Glastonbury Festival have announced that their annual Emerging Talent Competition will go ahead, as planned, for 2020. The competition will take place despite this year’s festival being cancelled due to the continuing coronavirus pandemic. As well as the exciting news the organisers also shared a playlist of the 90 longlisted acts.
The 2020 edition of the festival would have marked the 50th anniversary of the Somerset event, which was scheduled to take place this June. However, today (April 29) Glastonbury organisers have confirmed that their usual competition, to find the best new talent from the UK and Ireland, will remain.
We’re pleased to announce we’re going ahead with this year’s Emerging Talent Competition. The winners will be given a slot at Glastonbury 2021, plus a £5,000 Talent Development prize from @PRSFoundation. Listen to the longlisted acts at https://t.co/3v0jhasxke now!
— Glastonbury Festival (@glastonbury) April 29, 2020
Speaking about the decision to allow the competition to go ahead as planned, festival organiser Emily Eavis, said: “At a time when the live music industry is on hold, and upcoming artists are not able to get out there and showcase their talents, I’m so pleased that we’re still able to shine a light on the best new acts in the UK and Ireland through the Emerging Talent Competition. I’m hugely looking forward to hearing the 90 acts on the longlist – and I really hope that lots of others will listen and choose their favourites too.”
The 90 longlisted artists have been revealed and were picked by a judging panel which is made up of 30 UK music writers and bloggers. A panel of judges, including Michael and Emily Eavis, will then narrow down the 90 longlisted artists to a final eight.
Unfortunatly, due to current circumstances surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, there will be no live final, inn Pilton, this year. However, the panel will be selecting the winner and runners up, who will then go on to perform, at Worthy Farm, next year.
“The Emerging Talent Competition is an incredible opportunity and has been a fantastic springboard for so many successful music creators, including Declan McKenna, Marie White, Flohio and Izzy Bizu. This unique combination of the opportunity to perform at the iconic Glastonbury Festival and receive vital career support has had a real and sustainable impact on those artists’ development. I’m very much looking forward to seeing who the winner and runners-up are this year,” said Joe Frankland, CEO of PRS Foundation.
The winners of the competition will be awarded a slot to perform, at Glastonbury 2021, as well as a recieve a £5,000 Talent Development prize from PRS Foundation. The two runners-up will also receive a cash prize of £2,500 each, again from the PRS Foundation Talent Development Prize.
Speaking about the competition, Amy Field from PRS for Music, said: “We are so pleased the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition is still going ahead. It’s something positive to focus on during this uncertain time and with the unfortunate cancellation of Glastonbury Festival this year. We know that many music creators are currently facing challenges, and so we are proud to be able to continue this project with PRS Foundation and Glastonbury to keep the momentum going and provide some much needed support to artists taking part.”
Great news! @glastonbury are going ahead with this year’s Emerging Talent Competition.
The winners will be given a slot at Glastonbury 2021, plus a £5,000 Talent Development prize from @PRSFoundation.
Listen to the longlisted acts at https://t.co/uYaCV09yIy now! pic.twitter.com/yQDVBXDFPa
— PRS for Music (@PRSforMusic) April 29, 2020
In recent years the competition has played a big part in the rise of artists such as Declan McKenna, Izzy Bizu, Swimming Girls, Che Lingo, She Drew The Gun and many more. Among other historic winners of the competition are The Subways and Scouting For Girls.
The announcement that the competition will go ahead comes after the BBC announced that in place of its Glastonbury coverage they will instead show a range of programming, across the weekend it was due to run in June 2020, that will celebrate 50 years of the festival.
