Chris Martin Says Coldplay Won’t Play Glastonbury This Year
Chris Martin has ruled out a Glastonbury appearance for Coldplay in 2022.
The four-time headliners of the Somerset bash announced their 2022 touring plans on Thursday, with dates at London’s Wembley Stadium and Glasgow’s Hampden Park confirmed for June 2022.
Glastonbury, though, is not on the schedule. Speaking to NME, frontman Martin explained: “Glastonbury is our spiritual home, but even your parents say you need to leave home sometimes.”
Coldplay released their ninth studio album, Music of the Spheres, Friday. In a positive review, Rolling Stone UK‘s Ella Kemp called it “the sound of a supremely confident band”.
The group has put into place a 12-point plan to significantly cut their carbon footprint on next year’s world tour, including using “kinetic flooring” to power their concerts.
Glastonbury Festival will return to Worthy Farm for the first time since 2019 between June 22nd and 26th, 2022. Billie Eilish has been confirmed as the Friday night headliner, making her the youngest solo act ever to top the bill.
Coldplay’s 2022 tour will also see them coming good on plans to cut down more CO2 emissions, pledging to plant one tree for every ticket sold.
Other pledges at the gig will see free drinking water on offer to eliminate the need for plastic bottles, 10% of all earnings from the tour will be put into a fund for socially conscious causes. The group is also setting up a partnership with climate change experts at Imperial College London to assess the impact of the tour — both positively and negatively — on the environment.
Speaking about the move, Coldplay said in a statement: “Playing live and finding connection with people is ultimately why we exist as a band. We’ve been planning this tour for years, and we’re super excited to play songs from across our whole time together.”
“At the same time, we’re very conscious that the planet is facing a climate crisis,” they added. “So we’ve spent the last two years consulting with environmental experts to make this tour as sustainable as possible, and, just as importantly, to harness the tour’s potential to push things forward. We won’t get everything right, but we’re committed to doing everything we can and sharing what we learn. It’s a work in progress and we’re really grateful for the help we’ve had so far. If you’d like to come to a show and sing with us, we’re so excited to see you.”
