Jo Whiley says middle age won’t stop her Glastonbury appearances

Jo Whiley on Radiohead at Glastonbury 2017

Jo Whiley has said she won’t stop going to Glastonbury festival no matter how old she is.

The BBC presenter, 58, who is the main presenter for the broadcaster’s coverage of the festival at Worthy Farm, revealed she refuses to succumb to age related embarrassment from her children.

Whiley, who shares four children – India, Jude, Cassius and Coco  – with her music executive husband, Steve Morton, made clear her appetite for Glastonbury has remained as strong as ever.

Speaking to The Times, Whiley said, “It’s fantastic being on stage, not apologising for the age I am, and seeing loads of women the same age in the audience.”

The BBC Radio 2 presenter added she had “no intention of disappearing” because “people think I should be embarrassed”.

“I’m not embarrassed at all,” she said. “I still feel 27. The essence of us doesn’t change at all.”

Whiley added older female musicians had inspired her to continue returning to Worthy Farm year after year.

“You see people like Chrissie Hynde [72], Patti Smith [77] still performing, very, very visible. They’re the role models I look up to and follow,” she said.

“Why should these rock chicks fade away? They still are creative, still love making music and performing. I’m going to love Bauhaus and the Cure until I die and my appetite for new music is as strong as ever.”

Glastonbury 2024 is headlined by Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA, with controversy hitting Lipa’s Friday night set when sound issues saw the star accused of miming.

As Dua Lipa performed songs including “Training Season”, “New Rules” and “Levitating”, many viewers watching her set from their sofas at home accused the singer of miming her vocals – a claim that has been roundly denounced.

“I might be wrong but it looks like Dua Lipa is miming on #Glastonbury just looks & sounds too polished to be live,” one viewer complained on X/Twitter, with another adding: “Dua Lipa – either she’s miming or they’ve got the sound mix horribly wrong. It just sounds off.”

Viewers urged the BBC to “sort the sound out”, and said that switching from BBC on Sky to Freeview fixed the issue, with one person writing: “The Dua Lipa miming accusations may not be helped by the broadcast. BBC on Sky appears to have lip-sync issues. Just switched back to Freeview and that’s gone.”

Others suggested that peoples’ assumption that the singer was miming might have also been caused by the fact she was singing live over a track that featured pre-recorded backing vocals.

One person stated: “No Dua Lipa is not miming. Majority of the main vocal parts are quite clearly live. She’s smashing it and everyone on stage look like they’re having the time of their lives.”