While performing at Glastonbury would be considered a career-defining achievement for many aspiring acts, independent artist Nadine Shah revealed that the reality might not be as glamorous.

In a series of posts shared on X yesterday evening, Shah wrote: “The rumours are untrue. I am NOT playing @glastonbury. i would have liked to but I wasn’t offered a televised stage so I declined. It’s too expensive a hit for me to take otherwise”.

“It’s just a reality that playing live is super expensive and if you can justify the costs (like being on telly and having a wider reach) then sometimes you take the hit. Otherwise no, we’ve all bills to pay”, she continued. Eggsy, one member of Welsh hip hop outfit Goldie Lookin Chain responded by echoing Shah’s sentiments, urging fans to attend the group tour instead.

While neither act disclosed the fees they were offered for their Glastonbury performances, artists have previously shared that they were offered literally nothing for appearances in the past.

Festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis have even admitted that Glastonbury generally pays less than other major festivals. In an interview with BBC 6 Music’s Matt Everitt, Emily revealed that 2017 headliners Katy Perry, Radiohead and Ed Sheeran were offered “less than 10 per cent of what they’d get paid from playing any of the other major British festivals”. 

In a separate conversation with George Ezra, Emily argued that this relatively lower fee is justified due to Glastonbury’s unparalleled reputation. “Because of the TV and because of the exposure that they get, [acts] do go on to do really well afterwards”, she explained.

But at the end of the day, betting on recouping losses post-performance is a gamble that artists have to weigh up, and it is one that Shah wasn’t convinced by this year. Shah has spoken out previously on the pressures on music artists in the streaming era, with declining royalties forcing an increased reliance on live shows. This income was decimated during the coronavirus pandemic, causing Shah to briefly move back in with her parents in 2021. “Not the worst thing to happen, but not a great look for a 30-something pop star,” she wrote in an impassioned Guardian article.

Michael and Emily Eavis have previously defended their relatively low fees by claiming they enable them to donate at least £2 million to charity each year. However, with the UK losing five nightclubs every week in 2024 and Spotify continually raising subscription prices without corresponding increases in artist payouts, it seems that a longer-term solution urgently needs to be found to ensure that artists are paid fairly across the industry.