A large number of Glastonbury festival-goers have reacted negatively to the news of Kanye West headlining this year's event.

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West will headline the Saturday night of the Worthy Farm event, with organiser Emily Eavis announcing the news on Monday night (March 16). Eavis wrote on Twitter: "We are thrilled to let you know we have the one and only Kanye West headlining Saturday night on the Pyramid stage!"

However, many fans have taken to Twitter to express their anger. One fan wrote: "If Kanye West is headlining glastonbury I'm sending my ticket back. What a shocking shocking idea. He doesn't belong anywhere near it." Others called the announcement a "bandwagon booking".

Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/kanye-west/83594#MlxA3eGZR42KH2hs.99

In the meantime, a petition has also been launched to prevent West from performing at the festival.

The petition - titled 'Cancel Kanye West's headline slot and get a rock band' - reads: "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! Lets prevent this musical injustice now!"

NME spoke to the person who set up the petition - you can read their comments here.

21,000 people have currently signed the petition, while Glastonbury Festival boasts an annual audience of approximately 135,000 overall. Already confirmed to appear at the festival, which takes place between June 24-28, are Friday night headliners Foo Fighters and Lionel Richie.

Earlier in March Kanye West performed a last minute show at London's KOKO venue. Read the NME review.

Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/kanye-west/83594#MlxA3eGZR42KH2hs.99

 Steve steveson wrote:
Much the same as Jay Z a few years ago... And Micheal Eavis knows what he is doing. He has been doing for longer than I have been alive. As for calling for a "rock band", Glastonbury has been about mainstream pop for a long time. I can't really see what people are complaining about other than some imaginary idea that Glastonbury is still some underground rock fest. It's not exactly Wacken or Download. It has glamping tents FFS.

So what if he plays? It's not like Glastonbury is short of other bands to see playing at the same time.

"Kanye West is an insult to music fans all over the world."

 Medium of Death wrote:

"Kanye West is an insult to people all over the world."

"Stop liking what I don't like!", the petition.

 timetowaste85 wrote:

 Medium of Death wrote:

"Kanye West is an insult to people all over the world."

"Stop liking what I don't like!", the petition.

Don't worry, I fixed the quote for him.

Is there honestly a more worthless human being than Kanye West right now? Seriously, I think Mitt Romney and Mat Ward are deserving of sainthood next to Kanye.

 curran12 wrote:
The amount of venom stirred up here for one guy and one concert is rather shocking.

 whembly wrote:

 timetowaste85 wrote:

 Medium of Death wrote:

"Kanye West is an insult to people all over the world."

"Stop liking what I don't like!", the petition.

Don't worry, I fixed the quote for him.

Is there honestly a more worthless human being than Kanye West right now? Seriously, I think Mitt Romney and Mat Ward are deserving of sainthood next to Kanye.

Dang... you really don't like Kanye... eh?

I like some of his musics... but, I too despise the man.

I can separate the music from the musicians.

ie, I fething love Audioslave... but, they're a bunch of pinko-commie loving bastards.

iie, I'm considered a Metallica Maniac... but, I sitll won't forgive their Napster days.

iiie, Disturbed fething rocks my soul... but, the frontman is a piece of work.

See?

It's a music festival... drink copious amounts of alcohol and simply enjoy the tunes.

Rock on dudes!

\m/

 Ouze wrote:
Not sure why so many people feel so strongly about Kanye. I mean, sure, he seems like sort of a dick, and I personally am not into his music, but his offenses don't seem to scale with the vitriol. What exactly did he do to be so despised? Not be humble enough? Man, if I had 20 odd Grammy awards, I'd probably never shut up about it either.

Every year when we announce who’s playing at Glastonbury there are complaints and often outrage. We’re well used to that. Scrutiny of our headliners has become something of a national pastime. We’ve had it in recent years with Jay Z, Beyoncé, Metallica and plenty of others. We even had it in 1984 when we booked the Smiths, because people wanted Hawkwind again! This year is no different.

In normal circumstances, we wouldn’t add to the story by commenting. But given the enormous amount of media coverage from all corners of the globe we felt compelled to respond this time.

