The real Glastonbury poster controversy is the kerning

The 'big' Glastonbury news this week is that, apparently after a complaint from the artist herself, Lana Del Rey's name has been unsurreptitiously elevated in a new version of the poster for Glastonbury festival 2023. But less pop-centric designers are spotting an altogether less forgivable sin. 

Del Rey is reported to have suggested on Instagram that she might pull out of the festival the original poster didn't give her high enough billing to reflect her headline spot on the second largest stage – and a new version (below) features her name in the requisite place. But enough about Lana Del Rey, let's talk about your friend and mine, kerning.

Designers have noticed that the spacing between the letters on this thing is... a little all over the place. From EL Ton John to Rudiment AL, we're discovering quite a few artists on here that we've never heard of.

"Looks like a cheapie DaFont font, with sloppy kerning as standard," one Twitter user comments, while another adds, "The kerning is lost. This is a really nice font that is totally mistreated." Others meanwhile, have kindly suggested that the typeface might be attempting to copy the output of a real letterpress, in which letters are printed using blocks. 

Unless Lana Del Rey speaks up to demand an explanation, we'll probably never know quite what the typographical intention (or lack thereof) was here. For now, we'll add it to the pile of Mildly Infuriating Kerning Incidents, where it joins the likes of the new Avatar wordmark, and that hilarious(ly bad) Twitter Blue logo.

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