Glastonbury is returning this week with its 2025 edition, promising another unforgettable weekend with headliners including The 1975, Neil Young And The Chrome Hearts and Olivia Rodrigo, alongside a star-studded lineup featuring Charli XCX, Alanis Morissette, Raye, Doechii, Rod Stewart, Loyle Carner, and many more – with a few surprises undoubtedly still under wraps. 

To match its huge roster, the BBC is rolling out its most extensive Glastonbury coverage to date across TV, BBC iPlayer, radio and BBC Sounds.

“There are festivals all over the world,” says Lorna Clarke, BBC’s director of music, speaking to Music Week amidst preparations for the festival. “But none of them look like Glastonbury does, in the way that the BBC shows it.” 

“This year, we’re doing more than ever before to make it so that if you sit down at midday, you can watch Glastonbury seamlessly all the way through if that’s what you want to do,” adds Alison Howe, executive producer of BBC Studios. “You see all the presenters you associate with Glastonbury, you can hear people chat behind the stage, you get an insight into what it’s like to play there… it’s a unique experience.”

Across the weekend, BBC iPlayer will live stream over 90 hours of performances across the festival’s five main stages, all available for 30 days post-broadcast, and Pyramid Stage performance sets will be streamed live in Ultra High Definition and in British Sign Language. 

New additions for 2025 also include the Glastonbury Recap – a daily montage of clips capturing the best festival moments – and Glastonbury Highlights, five compilations featuring tracks from stand-out performances across the weekend, which will be featured on TV and BBC iPlayer.

Presenters for 2025 include Greg James, who will be broadcasting his Radio 1 Breakfast Show live from Glastonbury for the first time ever, Jo Whiley, Clara Amfo, Lauren Laverne, Annie Macmanus, DJ Target, Huw Stephens, Jack Saunders, Jamz Supernova, Deb Grant, Nathan Shepherd, Nick Grimshaw, Steve Lamacq and Zoe Ball. 

Here, Lorna Clarke and Alison Howe take us behind the scenes on the inner workings of this year's coverage, the BBC’s unwavering commitment to artist development, and their mission to create content that resonates across generations… 

“The magic of what we do is in the combination of really powerful live music radio, plus amazing TV and video. We have done a lot of innovation this year such as treating iPlayer as a live channel, which brings people together and says that this is a moment we need to take notice of. Then on a smaller scale, we have innovations like offering British sign language, which is a way of including more people, alongside making sure we have a social plan on platforms which really helps to tell the story of the festival. To also be able to do things in ultra high definition for the Pyramid Stage, it’s unique. 

“As the commissioning team, we think about how we use the BBC platform, and once we know what we’re broadcasting, we then look to Alison’s team who are on the ground making it happen. Then once we know how Alison is going to get it to a screen, and how other teams get it to live radio, our job is to ask, ‘Are we maximising this route as much as possible?’” 

“As Lorna said, her team give us the platforms and we fill them up. That’s everything across the main five stages that we’re able to cover, from the big household names to the newer artists. We task our individual stage teams and the directors with that, alongside the brilliant sound mix that the BBC team do to make sure that the live music capture is the best it can possibly be – and that is all continually growing. We have as many cameras as we can and we find as many places as we can to put them – sometimes we have to remind ourselves that one extra camera position that offers the audience another view is worth its weight in gold, because our job is to offer the audience the best view. Especially with the Pyramid Stage, it’s a challenge because of its unique shape, it’s unlike any other main stage in the world, but that’s what makes it special.

“We’re also particularly proud of the Pyramid stage being shot in UHD, because the concert film is becoming more and more ubiquitous as a way of watching an event, and we’re doing it live. For the first time, there’s also going to be live audio description on BBC 1 as well as British Sign Language, which is another milestone, and incredibly important in making it as accessible as it can be. It’s also important to the artists that they still feel as close as possible to the audiences that are there, so it’s about making sure that what we do doesn’t disrupt that, while making sure that if you’re at home, you feel part of it. Those nuances might sound easy, but the work that goes into them is incredibly detailed.” 

“It is an unusual way of working. The things that BBC Glastonbury and BBC Studios are doing, it’s new, most teams don’t work that way across any event.”

“For me and the teams, we all care passionately that this is a once a year UK event that people are still discovering, [whilst] others have been watching it for years. Then there’s the family aspect of it; there are a lot of people who watched Radiohead in 1997 on late night BBC 2 who are still watching the festival today, so it’s important that it works for them, but equally if their children or grandchildren are coming into it, it needs to work for them too. Ultimately, across it all, it feels like one event. We’re not doing lots of different things and hoping some of it sticks, it's a collective, collaborative approach which makes it untouchable! I love that word, I will take that day every day of the week.”

“Alison has explained it spot on, that's why BBC Studios' BAFTA win last year was so deserved. Music changes all the time, and you have to respond to that; technology also changes, and so does the way people consume stuff. What the teams have done is respond to the fact that it’s always changing, and I love the fact that it’s seen as being in a market of one. It’s interesting that if you look over 20 years, we’ve had streamers and a change in the way that artists want to be seen – they want to tell their own stories. But the BBC continues to tell the story of a performance in a way unlike others, and a lot of that is because all the people working on the project are committed to promoting music. It’s in our DNA – whether you’re a television or radio person, in whatever role.”

