![[OC] How far ahead of their Glastonbury performance did artists release their first album?](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/o3mgpixfpoaf1-1536x863.png "[OC] How far ahead of their Glastonbury performance did artists release their first album?")
I had a hunch: the main stages at Glastonbury Festival are increasingly dominated by artists who have been around for longer. So I decided to dig into the data.
I scraped the official Glastonbury lineup listings and cross-referenced each artist with their Spotify page to find the age of their debut album relative to their Glastonbury performance.
The plots below show the median age of debut albums for all performers on a given stage each year. The shaded bounds represent the 35th to 65th percentiles.
Here’s what stood out:
In 2016, the median debut album age for Pyramid Stage artists was 8 years. This year, in 2025, it jumped to 20 years.
I have a few theories about why this might be happening. My leading hypothesis is with rising costs of living, the festival may be catering more to older audiences with higher disposable incomes. But I'd be interested in hearing other theories!
Posted by Important_Tank_5752
7 Comments
Brilliant, I was only mentioning to a friend on the weekend that much of the line-up are bands that had played there 15-25 years ago, already.
Its good to see data confirm that, too!
The Park figures are probably skewed by Sparks performing last year! They’re in their 80s now
What would the plots look like if all of them used the same Y-axis scale?
Last year a local festival catered more for younger generation. It was a total flop. This year line up is much older and it seems it is again much more popular. I think the cost of living is a good guess
I’m personally sad about he John Peel stage data with mean going up and up. John was an innovator who bought many new bands into the consciousness of the (British) public across many genres. The whole idea of that stage was to continue to provide a platform for new and up-and-coming talent. Looks like that has changed – for the worse in my opinion. There are lots of places within and outside of Glastonbury to showcase existing acts after all.
Make your Y axes to the same scale, people. I cant emphasise this enough.
Interesting if you compare this to Reading and Leeds, which I feel is doing the opposite.
Glastonbury also releases the line up after tickets have been sold. R&L you can still buy tickets on the day sometimes.