As part of winning the 2023 Pilton Stage Competition (second final), joint winners The Autumn Saints and The Entitled Sons will now go on to play at Glastonbury Festival this June
The Autumn Saints and The Entitled Sons have both won the second final of the 2023 Pilton Stage Competition and will play Glastonbury Festival this summer.
The event – which was the second of two finals taking place this year – was held yesterday evening (Saturday, 18th March) at The Pilton Working Men’s Club in Somerset.
After months of preparation, performance and judging, the seven finalists included Alright, Gabriel Moreno, Brooke Law, The Mercians, The Perps – Along with joint winners The Autumn Saints and The Entitled Sons.
The Autumn Saints are an Anglo-American quartet based in Oxford, UK, who describe their music as having its “roots planted firmly in the American South, with lead singer Britt Strickland bringing the soulful, weighty music history of his home state of North Carolina to the City of Dreaming Spires”.
From the final final of @thepiltonstage, joint winners @AutumnSaints pic.twitter.com/SnWJMahGFQ
— neal (@neal) March 19, 2023
The Entitled Sons self-describe themselves as being “a band of 4 brothers and their Dad from Somerset”, and have recently released a new video for their song “Heaven Knows” – they have also previously managed to hit number five in the rock genre and number 32 on iTunes with their song “Break”.
From the final final of @thepiltonstage, joint winners @EntitledSons pic.twitter.com/AoFGX6Md0i
— neal (@neal) March 19, 2023
The Pilton Stage – run by Neil Templar – is a contest that provides up-and-coming bands and solo artists of any musical genre from all around the UK the chance to compete for a performance slot at Glastonbury Festival – while also getting to meet the legendary Festival founder, Michael Eavis himself.
This year’s competition saw two finals take place instead of just one, with the first final taking place last week (Saturday, 11th March) in which Bristol-based hip-hop band The Scribes won first place, and like yesterday’s evening second final winners The Autumn Saints and The Entitled Sons, will also go on to play Glastonbury 2023.
The 2023 panel of judges who decided on the winners included TV presenter and music agent Gina Akers, BBC Radio Bristol presenters Chris Arnold and Elliot Darby, as well as Lisa Pickering who runs the Field of Avalon and Glastonbury Festival founder Mr Michael Eavis CBE.
OTHER 2023 LINE-UP NEWS
Earlier this month, Arctic Monkeys and Guns N’ Roses were officially announced as the two other headliners to join already confirmed Sunday night headliner Elton John on the Glastonbury 2023 line-up and will take to the Pyramid Stage on the Friday and Saturday nights of this year’s Festival (respectively).
The Glastonbury 2023 first line-up poster was shared via the Festival’s official Twitter account on Friday morning the 3rd of March at 9:32 AM – about half an hour after the initial Guardian article detailing the names on the line-up was published.
When published, the original article featured 55 artists on the list, however, it was then amended to omit one of the acts on the line-up in Queens of the Stone Age – explaining: “The number of announced artists was also reduced from 55 to 54 after an artist had been wrongly included in the initial lineup by Glastonbury organisers.”
Some of the names featured on the main line-up poster include Lizzo, Lana Del Rey, Lil Nas X, Wizkid, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens – who will take to the iconic Pyramid Stage as this year’s Sunday teatime Legend Slot performer.
15 more names were added to the line-up after West Holts was the first area to reveal its individual poster for Glastonbury 2023 on Tuesday afternoon (14th March) at 4 PM – including 2023 West Holts headliners Kelis, Loyle Carner and Rudimental.
In addition to the West Holts poster being announced, the first main line-up 2023 poster (released on 3rd March) was updated to move 2 Other Stage headliners (Lana Del Rey and Wizkid), Sunday Pyramid sub (Lil Nas X) and Legend Slot performer (Cat Stevens / Yusef) to the second row – as seen in the poster below.
In regards to self-confirmations; post-punk band Shame confirmed they’ll be playing the Pilton-held event after revealing the news in a Reddit Q&A.
Kelly Jones of Stereophonics also announced that he will be performing at Glastonbury this summer with his new project Far From Saints, as well as Gabrielle Aplin, who likewise confirmed she will be playing the Avalon Stage at this year’s Festival.
Stay up to date with all the latest acts that have been confirmed, self-confirmed, rumoured or are unlikely to appear on the Glastonbury 2023 Festival line-up – as well as every Glasto-shaped hole, gap and crack so far – via our daily updated line-up & rumours list.
2023 RUMOURS ROUNDUP
In other rumours news, Florance & the Machine re-ignited hopes in fans for a potential performance at this year’s Festival, after leaving plenty of room for a Glasto gig in their summer tour dates, in addition to Pulp, who likewise revealed the dates of their summer reunion tour while also leaving a space to fit in a possible Glastonbury performance this year.
