EUROVISION winners Kalush Orchestra will perform at this year's Glastonbury Festival.
The band, whose song Stefania earned them the winner’s title at the song contest in Turin last month, will be taking to Shangri-La’s Truth Stage on Friday.
The three-piece will bring their brand of “Ukrainian folk music, rap and hip-hop” to the music bill for this year’s star-studded line-up, which also includes Pyramid Stage headliners Billie Eilish, Sir Paul McCartney, and Kendrick Lamar.
Kalush Orchestra formed in 2019 and consist of founder and rapper Oleh Psiuk, multi-instrumentalist Ihor Didenchuk, and dancer Vlad Kurochka.
The band’s frontman Psiuk said: “We are so excited to be playing at Glastonbury Festival alongside some of the biggest names in music from around the world.
“This is the perfect place for our first ever British performance and we hope it will be the start of many in the UK.
“We are very grateful for all the support we receive from the people of Britain, both for us and our country, and we are preparing a very special Ukrainian surprise for the fans at Glastonbury.
“What is it? You’ll soon see. See you there.”
Their performance at Worthy Farm will mark their first-ever in the UK.
Since winning Eurovision - and dedicating the victory to Psiuk's mother - the band have been spending time in Ukraine and Germany to promote the release of the Stefania music video.
The band auctioned off the glass microphone trophy they won at Eurovision to raise money for the Ukrainian army.
Kalush Orchestra were fighting as part of the Ukrainian resistance only weeks before Eurovision, and have received support from across Europe.
They beat Britain’s Sam Ryder, whose performance of ‘Space Man’ earned him second place.
Last week, it was revealed that the BBC is in talks with the European Broadcasting Union about hosting Eurovision after the body ruled it could not go ahead in war-torn Ukraine next year as befits the tradition of the winning country hosting.
Chris “Tofu” Macmeikan, director of Lost Horizon, Shangri-La, Continental Drifts, and Global Local, said: “It is a privilege to welcome the Kalush Orchestra to Shangri-La, and we’re honoured to have the chance to show our solidarity with Ukraine.
“On the Truth Stage we have always championed Roma and eastern European music, remixed for the 21st century, so they are the perfect fit, it’s going to be such a special moment for Glastonbury 2022.”
A number of other Ukrainian acts will perform at Glastonbury amid the Russian invasion of their country, with Kyiv folk quartet DakhaBrakha performing on Sunday afternoon on the Pyramid Stage.
Go_A will open the John Peel Stage on Saturday with a performance of electronic folk music and soaring vocal melodies.
The group, who formed in 2012, represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021 with the anthemic dance track Shum, placing fifth, and band member Ihor Didenchuk is also a member of Kalush Orchestra.
The festival will host around 200,000 visitors from Wednesday, with more than 800 artists set to perform, including Olivia Rodrigo, Lorde, and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
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Festivalgoers have faced difficulties arriving at Worthy Farm in Pilton amid three days of major rail strikes in the biggest outbreak of industrial action in a generation.
Glastonbury 2022 takes place from June 22 to June 26 and tickets are sold out.
Kalush Orchestra will perform at Shangri-La from 1:10am on Friday night/Saturday morning.
Reported by the PA news agency
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