BBC announces Glasto Coverage

The BBC has today announced plans for this year’s coverage of the world’s most iconic festival, Glastonbury.


The BBC will again be bringing audiences more of the music they love from over 100 acts - delivering the biggest, broadest and best moments from Worthy Farm.

Bob Shennan, Controller BBC Radio 2, 6 Music, Asian Network and Director, BBC Music says: “Glastonbury is one of the world’s most famous music festivals and once again the BBC will be providing audiences with a magical weekend of coverage, in a way that only the BBC can.”

The BBC’s unrivalled coverage across TV, Radio and online – which starts on Friday 27 June - will be fronted by some of the UK’s best-loved and most trusted presenters - including Chris Evans, Jo Whiley, Fearne Cotton, Dermot O’Leary, Huw Stephens, Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq, Greg James, Stuart Maconie, Pete Tong, Cerys Matthews, Mark Radcliffe, Gemma Cairney, Annie Mac, ToddlaT, MistaJam, DJ Target, Yasser and Alex Jones to name but a few. Each will be on hand to guide the audience through the magic of Glastonbury as we capture the most memorable moments as they happen.

The BBC will broadcast over 250 hours of Radio, TV, Red Button and online streaming, with coverage from six key music stages including the BBC Introducing Stage, reflecting the range and breadth of acts – from the biggest headliners to new and emerging talent. Past performers on the BBC Introducing Stage have included Ed Sheeran, Jake Bugg and Tom Odell.

BBC TV 

The BBC will be broadcasting 30 hours of coverage across BBC One (The One Show), BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four.

On BBC One, The One Show will kick-off the BBC’s TV coverage of the festival on Friday 27 June (7pm-8pm) with further coverage on BBC Two (10pm-10.30pm and 11pm-2am), BBC Three (7pm-10pm and 11pm-12midnight) and BBC Four (8pm-10pm).

The One Show, coming live from Worthy Farm, will see presenters Chris Evans, Alex Jones and Fearne Cotton give the audience at home a whistle-stop introduction to the festival and will be joined by special guests.

BBC Two will be the home of the big headliners from Glastonbury, broadcasting some of the biggest acts and moments from across the weekend, with programmes presented by Mark Radcliffe, Lauren Laverne and Jo Whiley. Programme highlights across the weekend will include performances by the Pyramid Stage headliners Arcade Fire, Metallica and Kasabian.

BBC Three will provide a younger perspective on the festival. Presenters Greg James, Gemma Cairney and Jen Long will be on hand to bring Glastonbury to the BBC Three audience - including performances from acts including Rudimental, Ed Sheeran, Lily Allen, Haim and Sam Smith.

Across the weekend, BBC Four will also show performance highlights from some of the classic acts performing at the festival.

BBC Radio 

This year, the BBC will be broadcasting over 50 hours of coverage across BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music – with some of the networks’ biggest names coming live from the festival.

Radio 1 and 1Xtra’s coverage will be fronted by Fearne Cotton, Huw Stephens, Pete Tong, Annie Mac, MistaJam, Charlie Sloth, ToddlaT, DJ Target, Robbo Ranx and Seani B.

Over on Radio 2, Chris Evans, Jo Whiley and Dermot O’Leary will be bringing the best of the festival to its audience. On Friday 27 June, The Chris Evans Breakfast Show (7am–10am) will broadcast from different locations of the site including Worthy Farmhouse and the Pyramid Stage.

Radio 6 Music will be exploring the alternative side to Glastonbury and broadcasting the sets of the three main headliner acts – Arcade Fire, Metallica and Kasabian from the Pyramid Stage. Lauren Laverne, Cerys Matthews, Steve Lamacq, and Stuart Maconie will be on hand to take the best of Worthy Farm to the 6 Music audience.

Backstage in the BBC compound, the BBC Music Teepee will see artists perform special sets for the audience at home.

Digital 

Following last year’s unprecedented digital output, this year’s BBC Glastonbury offering will once again give the most comprehensive digital coverage ever - whenever and wherever audiences are, at home or on-the-go. In 2013, a record 1.5 million unique browsers accessed the BBC’s digital Glastonbury coverage, with over 6m viewers on the BBC’s Red Button over the weekend and 42 per cent of total traffic across the weekend coming from mobiles and tablets.

In addition to the TV and radio coverage, six stages – Pyramid, Other, John Peel, West Holts, Park and BBC Introducing will be streamed live across four screens via PC, mobile, tablet and connected TV.

A wealth of content will be available at bbc.co.uk/glastonbury offering an immersive live festival experience like no other, as well as more information about the line-up, acts and stages with photo galleries and interviews. The BBC Glastonbury live blog will guide the audience to the BBC’s best moments in Pilton, giving them access to behind-the-scenes moments that even ticket holders can’t experience.

Personalising the festival experience, the audience will be able to tune in live or for catch-up whenever and wherever it suits them. BBC iPlayer Radio will be the place for all music on the go with a dedicated button in the mobile app for iOS and Android devices. People will be able to follow their favourite presenters on BBC Playlister and create their own Glastonbury playlist with their choice of the best tracks from the festival.

BBC iPlayer will bring audiences performance highlights from over 100 artists for 30 days after the event, as well as all the action from BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four.

On TV, additional Red Button streams will offer more content and highlights from the festival, and the BBC’s Connected Red Button service available on Virgin Media’s TiVo service and a range of recent Sony, Samsung, LG and Panasonic Smart TVs, which will bring viewers all the live streams and on-demand video seamlessly to their TV.

BBC Introducing 

Earlier this week, Radio 1 presenter Huw Stephens exclusively announced the line-up for this year’s BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury. New and emerging acts from across the country will be given the chance to perform at the world’s most iconic music festival. The full line-up can be found at bbc.co.uk/glastonbury.

Since its launch in 2007, BBC Introducing has kick-started the career of many artists. With over 250,000 tracks uploaded to the BBC Introducing website and over 500 acts performing for BBC Introducing at major UK festivals, BBC Introducing provides a network dedicated to supporting the hottest new musical talent from across the UK. It gives up and coming artists broadcast opportunities on BBC Radio, Television and Online alongside opportunities to perform at major festivals. Big name artists including Florence and The Machine, Jake Bugg, Rizzle Kicks, Wretch 32 and George Ezra all received BBC Introducing support at the start of their careers.