The Glastonbury festival of contemporary performing arts is the full name of our festival, and my dad and I love doing what we do: working with great, creative people and being able to curate so much music, art, theatre and circus, not to mention the political and green debate.

It’s a feast of culture and diversity that is spread out over 1,000 acres for everyone who makes the pilgrimage to Worthy Farm to enjoy. The people that come here are, we hope, open-minded and they come to experience and devour all of this. At any one time, there are hundreds of things to see and do.

We think the story this year should not be: “Why is Kanye coming?” but: “How amazing is it that Kanye is coming?” One of the world’s biggest superstars and a music legend, always interesting, never boring. He has agreed to play a festival where headliners get paid a fraction of their normal rate in support of Oxfam, Water Aid and Greenpeace as well as thousands of other worthy causes. We think that’s pretty great.

To say that our headliners should be “rock” is, I think, a bit silly. Those acts never have been limited to rock, and they never will be. Stevie Wonder, the Prodigy, Curtis Mayfield, the Chemical Brothers, Jay Z, Gorillaz, Beyoncé and plenty of others prove that.

I’ve realised over the years of announcing line ups that, literally, whoever you reveal will be met with some hate online. I have such faith in humanity, but believe me, some of the vitriol being thrown around this week has made me question 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.

I’ve seen people this week saying that Kanye shouldn’t appear because, in their opinion, he’s not a positive role model or because they think he’s too self-assured. We book our acts by choosing the best and most challenging musicians on the planet – not by applying some kind of arbitrary morality test.

But I would also remind people that this a man who made a version of a worldwide hit single which highlighted the social issues that conflict diamonds cause in west Africa. And wouldn’t you have a bit of a spring in your step if you’d won 21 Grammys?

It’s important to point out that the signatories of the petition are not limited to ticket holders. From what we can see, an awful lot of them aren’t even from the UK. Even the originator of the petition admits that he has never actually been to the festival.

Clearly, the petition has given sections of the worldwide media a pretext upon which to hang a negative Kanye story. But I’m told that there were only four more requests for ticket refunds on the day after we announced Kanye’s performance than there had been the previous Tuesday. The overwhelming majority of our 135,000 ticket-holders are clearly not too concerned by that particular two-hour slot on one of the 100 stages at our five-day event.

Our message to the man who started the petition is that like any other ticket-holder, he is very welcome to get a refund. But better still, come to the festival and open your mind to some wonderful music and performances from all corners of the world. We work year-round with the goal of making the event as good as it can be. Hopefully, once you’ve been to the festival, you’ll be more willing to give us the benefit of any doubt.

Ultimately, there is no question in my mind that we have got one of the greatest artists of his generation headlining, and we have no regrets at all about booking him. As the late, great Glastonbury regular Lou Reed said about Kanye:
“The guy really, really, really is talented. He’s really trying to raise the bar. No one’s near doing what he’s doing, it’s not even on the same planet.”
And we’ve got him coming to our farm! In rural Somerset! That’s great, right? I certainly can’t wait to see his performance.

 Albatross wrote:


The point I keep coming back to is 'what exactly has he done that's so bad?'

He said 'George Bush doesn't care about black people' during a Katrina telethon. Kind of had a point.
He got on stage and said that Beyonce should have won the Grammy for Best Video instead of Taylor Swift. Kind of had a point.

Seriously, what else is there?

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Also Taylor Swift was practically still a kid when he ripped her apart in front of the entire world and made her feel like gak. The man is utter scum and deserves nothing but hatred and ridicule. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment, and I hope no long term emotional scarring happened to her for his actions, but it's quite possible at that age and environment.

Honestly, and I realize this won't endear me to some, I have no respect for people who like him. None. Blanket statement. I call my best friend an idiot every time the discussion about Gold-Digger comes up. He liked it when it first came out, hasn't listened to it in years. He likes the song and doesn't give a crap about the man. So I'm mostly teasing him for having bad taste in music. A further blanket statement: if you like Kanye's music, you have terrible taste in music. Should probably take a pick-axe to your eardrums and do yourself a favor.