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Kanye West was announced earlier this week as one of the headliners at this summer’s Glastonbury music festival, but some music fans aren’t happy about it.

One festival-goer started a petition calling on organizers to “prevent this musical injustice” by canceling the rapper’s performance.

“Kanye West is an insult to music fans all over the world,” Neil Lonsdale wrote in the Change.org petition. “We spend hundreds of pounds to attend glasto, and by doing so, expect a certain level of entertainment. Kanye has been very outspoken on his views on music….he should listen to his own advice and pass his headline slot on to someone deserving!”

Others apparently agreed with him. As of Thursday, the petition has gotten more than 60,000 signatures. By Friday afternoon, that number rose to nearly 90,000.

In an interview with NME.com, Lonsdale — an education worker and self-described “rock kid” from Norfolk, England — called it an “outrage” that West got the headliner slot over a rock band: “Two years ago we had The Rolling Stones playing the Saturday night, and this year we get Kanye West?”

He also said he initially started a petition as a joke following the announcement of West as Glastonbury’s Saturday-night headliner, and that he’s got no issue with hip-hop or rap artists.

“My beef is not with the genre. My beef is with the stage and the fact it’s a headline slot,” he said, adding that West does not “represent anything. His songs are lyrically appalling,” he “totally disrespected Beck” at the Grammy Awards in February and “his [BRIT Awards] performance was just threatening.”

“Glastonbury needs upbeat major artists. Glastonbury is an institution. It is expected that it has the biggest names,” Lonsdale argued. “The biggest performers. Kanye does not represent that.”

Glastonbury runs from June 24-28. More on this year’s lineup can be found here.

 

 

Source: CBSNews