A PETITION has launched calling on Glastonbury Festival to rename its John Peel Stage because of historical sexual abuse allegations against the DJ.

Since it was published on Friday, over 700 people have signed the Change.org petition directed at festival co-organiser Emily Eavis.

The John Peel Stage was called the New Bands Tent until the DJ's death in 2004, when it was renamed “in honour of the late and great DJ and festival friend John Peel”.

The petition, created by festivalgoer Jack Owens, 26, describes the stage’s name as “a slap in the face to sexual abuse survivors”.

It adds: “Women, children and decent people have to stand in a stage with his name on it, which has the sick words ‘Teenage dreams: So hard to beat’ written on the side.

“Please rename it for next year’s festival. He’s been put up on a pedestal for too long.”

In 2012, a woman claimed Peel had unprotected sex with her when she was 15 and he was 30 after they met backstage at a Black Sabbath concert in 1969, resulting in a “traumatic” abortion.

She told Mail Online: “He (Peel) must have known I was still at school. But he didn’t ask, and I didn’t tell him.

“I was insecure and impressionable. I suppose I used him for his fame, and he used me for sex.”

In an interview with The Sunday Correspondent in November 1989, Peel said: “Girls used to queue up outside. By and large not usually for sha****g. Oral sex they were particularly keen on, I remember.

“One of my regular customers, as it were, turned out to be 13, though she looked older.”

In 1975, he told The Guardian: “All they wanted me to do was abuse them, sexually, which, of course, I was only too happy to do.”

He once joked that he “didn’t ask for ID” when young women wanted to sleep with him.

His first marriage was to 15-year-old Shirley Anne Milburn in 1965 when he was working for a radio station in Texas. He later claimed her parents lied about her age.

Describing the stage, the festival's website says: “Raucous, effervescent and gloriously sweaty, the John Peel Stage has always been Glastonbury Festival’s home to fiery new music.

“It’s where up-and-coming and thrillingly under-the-radar acts repeatedly transform this huge tent of a stage into the spine-tingling setting of an intimate club.”

This year's John Peel Stage performers included George Ezra, Sigrid, Griff, and Holly Humberstone.

The County Gazette has contacted Glastonbury Festival for a comment.