Over 100,000 people have signed an online petition launched to prevent Kanye West from headlining this year’s Glastonbury Festival.
The Change.org petition was set up after the announcement that West will headline the Saturday night of this year’s festival. At the time of writing 120,440 people have backed the campaign.
The original petition read: “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!”
Speaking exclusively to NME, the man behind the petition Neil Lonsdale, said: “Glastonbury needs upbeat major artists. Glastonbury is an institution. It is expected that it has the biggest names. The biggest performers. Kanye does not represent that.”
He added: “I fought the temptation to scream and instead opted to hurl my iPhone across the room. Two years ago we had The Rolling Stones playing the Saturday night, and this year we get Kanye West? It’s an outrage!”
Lonsdale also revealed that he’s never been to Glastonbury before.
Festival organiser Emily Eavis has since reacted to the petition, saying that it 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 only four more requests for ticket refunds were made than the previous week following the announcement earlier this week that West would headline the event in June.
Earlier this week, Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis offered his support to West by holding up a banner that read ‘Yeezy Does It’.
There is now one final headline slot to be announced for the festival. Neither Coldplay or Florence + The Machine will headline according to organiser Emily Eavis. Both artists had been linked to one of this year’s headline slots however, Eavis recently said officially that the rumours were unfounded.
Foo Fighters confirmed they are to headline the 2015 event in their acceptance speech at the NME Awards 2015 with Austin, Texas last month.