Paul McCartney has been confirmed to headline the annual three-day Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, this summer. The former Beatles star will appear for the first time at the festival on June 26, which will bring to a close his 2004 Summer Tour.
According to his publicists, McCartney will perform to an estimated 700,000 fans on his 13-date European tour, which begins May 25 in Gijon, northern Spain.
The Rock In Rio festival in Lisbon, Portugal, has moved its schedule up a day to accommodate McCartney, who will now open the week-long festival with a May 28 performance at the Parque Bela Vista. The gig will be his first-ever performance in Portugal.
“Touring really has been a lot of fun for us and the audiences have been great, so why stop now?” McCartney says in a statement. “I’m looking forward to playing and to visiting some new places,” he said. The tour will feature music from the Beatles, Wings and the singer’s solo career. A Glastonbury spokesperson says further details on the line-up will be unveiled in May or early June.
According to Billboard Boxscore, McCartney was the top-touring artist in the world for 2002, raking in $126.1 million from spring and fall North American legs that brought in $98.8 million and dates in Mexico and Japan that grossed an additional $27.5 million.
His most recent Back In The World tour concluded in June 2003 with a homecoming concert in Liverpool. Those gigs were his first in Europe for 10 years.
