Glastonbury to host celebration in memory of DJ Annie Nightingale

Glastonbury and the BBC will pay tribute to the late DJ Annie Nightingale with a special celebration of her life at this year’s festival.

Nightingale was the first female presenter on BBC Radio 1 when she joined the station in 1970, and went on to become its longest-serving host.

She died in January at the age of 83 and her life will be celebrated with a special event across two stages at the Somerset festival on June 27.

There will be a daytime celebration at The Glade stage, featuring King Of The Beats and Paper Dragon, before moving to the BBC Introducing stage for the evening festivities, featuring Jon Carter, Krafty Kuts and Martha, who was mentored by Nightingale.

The special sets will feature some of Nightingale’s favourite music.

A statement from Glastonbury said: “Annie Nightingale loved Glastonbury Festival. Her BBC Radio 1 show was broadcast from the Festival on Thursday nights through the 2000s from Silver Hayes and The Glade, and the last time she played the festival, in 2017, was on The Glade Main Stage.

“So it’s fitting that the Celebration of Annie’s life starts in The Glade on Thursday before moving to the BBC Introducing Stage for the after-dark part two.”

It continued: “The DJs will be covering the music Annie brought to the world from the ‘90s through to the present day through her show, with Jon Carter playing a set of big beat, the sound that kicked off some of the UK’s biggest dance acts’ careers.”

Nightingale first broadcast on the BBC in 1963 as a panellist on Juke Box Jury, before joining Radio 1 seven years later.

She remained the station’s only female DJ until 1982, when Janice Long joined, and is credited with helping to pave the way for the likes of Sara Cox, Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball.

She was also the first woman to present the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test music show, which aired on BBC Two.

In 2021, BBC Radio 1 launched a new scholarship for female and non-binary dance music DJs which was named after Nightingale.

She documented her pioneering career and the evolution of five decades of pop culture in her 2020 memoir Hey Hi Hello.

In 2019, she was made a CBE for services to radio having previously been made an MBE in 2002.