Sold Out - Tickets for Glastonbury Festival 2025 sold out in under 40 minutes, organisers have said. The event will be held from 25 to 29 June before taking a year off in 2026 to allow the ground at Worthy Farm in Somerset to recover. Tickets cost £373.50, plus a £5 booking fee – an increase of £18.50 on 2024.
In a post on X, Glastonbury Festival said: "Tickets for Glastonbury 2025 have now Sold Out. Thanks to everyone who bought one and sorry to those who missed out, on a morning when demand was much higher than supply. There will be a resale of any cancelled or returned tickets in spring 2025."
An automatic queue system was introduced with fans needing to be online before the start of the sale with a valid registration number. Some reported issues with the new system, with one X user saying: "I was on the booking page, clicked proceed and then it crashed. Took me back to the booking page – crashed again – then I got a message saying all tickets have been sold out. This is not fair."
Unapproved - Ed Sheeran says that Band Aid did not ask for permission to re-use his vocals on a new 40th anniversary version of Do They Know It's Christmas? Writing on Instagram, he said he would have "respectfully" declined the request, citing a post by British-Ghanaian rapper Fuse ODG that criticised foreign aid in Africa. Sheeran sang alongside Coldplay, Sinead O'Connor, Sam Smith, One Direction and Rita Ora on Band Aid 30 in 2014. A new mix, released next week, blends his vocals with those of Sting from the original 1984 version of the charity song.
“My approval wasn’t sought on this new Band Aid 40 release," Sheeran said. "Had I had the choice I would have respectfully declined the use of my vocals. A decade on and my understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed, eloquently explained by @fuseodg. This is just my personal stance, I’m hoping it’s a forward-looking one. Love to all x.”
Home News - Arts centre HOME will open a free-to-use artists’ development space early next year. HOME Arches will offer theatre-makers, visual artists and filmmakers across Greater Manchester and the North West access to studios, technical equipment and networking opportunities.
Spread across 258sq.m in Manchester’s Whitworth Street West, existing arches are to be given over to local creatives, with 50% of the area promised to artists from groups currently under-represented in the cultural sector – including members of the global majority, those who are deaf and disabled and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. HOME Arches promises to deliver some 5,000 free hours of "making, studio and development space" for artists and creative freelancers.
Adieu - French singer-songwriter Charles Dumont, who composed Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien, has died at the age of 95. Dumont was 27 years old when he wrote the song in 1956. But it was not until 1960 that he was persuaded to approach the star, who enthusiastically accepted it.
Farewell - King Crimson and Bucks Fizz lyricist Peter Sinfield has died aged 80. He also provided the words for Greg Lake's perennial festive hit I Believe In Father Christmas, which first charted in 1975, and for Celine Dion's global hit Think Twice.
(Jim Evans)
