Published On: Sun, Mar 22nd, 2015

120,000 Sign Petition to Stop Kanye West Headlining at Glastonbury

Kanye West

Kanye West is supposed to be headlining the U.K. Glastonbury festival.

Kanye West was announced earlier last week as one of the headliners at this summer’s U.K. Glastonbury music festival, but some music fans aren’t happy about it.

One festival-goer started an online petition calling on organizers to “prevent this musical injustice” by canceling the rapper’s performance.

Neil Lonsdale the creator of the petition wrote on Change.org saying: “Kanye West is an insult to music fans all over the world,” “We spend hundreds of pounds to attend glasto, and by doing so, expect a certain level of entertainment. Kanye has been very outspoken on his views on music….he should listen to his own advice and pass his headline slot on to someone deserving!”

In an interview with NME.com, Lonsdale called it an “outrage” that West was awarded the headliner slot over a rock band: “Two years ago we had The Rolling Stones playing the Saturday night, and this year we get Kanye West?”

“Glastonbury needs upbeat major artists. Glastonbury is an institution. It is expected that it has the biggest names,” Lonsdale argued.

Kanye West is known for making his opinions heard publicly. Recently he stormed the stage at the Grammys and later said that Beck winning the award over Beyoncé was “disrespectful to inspiration”.

Festival organiser Emily Eavis has reacted to the petition, saying that the petition represents the “dark underbelly of the web.”

“Who are those people silently shouting in disgust, throwing out threats from behind their screens? It certainly isn’t pleasant to be on the receiving end of that. I can’t even imagine how it makes Kanye feel,” she wrote.

Eavis explained that there were only four more requests for ticket refunds were made than the previous week following the announcement that West would headline the event in June.

Lonsdale is not the only Glastonbury goer upset by his scheduled performance. At the time of writing 121,415 people have signed the petition.

With one final headline slot remaining rumors have been circulating that Coldplay or Florence + The Machine will headline however according to organiser Emily Eavis the rumours are unfounded.

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