The BBC are set to broadcast an hour of The Rolling Stones‘ Saturday night headline set at next weekend’s Glastonbury Festival.
It was previously thought that the festival’s official TV media partner would only be showing four songs from the show, but the festival’s founder Michael Eavis has now revealed that a full hour of the band’s performance will be broadcast.
Eavis told BBC News: “It’s taken a long time to get them to come and play. Everyone wants to see the Stones, basically. I think Mick Jagger wanted to play to the people here, rather than a TV show. They’re going to be playing for about an hour for the TV.”
The end of the band’s set – which will run for a total of two hours and 15 minutes, from 9:30pm to 11:45pm on June 29 – will be seen by festival attendees only, and will include a fireworks display. Eavis also said that the Pyramid Stage area has been extended to make sure the site doesn’t become overcrowded during their performance, though he added he is still concerned about how popular the set will be, saying: “There might be a problem with the size of the crowd so it’s slightly worrying for me, in a way.”
This year’s Glastonbury festival is to be live streamed for the first time with viewers able to watch different stages as they happen. The BBC will use the latest digital technology to allow viewers to choose from simultaneous live streams from all the major stages and has announced that over 250 hours of footage will be broadcast across the weekend.