Glastonbury’s Shangri-La announces festival’s first dedicated South Asian space

Glastonbury’s Shangri-La has announced its 2024 line-ups and unveiled a brand-new stage, Arrivals, due to feature in the South East corner field for the first time this year.

The new area will be programmed, designed, and built by an entirely South Asian team, as a collaboration between Dialled In, Going South, and Daytimers, offering a “sensory” and “audio-visual” experience with a stage design both nostalgic and futuristic, a press release explains. It will be part of the Shangri-La area of the festival site in Somerset from 26-30 June.

Arrivals' line-up includes Anish Kumar, Baalti, Nabihah Iqbal, Gracie T, Nikki Nair, Bobby Friction, and Raji Rags in 2024.

"This is a seminal moment for UK Festival culture,” says BBC Asian Network presenter Bobby Friction, who called the opening of Arrivals “a dream come true”.

“South Asian and British Asian music have had their own small festivals over the years and some Asian artists have performed in the big gatherings that are now a quintessential part of a British Summer, but a full-on Glastonbury space dedicated to South Asian music, beats and DJs for the entire festival? That's just crazy,” he said.

Earlier this year, London’s Southbank Centre announced a new South Asian music event series taking place in the spring, featuring performances from Anu, Vedic Roots, and more.

The six-stage line-up was announced earlier today on April 19, continuing the same theme as last year, “Everything (Still) Must Go, Pt 2, The Sequel."