With this year’s Glastonbury festival cancelled, the BBC has announced a raft of special shows to air instead.
The Glastonbury Experience will feature three 90 minute live programmes in prime time on BBC Two – one for each night of the main Glastonbury weekend, Friday 26, Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 June.
Each of the shows will celebrate a selection of the festival’s greatest performances since BBC coverage began in the 90s, with unique acoustic performances alongside rarely seen and triumphant archive moments.
Performances will come from Amy Winehouse (2007), Arctic Monkeys (2013), Baaba Maal (2005), Blur (2009), Dizzee Rascal (2010), Lady Gaga (2009), PJ Harvey (2004), Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (1998) R.E.M. (2003), The Rolling Stones (2013) and Toots and the Maytals (2011).
Jo Whiley and Mark Radcliffe will present Friday’s programme and Clara Amfo and Lauren Laverne will present on Saturday and Sunday.
BBC Two and BBC Four will also broadcast a series of previous sets in full across the weekend, including from Adele (2016), Beyoncé, (2011), David Bowie (2000), which will be the first time that performance has ever been broadcast in full on television, Coldplay (2016) and Jay-Z (2008).
BBC Four will also broadcast three additional programmes, featuring footage from some of the best acoustic performances that have been filmed in the BBC compound throughout the history of the BBC’s coverage of the festival including from Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, Kano, Leon Bridges, Patti Smith, Richie Havens and Youssou N’Dour.
BBC Two will also dedicate a special programme, introduced by Jo Whiley and Mark Radcliffe, to Glastonbury’s famous Sunday afternoon ‘Legends’ slot – which is played by a different established, respected and much-loved artist each year of the festival and takes place on the Pyramid Stage. The programme, broadcast early evening of Sunday 28 June will feature lots of gems from many of the legendary artists to have played in that much loved slot at the festival.
Further programming will include a broadcast of Julien Temple’s acclaimed film Glastonbury, airing on Thursday 25 June on BBC Four and introduced by Edith Bowman.
All programmes will be available to watch live and on-demand on BBC iPlayer which will feature a pop-up Glastonbury channel.
From 10am on Thursday 25 June until late Monday 29 June, you’ll be able to watch highlights including Ed Sheeran’s headline performance from 2017, Christine & The Queens knockout debut in 2016, Florence + The Machine conquering all in 2015 and LCD Soundsystem’s epic Other Stage set from 2016 as well as a host of hidden gems from the BBC’s TV coverage and acoustic sessions.
BBC iPlayer will also allow all viewers to relive classic moments whenever they want, with over 60 historic sets available to watch on-demand such as George Ezra (2019), The Killers (2004), Lewis Capaldi (2019), Radiohead (1997), Foals (2019), The XX (2017), Lana Del Rey (2014), Primal Scream (2011), Christine & The Queens (2016), The Chemical Brothers (2019) and Billie Eilish (2019).
More on: BBC Two
