Key moments
On the final day of Glastonbury, Shania Twain, Burna Boy, SZA, Janelle Monáe and Avril Lavigne were among the biggest names gracing the stages.
Coldplay were Saturday’s headliners on the Pyramid stage, after sets from Little Simz, Michael Kiwanuka and Cyndi Lauper.
Our writers covered all the action from Worthy Farm.
Review: SZA (Pyramid)
★★
She may have 70 million monthly streams, she may be one of the biggest artists on the planet, but SZA was still an odd choice to close the main stage at Glastonbury 2024 (Will Hodgkinson writes).
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How many songs of hers could the average festival goer sing along to? Big hit Kill Bill, perhaps, or the Kendrick Lamar duet All the Stars from the Black Panther soundtrack, but her music just hasn’t permeated into the British consciousness in the same way as, say, fellow 2024 headliners Coldplay, which was displayed in the sparseness of the crowd.
With only two albums bringing touches of jazz, indie rock and plenty else into an essential template of mid-tempo R&B, there didn’t seem enough here to justify the spot. And so it proved.
SZA ends show with throwback hit
SZA ended her set with 20 Something, again from her debut album Ctrl.
“Glastonbury, I was so nervous to be here with y’all today, I’m so grateful,” she said. “You have my deepest love and my deepest respect. I love you always.”
Review: Gipsy Kings (Acoustic)
★★★★
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Bamboleeeiiioooo! Bamboleeeiiiaaaa! (Will Humphries writes)
With those two words and the Gipsy Kings insistent flamenco guitar driving forward their hit song Bamboléo, any tired legs struggling to make it to the end of a long weekend of dancing suddenly found a new lease of life.
The owners of middle-aged creaking hips suddenly thought themselves Latin lotharios, as the crowd shuffled and strutted with the small steps and waist wiggles insisted on by the Catalan band’s six sultry strumming guitarists.
Featuring its founder Tonino Baliardo, one of France’s biggest musical exports blew the tented roof off the Acoustic Stage as their most memorable song made an appearance.
Few could understand a single word that was sung during the late evening set but the passion and the virtuosic musicianship on display translated easily to the crowd.
With a mixed bag of Sunday headline artists on offer on the main stages, there were many more people than in previous years looking for something different to end their Glastonbury Festival with, and there are worse ways than with a “gipsy fiesta”.
Heading off into the night with a hip thrust and a shimmy isn’t so bad.
Outfit change number three for SZA
Meanwhile, SZA has changed into her third outfit of the night: a green Tinkerbell-style fairy dress.
The stage lighting has also changed to look somewhat more like a jungle in Neverland.
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‘This is for England’
The National were just joined by Kate Stables of This is the Kit for their 2019 song Rylan.
“This is for England,” Matt Berninger, their frontman, said before their next song: England.
“You must be somewhere in London,” he sings. “You must be loving your life in the rain.”
Most of us won’t be able to relate after the rainy summer we’ve had.
SZA: bugs and kisses
A highlight of SZA’s show so far included her sitting on a giant ant while performing her ballad Drew Barrymore, followed by her first outfit change into a robot-style catsuit.
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She just performed Kiss Me More, her duet with Doja Cat and the song of the summer in 2021, as a mash-up with Kiss by Prince.
This was folllowed by a lap dance for a robot (yes, really) and her hit Kill Bill.
SZA’s headline show in pictures
Smooth sadness on the Other stage
The National, patron saints of all things sad, have started their set on the Other stage with their 2013 song Don’t Swallow the Cap.
They released not one but two albums last year — a lot of material waiting to be played tonight.
SZA kicks off headline show
SZA has started her headline set on the Pyramid stage with Love Galore from her 2017 debut album Ctrl.
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The stage looks like a massive flowstone cave, with SZA on a floating platform in the middle. The elaborate stage design may be the reason why the show started almost 20 minutes late.
Review: Romy (Woodsies)
★★★★
“Let’s go lesbianssssss!” hollered Romy (Susie Goldsbrough writes). Once the raven-haired frontwoman of the indie rockers the XX, she’s now a sultry solo artist, a crafter of tender, wispy tracks about women in love, layered over physically intoxicating beats.
