Following the announcement that Chicago, Illinois rapper Kanye West would serve as one of the headliners at the annual Glastonbury Festival, one man channeled his frustration with Kanye’s headlining slot into a petition.
The petition was created by Neil Lonsdale on the Change.org website and has received well over 50,000 signatures as of today (March 19). Titled “Cancel Kanye West’s headline slot and get a rock band,” Lonsdale says the petition initially started as a joke.
He recently spoke with NME.com about his reaction to the announcement of Kanye as a headliner, and his decision to create the petition.
“I fought the temptation to scream and instead opted to hurl my iPhone across the room,” Lonsdale said. “Two years ago we had The Rolling Stones playing the Saturday night, and this year we get Kanye West? It’s an outrage!
“I was a little surprised that people have taken it as seriously as they have,” he added. “Don’t get me wrong, if it works, then I’ll be more than happy. I’m not surprised it’s popular though. Festivals are about people coming together through their love of music and song, and creating something magical. Look back to Blur in 2009 – One of the band’s seminal moments – 100,000 people chanting ‘woo-hoo!’ – That is what it’s about.”
Lonsdale, who admits that he’s never actually been to the Glastonbury Festival, explained that the musical festival “needs upbeat major artists” who don’t “behave like Kanye.”
“Glastonbury needs upbeat major artists,” he said. “Glastonbury is an institution. It is expected that it has the biggest names. The biggest performers. Kanye does not represent that…It doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, straight, gay. If you behave like Kanye, you’ve got to expect some opposition.”
In addition to Kanye West, another act scheduled to headline at the Glastonbury Festival is the Foo Fighters.
For additional Kanye West coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
people at musical festivals dont wanna hear 30 min of autotune trash before this nicca crys on stage for an hour about his rich nicca problems
cosign
Don’t be a dumbass apart from 808 he has plenty of stadium quality tracks, if he don’t rant he will tear it down and put on a performance…I think it definitely a colour thing, they gave Jay slack as well as Beyoncé and now Kanye…a music festival should be about all different sounds not jus rock, and to bite the cake the dude who started it ain’t going
Apart from the 808 stuff, Kanye has hits for festival/stadium capacity…if he don’t rant, he can put on a good performance hands down, to me it’s a colour thing…you say ppl come to festivals for the music yet they gave Jay slack and Beyoncé slack when she performed, rock is not the only music genre celebrated at Glastonbury since its a festival of music, as long as the hip hop act ain’t headlining it ain’t a issue…and the dude who started it ain’t even going
he didnt say hes not going he said hes never been before and probably wont be going if kanye is the headliner
imma sign this on GP
you had me lost wit the comment til I read who it was from lmfao.. u outta office fam they aint fuccin wit uuuuuuuuuuuuu
I started a counter petition.
change.org/p/glastonbury-keep-kanye-west-as-the-headline-act?just_created=true
lol 113k vs 11, you go girl,