WEEK ONLY using the form at glastonburyfestivals.co.uk from 9am Monday 27th January until 5pm Monday 3rd February 2025.
To enter, acts needed to supply a YouTube link to one original song, plus a link to a video of themselves performing live.
The Festival is committed to diversity and inclusivity and we welcome entries from disabled artists, who we will support to ensure they are not disadvantaged by the process. Access information.
Once the entries are in, a panel of 30 of the UK’s and Ireland’s best music writers will help compile a longlist of 90 acts. The longlist will then be narrowed down to a shortlist of eight artists by judges including Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis, before the live finals in Pilton decide the winning act.
Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis said: “We know how hard it is for new acts to take their first steps towards a career in music – particularly with the challenges facing small venues in this country – so the Emerging Talent Competition is a hugely important part of Glastonbury’s annual calendar. I can’t wait to hear the entries from across all the musical genres. And it’s free to enter, so you’ve nothing to lose!”
Who has won the Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition before?
The winner of the 2024 competition was the Jamaican-Irish rapper and singer JayaHadADream.
Other recent Emerging Talent Competition finalists include Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis McLaughlin in 2022, 2020 lockdown winner R.A.E; 2019 winner Marie White, who later signed with Decca Records and Universal Publishing; rapper Flohio who won the prestigious Music Moves Europe Talent Award in 2020; R&B singer Izzy Bizu (a 2016 BRITs Critics’ Choice nominee and winner of the 2016 BBC Music Introducing Award); and singer-songwriter Declan McKenna, who won ETC 2015 and subsequently signed with Columbia and has released two successful albums. The 2017 ETC winner was singer Josh Barry, who has since toured with Rag’n’Bone Man and Gorgon City. Meanwhile, 2016 winners She Drew The Gun have received considerable acclaim for their politically-inspired psych-pop.
