Glastonbury Festival renames the John Peel stage

Earlier today, Glastonbury Festival announced two of its headlining acts: the Arctic Monkeys, playing the Pyramid Stage June 23rd, and Guns N' Roses, playing the Pyramid Stage June 24th. Elton John is also headlining the festival on Sunday, June 25th.

Now, in an interview with the Guardian, the festival has also announced that they're renaming the John Peel Stage, the prime location for "fiery new music."

It won't be the first time the stage has been renamed. Back in 2004, it had its name changed from "the New Bands Tent" after John Peel's death.

Previous acts to play the John Peel Stage include Mumford & Sons,  Florence + the Machine, The XX, The Black Keys, and more.

The DJ and radio presenter had worked for BBC Radio 1 since 1967 and was well known as one of the first broadcasters to play progressive rock on air, helping launch the careers of rock stars like

Since his death, accusations of sexual abuse have arisen. A petition was started last year demanding the renaming of the stage, in part because of Peel's marriage from when he was 25 to a 15-year-old girl. The petition gained less than 2,000 signatures.

The festival denies changing the name of the stage in response to the petition.

“We’ve had 20 years of John Peel and it’s been an honour to use his name,” event co-organiser Emily Eavis told the Guardian in an interview.

Instead, the name change comes from an effort to correlate the names of the stages with their respective locations, like West Holts and The Park. The stage will be connected to a new area named "Woodsies" at Worthy Farm and will therefore share its name.

Woodsies is intended to be a family-oriented area, complete with a campfire.