“It’s brilliant to have an experienced and brilliant broadcaster like Greg – he's one of the most important broadcasters we’ve got in the country, without question. But again, it shows the power of the BBC to be able to say that we have the No.1 youth brand with Radio 1 and the biggest show with Greg, among all these other heavyweights promoting music like Lauren Laverne and Nick Grimshaw. The decision to have Greg’s show was significant because we want to keep engaging those audiences, particularly the under 24 listeners – which is a well-known challenge for all broadcasters, not just the BBC. We're asking, how much time are they spending with us? Are we part of their habit? They’re certainly part of Breakfast Radio, so it was a no-brainer to have that there.

“The radio hasn’t always had a relationship with Glastonbury, but certainly over the last four or five years it is part of the creative calendar, and there are brilliant broadcasters. Someone like Jack Saunders, he’s only been doing his New Music Show for a year, and he’s already won Best Radio Show [at the Music Week Awards 2025] – he is key in spreading the excitement around new artists and the big stuff from Glastonbury. And overall, getting the best music presenters like Jo Whiley, Clara Amfo, it’s impressive. Anticipation for Glastonbury is starting earlier and earlier, so Breakfast, Radio 1, 2 and 6 all play a part of that. Even when you’re not on site.”

We don’t underestimate the responsibility the BBC has in telling early music stories

Lorna Clarke

“Music is music, the idea of carving up music by generation in a strict way is becoming less and less important. You will get cross-generation parents and kids listening to the same pop music. Also, you get a lovely, warm, fuzzy feeling to watch something that meant something to you in your life. We have a lot of fantastic archives from the festival, which is amazing, so why wouldn’t we make something of that? It’s also about following where the audiences’ tastes are, as well as making it easy for them to navigate their way around all the content. That is the thing we work to avoid, the tyranny of choice. There’s so much good stuff, where do you go? Archive, recent or deep, it’ll be new to someone.”

"Ultimately, the festival books the artists. They have excellent discerning taste and they talk to the live agents in the industry about the artists that are available and the ones they want to have. We have lots of creative conversations with them throughout the year about who they’re thinking, but it is their festival and our role is to capture it for the audience. The good thing about the stages we cover is that you get a good mix. A lot of the artists have a great catalogue – like with some of the recent bookings including Sugababes, and then this year with En Vogue, Alanis Morrisette. Then there’s a lot of burgeoning artists that we might be supporting ourselves in other places, like with BBC Introducing, Later With Jools; we want to see those artists moving up these festival bills. It’s important to all of us that there is lots more Glastonbury to come, so it’s our job to support those artists when they’re on the other stages and give the audiences the opportunity to see them. Like Raye, Wolf Alice, Wet Leg, these are all artists we have invested in, and seeing them move up and get those bigger slots and bigger audiences, that’s what we love.”

“We don’t underestimate the responsibility the BBC has in telling early music stories. It’s important to note that, throughout the year, Alison’s team is also running Later… With Jools Holland, and the role they have in bringing international and British artists to a TV audience is so important. We have experts listening to new artists, we have BBC Introducing, the Brit List which is a formal commitment to supporting artists, varied playlists, and between 6 Music, Radio 2, 1 and 1Xtra, you can get a good idea of how an act is developing. 

"Raye is an incredible example, she did her first festival headliner with us, the Big Weekend for Radio 1 – so we have that relationship and we can see how it has gone up. You can almost plot those people who are capable, and with a bit of luck and the right support, certainly from the BBC, they get to do the complete artist journey. There’s loads of ways in, not forgetting the magic door which is a Jo Whiley, a Lauren Laverne, a Jack Saunders, a Mary Anne Hobbs or a Huw Stephens going, ‘I don’t know anything about this artist, but I’ve just heard this music and we have to play it.’ Those presenters play a massive part in sowing the seeds of music we should be interested in. We have a good network that gives new and emerging artists a pipeline. 

"And we can only run everything from our Glastonbury audio service and hours of coverage because of all that hard work that BBC Studios and the TV, radio, Sounds teams do throughout the year, the days we spend plugging away at curated music. All of that work comes together in one big Glastonbury story, then every year we look back and go, ‘Right, that was kind of a snapshot of that year in music.’” 

The Pyramid Stage is unlike any other main stage in the world, that’s what makes it special

Alison Howe

“Glastonbury is certainly the place where you can be confident about those British artists who have put the work in, they’ve toured, they've released amazing work, they’ve built up their following and got higher and higher. Glastonbury is the place where you can see them and go, ‘I think they’re going to make it to the ultimate level.' Like Little Simz, look at the position she had on the Pyramid Stage last year, she could be headlining in a few years. And Ezra Collective, they are one of the most exciting stories. They’re an instrumental jazz unit that were played first by Gilles Peterson, headlined their first festival for 6 Music this year, and now look at their position at Glastonbury – through our coverage, they’ve gone all the way through." 

“It also shows how the boundaries of genres are blurred now, good music is just rising.”

“And it shows that if you didn’t have that infrastructure of the BBC there, an artist might not grow organically. They’d still get better because they’re amazing, but there is a lot of work that has to happen in their development.” 

“It all worked, it’s amazing! [Laughs]. The only thing we can’t control is the weather, and I have asked Alison to try to. We’re in it now, it’s different every year, you know what you’re going into, but you don’t always know what’s going to pop out.”

“Exactly, once the festival has begun, the train has left the station, and you just have to be in a seat.”

The BBC will be broadcasting Glastonbury on TV, radio, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds from June 25-29.