Piled into the vaulting blue Woodsies tent, this was one of the loudest crowds I’ve seen all festival. She may only have dropped her debut album, Mid Air, this year but she’s already adored.
Romy is doing something genuinely innovative with her late-night-friendly lesbian love songs, after decades of lesbian club scene erosion. But the crowd was a sexuality mish-mash (yes, I can tell a straight man when I see one) — probably because her sound, heavily influenced by the thudding euphoria of Fred Again, is about as en vogue as it gets.
As a performer, I wish she’d done but a bit more than bounce around as she sang — next time.
There were moments of ballooning dance-floor bounce, including a cracking cover of Ariana Grande’s Into You, and slower bangers aplenty. “I wrote this for my wife,” she said of Loveher, a gorgeously subtle bit of song-writing: “I hold your hand under the table/it’s not that I’m not proud in the company of strangers/but lover, some things are for us.” Spell-binding.
Review: Burna Boy (Pyramid)
★★★★★
Dressed in a cowboy hat and jeans, Burna Boy took to the Pyramid stage and brought the rhythm of Lagos to dreary Somerset (Ali Mitib writes).
In a tour de force set, the self-anointed African Giant showed why he has already earned icon status as people of all races and backgrounds sang along to his blend of English, Yoruba, Igbo and Nigerian Pidgin.
The crowd were treated to a “Nigerian party” from the energetic Afrobeat artist who brought the house down with hits such as the Grammy-nominated Last Last and Gbona, as well as a tribute to the late Fela Kuti, the Nigerian “King of Afrobeat” who Burna Boy has hailed as his foremost influence.
The highlight of the set came during Ye, the song that introduced Burna Boy to the world, as much of the crowd took off their shirts and waved them back in the air in formation.
As he walked off, to renditions of “bye-bye-oh”, it was hard to escape the feeling that the charismatic star is a Pyramid stage headliner in the making.
Two Door Cinema Club end on a high
Two Door Cinema Club ended their set with arguably their biggest hit, What You Know.
This was the band’s fourth time playing Glastonbury, which is why Alex Trimble, their frontman, only said: “See you next time.”
The National will take over the Other stage at 9.45, after SZA starts headlining the Pyramid stage at 9.30.
‘We are breaking rules tonight’
Burna Boy’s audience have started emulating him by taking off their shirts and waving them over their heads for the last songs of his set.
“I love you so much Glastonbury, man,” he said. “They are telling me my time is up.”
The crowd booed to express their discord.
“No?” he asked. “If you want me to keep going, keep waving your shirts over your heads. We are breaking rules tonight.”
More indie nostalgia on Other stage
Nostalgia continues on the Other stage. Two Door Cinema Club kicked off their performance with This Is the Life and Something Good Can Work, both from their 2010 debut album Tourist History.
The indie band from Bangor, Co Down, released their first single in two years in March. Happy Customers marked a return to their roots: simple big riffs with electronic elements.
“Apparently that’s cool again, the ol’ indie sleaze, but this happened quite naturally,” their bassist Kevin Baird told NME in March. “It’s not like we’ve been binning tracks if they don’t sound like 2010 Two Door Cinema Club.”
Burna Boy takes over Pyramid
Burna Boy is now performing his mix of Afrobeats, pop, dancehall, hip-hop and R&B on the Pyramid stage with a four-piece brass ensemble.
The Nigerian-born singer made history last year by becoming the first African artist to headline a UK stadium.
Review: Avril Lavigne (Other)
★★★★★
Avril Lavigne is having a Gen Z moment (Hadley Freeman writes). And judging from the size of the crowd — probably the biggest one the Other stage has had this weekend, despite her set clashing with the England game — a Millennial, Gen X and Boomer moment too. There may well have been a few Victorians and Edwardians and early primates mixed in there. It would explain the number of spectators.
With her long centre parted hair, baggy trousers and miniskirts, Lavigne is a natural Gen Z fashion icon. And Lavigne, 39, has not changed a jot since her heyday: the dark eye make up, platform boots, Union Jack adorned kilt and hoodie, red tipped hair, all present and correct.
Just as enduring are the songs. Two decades ago, few would have predicted that emo/punk would have such staying power. But songs like Complicated, Girlfriend, Don’t Tell Me and Sk8er Boi are really just great pop songs, and that will always endure.
