Rod Stewart to play Glastonbury’s legend slot

Rod Stewart will be a headliner at Glastonbury next year, the festival has announced.

Stewart, 79, will play the Sunday teatime legend slot.

The Do Ya Think I’m Sexy star is the first act to be announced.

He shared the news on Instagram, writing: “I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that I’ll be playing Glastonbury Festival 2025! After all these years, I’m proud and ready and more than able to take the stage again to pleasure and titillate my friends at Glastonbury in June. I’ll see you there!”

Sir Rod will be 80 when the festival takes place between 25 and 29 June next year at Worthy Farm in Somerset.

Festival co-organiser Emily Eavis shared the same image of Sir Rod a few minutes later, with the message: “Bringing Sir Rod Stewart back for the Sunday afternoon slot on the Pyramid Stage is everything we could wish for. What a way to bow out with the final legends slot before we take a fallow year. We cannot wait.”

2026 will be a fallow year for Glastonbury (a year off), with the festival traditionally taking place four out of every five years, and the fifth year reserved for rehabilitation of the land.

Sir Rod – who is known for hits including Maggie May, You Wear It Well and Sailing – previously headlined the festival in 2002 alongside Coldplay and Stereophonics, closing the show on the Sunday night.

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Sir Rod first rose to fame as frontman of 1970s rockers the Faces, alongside now-Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood along with Ian McLagan, Ronnie Lane, and Kenney Jones. They formed after the break-up of the Small Faces.

He’s also performed and recorded with the Jeff Beck Group appearing on the albums Truth and Beck-Ola.

Sir Rod has gone on to have 25 UK top 10 singles and 38 UK top 10 albums as a solo artist. His career spans six decades.

In 2016, he was knighted at Buckingham Palace for his services to music and charity, and is a member of the US Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Last week, Sir Rod announced he is to end “large-scale world tours” but said he had no plans to retire.

The coveted Sunday afternoon legends slot has previously been played by Kylie Minogue, Dame Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross, and Yusuf/Cat Stevens, with the Canadian singer Shania Twain filling the position this year.

Earlier this month, standard tickets sold out in 35 minutes, as a new system saw hopefuls get “randomly assigned a place in a queue” instead of having to refresh the holding page once they went live.

Any cancelled or returned tickets will be resold in spring 2025.