INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Glastonbury Festival 2016 Plans Tributes To David Bowie And Prince [Videos]

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 23:53 PST, May 6, 2016

There are some huge names on the playlist of performers at the Glastonbury Festival in June this year, but the event will also be paying heartfelt tributes to two late musical greats, Prince and David Bowie.

According to U.K. festival organizer, Emily Eavis, they had already made plans to pay tribute to Bowie, who passed away in January this year, with a metal sculpture in the shape of a lightning bolt, inspired by the cover art of Bowie 1973 album Aladdin Sane. The sculpture will hang above performers on the Pyramid Stage.

Bowie famously headlined at the Glastonbury Festival back in 2000, where he played a set of iconic hits he reportedly hadn’t played for several years. The appreciative audience got to hear classics like “Life on Mars,” “China Girl,” and “Starman,” among others.

Watch David Bowie performing at Glastonbury in 2000 in the video included here.

Eavis said of Bowie’s performance that it was “the best festival set I’ve ever seen,” and reportedly at this year’s festival, footage from that musical set will be displayed around the Glastonbury site.

Besides the statue and the video footage, Eavis added, “we’re doing Philip Glass’s Heroes Symphony on the Park Stage on Saturday night, which is going to be a really intimate tribute to Bowie.”

In related news on the Inquisitr:

Prince, on the other hand, regrettably never got to perform at the Glastonbury Festival, despite various attempts to get him on stage. According to Eavis, a headlining set by Prince had been “close to happening for three years,” but just never came to pass.

The Guardian quotes Eavis as telling the BBC, “It’s really disappointing that he hasn’t played here but it’s also, obviously, a huge loss to music because he was an incredible force.”

Eavis said they are, like with Bowie, planning to pay a similar tribute to The Purple One, who passed away on April 21 at the age of 57. While she kept relatively mute on what is actually going to happen, she did say, “There’s talk of late-night Prince parties and things,” so fans will have to wait for news of the Prince tribute closer to the time.

She did, however, say, “We’re going to do an incredible light show which will go on for the whole show and beyond, into the night.”

Headliners at this year’s festivals will include Adele, Muse, and Coldplay on the main stage at the three-day festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, set to happen from June 22 to 26. Bands playing at the festival are expected to incorporate cover versions of the hits by Bowie and Prince into their sets.

According to a report by Contact Music, there had been rumors that the annual music festival might move from its traditional Worthy Farm site in the future. Eavis, who runs the festival together with her father Michael, squashed the rumors saying the main festival will not be moving. However, she did add there are plans for an additional, but smaller, festival to be held elsewhere.

“The main thing to set straight is that Glastonbury Festival itself will always be at Worthy Farm.”

Speaking of the additional festival, Eavis said it would be run by the whole team behind the Glastonbury Festival, but would run under another name. She explained that the new, additional event would be a “visual feast” with “larger-scale installations, as well as music.”

While fans wait for the popular U.K. music festival to begin in June this year, here is another treat – an extract from Glastonbury 2000 with David Bowie singing “Wild is the Wind.”

[Photo David Bowie by Jo Hale, Prince by Kevin Winter – Getty Images Entertainment]

Share this article: Glastonbury Festival 2016 Plans Tributes To David Bowie And Prince [Videos]
glastonbury festival
More from Inquisitr