Glastonbury 2019 headline rumours, from Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift to Fleetwood Mac

Stormzy has filled one headline performance, while Kylie Minogue has been announced to perform in the legends slot

(Rex Features)

Glastonbury Festival is looming ever closer, after tickets were snapped up by fans in October.

The 2019 edition of the legendary music festival follows its traditional fallow year in 2018, to allow time for the site, village and festival team at Worthy Farm, Somerset, to recover.

Standard weekend tickets are priced at £248 each, plus a £5 booking fee – up £10 per ticket from 2017.

The festival is aiming to combat touts by asking festival-goers to register before buying. Fans who have already registered will need to update their entry to include a photo taken within the last two years.

Glastonbury Festival 2017 featured Foo Fighters, Radiohead and Ed Sheeran as headliners. Speaking at the NME awards earlier this year, founder Michael Eavis revealed there would be “two or three [acts] that have never played” the festival before.

Emily Eavis has also dropped a hint about headliners, commenting that a “great British artist” will appear at the 2019 festival. She also confirmed that Fleetwood Mac will not be playing, but they are on her wishlist along with Kate Bush, Tom Waits, and Led Zeppelin.

When it comes to the balance between showcasing new talent and booking bigger names, she explained: “We can’t keep putting those huge acts on because there aren’t many that we haven’t had now.”

There’s been plenty of speculation over who will headline at Worthy Farm next year.

Here are some of the rumoured headliners:

Madonna

Last year’s Glastonbury came under fire over its trio of white male headliners, with critics urging them to do better when it comes to diversity in 2019. The ultimate female pop icon could do just the trick, particularly given Madonna celebrated her 60th birthday this year and shows no sign of slowing down her music career.

Arctic Monkeys

Alex Turner performs during Arctic Monkeys’ set at Mad Cool festival (Mad Cool festival)

Reading & Leeds fans were pretty gutted after months of rumours anticipating a headline slot from Sheffield’s finest, only to find out they wouldn’t be performing (at least not this year). However, there’s surely an Arctics-shaped space on the Pyramid Stage following the success of their latest album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. They’d definitely put on a good show.

Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar (Getty)

It’s strange to think, but Kendrick Lamar hasn’t actually appeared at Glastonbury Festival before. This year he topped the Coachella bill and also appeared as a headliner at Reading & Leeds, so he’s no stranger to festivals. Glastonbury seems as though it’d be a great fit for the hip hop star, but perhaps he’ll be too busy working on a follow-up to 2017’s acclaimed album, DAMN.

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac (Polaris)

Michael Eavis has been after Fleetwood Mac for years, but said in 2016 that unfortunately he just couldn’t afford what its members were asking for.

“Adele did it for less, Rolling Stones did it for a reasonable rate,” he said. “We can’t afford to spend £4-5m on people to play. Mick Fleetwood said he would do it himself, but come on. I’d like the rest of the band and they all want to be paid a lot of money.”

He then suggested in 2017 that Stevie Nicks as a solo performance would be a good alternative: “Maybe I could get her on her own.”

However, things may be looking up – despite the band’s split from Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac recently announced tour dates for 2019. Mick Fleetwood also teased an appearance last year, suggesting: “One day we’ll just get on a plane and come over and do it.”

Unfortunately for fans, Emily Eavis has now said Fleetwood Mac will not perform at the festival next year. Here’s to 2020.

Taylor Swift

I’ll give her this: she is a star. The moment she strode on to the stage in a pair of sparkly hot pants, the first of about 300 different costumes, you could see that. The audience was in raptures (Rex)

The pop megastar’s Reputation world tour runs until the end of 2018 with a closing date at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, but there’s scope for it to continue beyond that if Swift decides to return to Europe next summer.

Her close friend and fellow pop star Ed Sheeran, who headlined last year, suggested she may not be keen on a Glastonbury slot because she “doesn’t like festivals”. However, given the success of her headline appearance at the BBC’s Biggest Weekend festival in Swansea – dubbed the “Glastonbury replacement” for 2018 – perhaps she’ll reconsider. There’s no doubt whatsoever that she’d put on an amazing pop spectacle – earlier this year The Independent gave her opening Reputation show in Manchester five stars and called it the “biggest event on the 2018 pop calendar”.

Paul McCartney

(Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP)

One person who might convince Swift to appear at Glastonbury is another rumoured performer: Sir Paul McCartney. The Beatles legend recently revealed that one of the songs on his new album Egypt Station was inspired by Swift and her positive anti-bullying messages to fans.

“I was actually thinking about Taylor Swift and her relationship to her young fans and how it’s sort of a sisterly thing,” he told the BBC of his song “Who Cares”. “I was imagining talking to one of these young fans and saying: ‘Have you ever been bullied? Did you get bullied?’

“Then I say: ‘Who cares about the idiots? Who cares about all this? Who cares about you? Well... I do.”

Asked by Jo Whiley about the potential of Macca getting his own headline set, Michael Eavis said: “Oh we always want him – he’s top of our list. We’ll have to see.” He last headlined in 2004, and with his 17th solo album Egypt Station now released and topping the charts in the US, a Worthy Farm visit doesn’t sound completely beyond the realms of possibility.

Liam or/and?? Noel Gallagher

Related: Supersonic - Oasis Documentary Trailer (Getty)

It wouldn’t really be Glastonbury without another Oasis reunion rumour flaring up, as unlikely as it still appears to be. However, with both the Gallagher brothers releasing solo albums this year, perhaps the festival will find space for both of them. Although it’s probably safer to keep them on separate stages.