If watching the Glastonbury 2023 footage has left you wanting to tick playing at the iconic festival off your gig bucket list, we have compiled a list of ways you can get your music in front of the 200,000 Glastonbury revellers in 2024. Knowing all the right people industry and having a major record label at your booking helm can help (massive understatement), but thankfully, that isn’t the only way to play Glastonbury 2024.
Just as buying tickets to attend the event feels like mission impossible, and the process leaves thousands of people disappointed each year, independent bands without high-profile bookers often feel the same frustration when attempting to seal a slot on the bill. However, if you’ve got the talent and perseverance, attempting to get booked is an endeavour worth seeing through.
How to Play Glastonbury 2024
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Play at the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition
Each year, PRS for Music and the PRS Foundation hosts the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition to give up-and-coming artists a chance to impress the stage bookers. After the 2023 Emerging Talent Competition, nine artists received an invitation to play at Glastonbury. The Cardiff-based musician, N’famady Kouyate, was hailed as the winner of the competition; in addition to being offered a main stage slot, he was also handed £5k from PRS, while the runners-up received £2.5k from the PRS foundation
The Emerging Talent Competition is only open to acts from the UK and Ireland. Aside from that, there are very few conditions for entry; independent artists from all genres are welcome. This year, the competition was only open from the 30th of January to the 5th of February. So, if you want to play at Glastonbury in 2024, be prepared to make your submissions at the start of 2024. To enter, you will need a YouTube link to an original recorded song, plus a link to a live performance. Naturally, the higher the quality of the live video footage, the better if you want to be placed on the long list.
Once all of the submissions are in, it is the unenviable task of 30 of the top UK music journalists to select 90 bands for the longlist before the Glastonbury organisers, including Michael and Emily Eavis, have their say.
In the words of the Glastonbury co-organiser, Emily Eavis;
“Showcasing new music is a hugely important part of what we do at Glastonbury, and the Emerging Talent Competition has helped us to discover so many incredible artists over the years. It’s amazing to be able to offer this platform to some of the brightest talent out there, and I can’t wait to hear this year’s entries!”
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Apply Directly to the Smaller Stages
Sending CDs in the mail to make the right impression with people in the music industry may sound like a marketing tactic from a bygone era. But surprisingly, with some of the small stages at Glastonbury, it is the best way to garner the bookers’ attention.
The Croissant Neuf Stage has been a Glasto fixture since the 80s; the times may have changed, but the ethos of the bookers hasn’t. They are still just as committed to championing local, independent, and grassroots artists. Other small stages still happy to receive direct bookings include the Acoustic Stage and the Poetry & Words Stage.
It can be tricky to get to know the vibe of each of the small stages without attending Glastonbury. So if 2024 isn’t your year to perform, you may want to contemplate attending as a networking punter to scope out where you would fit in the festival.
If exploring the 62 stages at Glastonbury in person isn’t an option, you can always try to find out which stage bands with a similar sound to yours played in previous years and apply for those stages directly. You will need to be just as discerning as when you are researching which blogs and radio stations to submit your music to. It will be a time-consuming process, but once you get that golden ticket of an artist pass, there is no telling the kind of Glasto doors you will open further down the road. A list of all the Glastonbury stages can be found here. To get to know the personality of each of the stages and areas, there are Facebook groups dedicated to most of them. Happy hunting!
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For more industry advice and news, check out our other blogs, which show you how to cut through the static and get noticed as an independent artist. Alternatively, contact us about our one-to-one consultancy services.
Article by Amelia Vandergast