“Cheers to never growing up!” the preternaturally young-looking Lavigne shouted out. And the less youthful but still ecstatic 20, 30, 40 and 50-somethings in the crowd bounced and screamed in agreement.
Review: Janelle Monáe (Pyramid)
★★★★★
A sparse crowd for Janelle Monáe at the Pyramid — after Shania Twain, during the England game — which was a real shame because this Atlanta artist is a female Prince: multi directional, ultra musical, totally original (Will Hodgkinson writes). Coming out in a voluminous outfit made of flowers, backed by a brassy band that could have matched James Brown’s exacting standards, she began with Float, a tribute to her own fabulousness, which she performed like she had the biggest audience of the weekend. It proved a problem when she asked everyone to sing with her and the response was a little, we, quiet, but by the time she turned Champagne Shit into a tribute to the pioneers of gay pride she was off.
Monáe really impressed because she gave it her all despite the unfortunate timing, turning Electric Lady into a funky rock epic, doing countless costume changes, and generally abandoning herself to the ritual. She had a Bob Marley moment on the reggae-tinged Lipstick Lovers, a Michael Jackson dance routine, and even flashed her breasts at one point. The whole thing was superb — clever, cheeky, fun, purposeful — and a the best set of the festival, appreciated by few.
Avril Lavigne thanks British fans
Before performing two more songs from her first album, Let Go, Avril Lavigne thanked her fans in the UK.
“I wrote that album when I was 16 years old. It came out when I was 17 and it was all such a crazy whirlwind.
“But I came over here to England and the UK, right away. Everybody has always been so insanely, incredibly supportive and I’ve loved coming here, year after year, album after album, tour after tour. So thank you guys.”
She then played Losing Grip and I’m With You, another fan favourite.
Janelle Monáe’s set in full bloom on Pyramid stage
Janelle Monáe, wearing what looked like a poncho, a crown and boots made out of flowers, has taken over the Pyramid stage from Shania Twain. She quoted her song Float while toasting with a mimosa.
“To the lives we lead, to the dreams we chase, to the moments we make, to the f***ed up shit we can’t erase,” she said.
Famous faces at Avril Lavigne
The actresses Anya Taylor-Joy and Cara Delevingne were spotted among the backstage crowd singing along to Avril Lavigne’s My Happy Ending. Earlier they were seen at Shania Twain’s gig at the Pyramid stage.
Avril Lavigne gives the fans what they want
Avril Lavigne does not leave her audience waiting for more fan favourites.
“This song was my first single from my first album,” she said about Complicated, which is still her most-streamed song on Spotify.
“I want to dedicate this song to anybody out there supporting my music, listening to my music from day one, this goes to you, I f***ing love you.”
Avril Lavigne, 2000s punk darling, has arrived
Avril Lavigne has taken the Other Stage and started off strong with her 2007 hit Girlfriend, followed by What the Hell.
She is wearing a Union Jack on her back and a mini skirt reminiscent of Scottish kilts.
The stage is sporting black and pink hearts with skulls, paying homage to her early 2000s skater-punk aesthetic.
England fans search for screens to watch Euros
As Shania Twain’s unmistakeable voice rung through the air at Worthy Farm, fans streamed into the Cornish Arms to watch England take on Slovakia in the Euros before streaming back out again once they saw the “no football” sign over the TV (Ali Mitib, Hadley Freeman and Will Humphries write).
The bar, which had shown Tuesday’s game, was the last vestige of hope for fans wanting to avoid watching it on their phones after Glastonbury’s decision to not screen the game.
However, many fans were far from outraged, with Nick, a fan wearing a 2002 England home shirt, telling The Times: “Glastonbury is for the music, isn’t it? I didn’t come this way for the football.”
On one campsite, preparations were underway as Steve and Ollie, both in their twenties, set up their TV which was held up by poles placed in two buckets. Meanwhile in Holt Farm, an offsite glamping, about 100 fans gathered at the bar to cheer on the Three Lions.
Emily Eavis, the festival’s co-organiser, defended the decision not to screen the game this week, claiming that times have changed since 1998 when they set up screens to show the World Cup.
