Published : Oct. 21, 2016 - 17:57
LONDON (AFP) -- Radiohead will headline next year‘s Glastonbury festival, organizers announced Thursday, after the British rock band’s logo appeared on grass at the countryside venue.
“YES! Radiohead will be back at Worthy Farm and we really can‘t wait,” Emily Eavis, co-organizer of the festival, wrote on Instagram.
Her post was accompanied by a photo of Radiohead’s “angry bear” logo, painted in white at the festival site in Somerset, southwest England.
The English experimental rockers will headline Glastonbury‘s Pyramid Stage on June 23, 2017, a Friday slot taken this year by British group Muse.
Lead Singer Thom Yorke of Radiohead performs during the Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park on Oct. 7 in Austin, Texas. (AFP-Yonhap)
British artists dominated the headline slots in 2016 with singer Adele and band Colplay topping the Pyramid Stage lineup on the following two nights.
Radiohead hinted at their Glastonbury gig recently when guitarist Ed O’Brien said he‘d be keen to appear at the festival again.
“To be asked to play at Glastonbury again would be magic,” he told BBC 6 Music.
“I also think Glastonbury is like our spiritual home. It is the mother of all festivals ... there’s nothing like that one ... it would be great to play there.”
The band previously headlined the Pyramid Stage in 2003 and 1997.
Radiohead took a nearly four-year hiatus from touring before returning to the stage this year to headline festivals and perform stand-alone shows in only six cities.
The five-piece band, fronted by Thom Yorke, has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide since 1993.
Ahead of the Radiohead announcement tickets for Glastonbury had already sold out for 2017.
The festival will not be held in 2018 as organizers will give the land -- and the local population -- a year off to recover from the influx of 175,000 music fans.