Glastonbury has announced its “explosive” lineup for the Arcadia Arena with The Chemical Brothers set to make their much-awaited debut on the arachnid-shaped stage. The Dust Brothers’ (as they are also known) DJ set will take place on Friday 23rd July. This year’s Glastonbury will take place from Wednesday 21st– Sunday 25th July.
On 15th May the festival announced the fiery lineup all over their social media accounts and website. The duo from Manchester was set to perform a DJ set at the Arcadia Spider last year but were forced to pull out of the festival and several other summer shows due to contracting COVID-19. Thankfully, the English DJ Bonobo and English duo Groove Armada stepped in to ensure EDM heads at Worthy Farm still got their electronica fill.
Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons have been the Chemical Brothers since 1995. The illustrious duo has had six UK number-one albums as well as won six Grammys throughout their career. Following the release of the single “No Reason“, the duo revealed via Instagram their tenth studio album will be released this Autumn which will coincide with a UK tour. Their last album, No Geography, was released in 2019. Watch the video for the third single from the album (and the theme tune for the BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury) “Got to Keep On” below:
Also set to play the spider this summer is progressive IDM musician Floating Points, the beloved DJ Shy FX, the boiler room fave VTSS, grime’s champion Skepta alongside Jammer, and DnB hero Wilkinson. See the poster above for the full lineup.
The awe-worthy fire-spitting Arcadia stage is a 50-tone installation built from recycled military hardware by Pip Rush and Bert Cole. First appearing at the festival in 2010, the stage returned last year after its replacement by the Pangea crane in 2019. The team behind the giant spider wrote in their Instagram caption, “The Spider’s built on creative recycling and now she’s got transformation running through her veins. This year, the entire Arcadia field runs on recycled energy – waste cooking oil turned to high-grade biofuel”.
The festival also revealed the bill for the newly named Woodsies stage (previously known as the John Peel stage) earlier this week. Stellar acts include Hot Chip, Christine and the Queen, Pheonix, Warpaint, Rina Sawayama, Caroline Polachek, Slowdive, Shame, Pale Waves, and FLO. See the full lineup below.
“Although the WOODSIES STAGE takes a new name for 2023, it will offer the same raucous, effervescent and gloriously sweaty vibes it did when it was known as the John Peel and, before that, the New Bands Tent”, the organisers have promised. This year over 1000 trees have been planted in the arena, the festival has revealed, “as part of our commitment to maintain the magic of the original Worthy Farm and to let us remember the importance of keeping the land as a haven for wildlife as well as festivals and farming”.
Earlier this month, the festival announced its lineup for this year’s Left Field including Crawlers, Billy Bragg, Cavetown, and Kid Kapichi. Headliners for Glastonbury this year were announced in March and include Elton John, Arctic Monkeys, and Guns N’ Roses.
Though tickets for this year’s Glastonbury are sold out, those feeling lucky may try their luck at winning tickets by purchasing Tony’s Chocolonely‘s Willy Wonka-style chocolate bar. As it stands two pairs of tickets are waiting to be unwrapped.
