BBC to air botched Glastonbury concert
May 24, 2021
By Colin Mann
The BBC has secured the rights to broadcast footage from Glastonbury’s Live At Worthy Farm concert, and has also commissioned a documentary which will explore behind the scenes at the event.
The livestream on May 22nd was disrupted by technical issues, which left hundreds of fans unable to tune in. Many ticket holders, who had paid £20 to watch, received an “invalid code” error when attempting to log into the virtual gig. Festival organisers subsequently released a new link which allowed anyone – ticket-holder or not – to access the stream without a code.
A special director’s cut of the Live At Worthy Farm stream will be broadcast on BBC television in the coming weeks. It features performances from the likes of Coldplay, Damon Albarn and Kano among others.
In addition, there will be another chance to catch highlights from the livestream across television, radio and online platforms between June 25th and 27th, as a part of The Glastonbury Experience 2021– the BBC’s annual celebration of Glastonbury Festival.
BBC Two will also air a 60 minute behind the scenes documentary, presented by BBC Radio 2 presenter Jo Whiley, during The Glastonbury Experience 2021. The programme will feature the story behind the staging of Glastonbury’s first ever festival without an audience, interviews with the artists, backstage footage and performance highlights from Live At Worthy Farm.
“Glastonbury is one of the jewels in our live music calendar so many thanks go to [festival organiser Emily [Eavis] and Nick for allowing us to broadcast highlights from Live At Worthy Farm,” said Lorna Clarke, Controller, Pop Music.
“Since the BBC first broadcast footage from Worthy Farm in 1997, Glastonbury and the BBC have enjoyed a brilliant relationship, so I’m thrilled that they’ll be showing highlights of our Live At Worthy Farm special,” added Eavis.
These Live At Worthy Farm highlights are part of The Glastonbury Experience 2021, a wider celebration of Glastonbury on the BBC in late June. Further television programming as well as programming across radio and digital platforms, will be announced week commencing May 31st.