Duran Duran Wants to Play Glastonbury Festival, But Only If They’re Headlining

Duran Duran has standards, and they’re not slipping anytime soon.

The British new wave legends were, for the first half of the 1980s, the most popular band on earth, with the noisiest fans, and hits. One after the next. The awards came, including two Grammys, two Ivor Novellos, the Brit Awards’ Lifetime Achievement, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2022, their career was saluted with induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

One item the band hasn’t ticked off is a session at Glastonbury Festival, the grandaddy of the U.K.’s camping festival circuit. Speaking with The Times of London, frontman Simon Le Bon is keen to change all that… but with one important condition. “We want the right slot,” he tells the broadsheet. “We shouldn’t be below anybody on the bill.”

The English singer, who was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by King Charles in 2024, a nod to his services to music and charity, clarified his position: “so, we’ll hold out because we’re a headline act — that’s all there is to it.”

The band has been asked in the past, but it wasn’t an opportunity the artists leapt at. “Well, we want to,” he assures, “but not in a disco tent at 3pm, which is what we were offered.”

Bandmates Nick Rhodes and John Taylor contribute to The Times’ feature story, in which they recount fame, talk drugs, and discuss the wonders — and horror — of technology. “Anyone who thinks AI will go away is certifiably insane,” says Rhodes, the band’s founding keyboardist.

The next chance for Duranies to see their heroes at Glastonbury would be in 2027. The event is taking a fallow year in 2026, in order to give the site, the Eavis’ dairy farm a year off, a pause that rolls around once every five years.

Duran Duran will get some outdoor action this summer, when the band headlines BST Hyde Park on July 5. It’s the setting of their triumphant concert in 2022, which gathered an estimated 70,000 fans.

Just last month, the band dropped “Free to Love,” a neo-disco collaboration with longtime producer and friend Nile Rodgers, and their first new music since their 16^th and latest album, Danse Macabre, which opened and peaked at No. 4 on the Official U.K. Chart in 2023. Duran Duran recently competed a residency in Las Vegas, ahead of run of U.K. and Continental European shows, starting June 19 at Denmark’s Heartland Festival.