Another act which has a gaping Glasto-shaped gap in their recently announced tour schedule is Kraftwerk, who confirmed they’ll be active in the summer by announcing two new shows in Ireland, scheduled for the end of June – leaving them wide open for a possible gig at Glastonbury Festival, which is set to take place earlier that month.
Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Flea got fans pondering about Glasto after retweeting a sketch of the Pyramid Stage created by renowned artist Stanley Donwood, and The 1975 are also mentioned once again in the Glastonbury context after speculation started building throughout the web when the Cheshire band confirmed new tour dates which featured the infamous Glastonbury-shaped hole.
Another band who was rumoured for a slot on this year’s line-up but now looks unlikely to appear at Glastonbury 2023 is Britpop legends Blur, whose drummer recently went on record to say they haven’t been asked to play this year.
Orbital have also been crossed off the list for a performance at this year’s Festival after the electronic legends recently said they won’t be at Glastonbury 2023, but said “maybe [they’ll be back] next year, in 2024.
Elsewhere, addressing some of the recurring rumours in regards to the Spice Girls, Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis denied that the pop group would appear at this year’s Festival, saying: “That is not a conversation we’re having at the moment,” but added that Melanie C would perform solo.
2023 SITE UPDATES & CHANGES
- Vodafone has announced a multi-year partnership with Glastonbury as the ‘Festival’s Official Connectivity Partner‘ and will be replacing EE, which up until 2022 was Glastonbury‘s technology partner for the seventh year running.
- Emily Eavis confirmed the renaming of the John Peel Stage to Woodsies, as well as adding a new family-orientated area of the same name which will feature a campfire.
- Children will not be allowed in the notorious after-hours south-east corner (also known as the ‘naughty corner’) after 10pm and will be encouraged to seek out child-friendly areas across the site such as the Theatre & Circus Fields, and the campfire in the new Woodsies area.
MORE GLASTONBURY NEWS
In other news, Glastonbury Festival in collaboration with Oxfam managed to raise more than £1 million for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)’s appeal to help communities impacted by the Turkey and Syria earthquakes.
The appeal, which came in the form of a raffle, gave participants the opportunity to win one of 10 pairs of tickets donated by the Festival to its sold-out 2023 event, each including a once-in-a-lifetime experience – such as the chance to watch a band from the side of the legendary Pyramid Stage or introduce an act on The Park Stage.
The appeal managed to raise more than £320,000 just 12 hours after launching on the 15th of February, rapidly increasing to £550,000 only 24 hours later and finally smashing its updated target of £1 million on Monday evening, the 6th of March.
The prize draw concluded at noon on the 8th of March raising a sum total of £1,044,130 from 46,390 supporters, with the draw set to take place on the 15th of March and winners notified by email and/or first-class post within 5 days of the draw date.
Prior to the Oxfam raffle mentioned above, the Festival also helped raise over £116,000 in aid of the Trussell Trust in a partnership auction to help support people facing hardship across the UK.
The money was put up in a series of 10 eBay auctions run by the food bank charity to raise funds for their network of over 1,300 food banks scattered across the country.
In this instance, similar to the Oxfam appeal, auctions offered 10 pairs of tickets which included once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for fans at the Festival.
The total from all ten Trussell Trust auctions amounted to £116,738 – with the “cheapest” pair of tickets selling for £10,200, which included the chance to watch a set from the Other Stage viewing platform.
Glastonbury 2023 takes place from Wednesday 21st to Sunday 25th of June 2023 at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset.
Although tickets for the 2023 event sold out late last year [2022], there will be resales of any unpaid and/or cancelled tickets that will take place later in the Spring (around April time).
As part of Glastonbury’s ongoing efforts against ticket touting, anyone who would like to attend this year’s Festival will need to have registered in advance.
As in previous years, registration remains free of charge and only takes a few minutes at glastonburyregistration.co.uk.
Those who have already registered in the past can also check their existing registration here.
In addition to the upcoming ticket resales, some other opportunities for getting to Glastonbury include working at the Festival, volunteering and entering competitions – once these options make themselves available.
To learn more about registration, the sale process and how you can maximise your chances of getting Glastonbury 2023 tickets, click here.
DON’T BE FOOLED
Glastonbury Festival would very much like fans to be aware that there are people out there who will try and sell fake Glastonbury tickets to unsuspecting, willing and innocent potential purchasers.
Although Glasto-veterans who have been going to the Festival for quite some time may recognise these scams for what they are, newcomers might not.
Therefore, please remember that tickets are only sold on one site, which is: glastonbury.seetickets.com.