“Everyone’s connected and I think you know it’s a music festival. I’m sure if people want to see it enough they can check for results or whatever on their phones,” she said.”But hopefully I’m encouraging people to put their phones away and forget about the outside world.”
Review: Baxter Dury (Park Stage)
★★★★
“Can you hear me, Mummy? Daddy?” asked Baxter Dury, channeling the spirit of his late father, Ian, while also going his own way entirely (Will Hodgkinson writes). Dury came on in a grey suit, pulled sexy/sleazy dance moves like a pub singer on cocaine, and generally brought irony and self abasement to old-fashioned showmanship. Variously sung and spoken songs of everyday psychic torment sat against a solid beat, a funk bass, burbling Eighties style synthesiser melodies and a general air of disintegration.
“I’m the milky bar kid!” he shouted during Slumlord. “Soiled trousers, shiny cheekbones like graveyards in the sun.” While it didn’t make total sense you got the idea: of thoughts and images crashing into the brain and causing all sorts of problems. A childhood tale of becoming friends with the bully of the school energised Dury into total rage; Miami found him claiming to be variously a salamander, a shadow licker and a sausage man, over the seediest funk backing. It was all so gloriously unwholesome.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Murder is my friend
Sophie Ellis-Bextor has said she is trying to see how long she can dine out on her hit song Murder on the Dancefloor (Ali Mitib writes).
The singer-songwriter, 45, shot up the charts this year after her 2001 song was used in the final scene of Saltburn, the comedy thriller starring Barry Keoghan.
During a Q&A session at Scissors, an LGBT venue at Glastonbury, she said that the film was a “tipping point” behind the song’s recent popularity.
“Murder is like a really good friend of mine and we’ve been having adventures over the years and now we’ve just gone away on like this amazing unexpected trip together,” she said. “It’s wild but it’s so much fun, and I’ve just been trying to enjoy it without any expectation outside of enjoying it.”
“It’s a very unusual thing to have a song like that come back and have this moment this year, and I just want to enjoy what this is about and I also suppose I’m trying to challenge how long I can dine out on one song,” she added.
Nothing but indie rock on the Other Stage
On the Other Stage, the indie rock band Nothing But Thieves are performing Oh No :: He Said What? from last year’s album Dead Club City.
To this band, sunglasses seem to be what cowboy hats are to Shania Twain: all members of the band except Conor Mason, the singer, are hiding their eyes behind shades. The sun remains nowhere to be seen.
‘Let’s go, Glastonbury’
Shania Twain adapted her famous “Let’s go girls” after teasing her hit Man! I feel Like a Woman!
“You guys make me feel special. You make me feel welcome. You make me feel happy. And man…” she said.
“I need you to tell me all about how you feel. This whole song is all about you. You just gotta let it out. Leave your worries outside of this city, this beautiful Glastonbury city.”
‘Time to keep rocking’
“It’s time to keep rocking,” Shania Twain said before playing her 1995 song (If You’re Not in it for Love) I’m Outta Here!
In case you missed it: Coldplay review
★★★★★
Coldplay are, quite simply, the best live act around, with the planet’s most engaged frontman — the stadium act equivalent of a July 4 fireworks display: lights, optimism, community, vivid colours and talks of freedom (Jonathan Dean writes). There is an argument that anyone who says they do not like Coldplay simply have not seen them live and, on Saturday night, that argument felt stronger than ever. Especially when they brought out Michael J Fox.
Read the full review here
Shania Twain acoustic set continues
As she teased on her 1997 song Come On Over, Shania Twain prompted the audience to do a sing-along “in case you forgot this one”.
“This is the title track of an album that changed my life in 1997,” she said. “I needed you [my fans] 27 years ago and you’re still here today. Thank you, man.”
Shania Twain: ‘My greatest joy is sharing my music’
Shania Twain played an acoustic version of You’re Still the One, with the grounds singing along as she played the first bars.
Before playing the hit, she said: “I think you might know this one. My greatest joy in making music is sharing it and singing it with all of you.”
Shania Twain’s set begins with a bang(er)
Shania Twain kicked off her legends slot performance with the fan favourite That Don’t Impress Me Much — cowboy hat and rhinestones included, of course.
Review: James (Other Stage)
★★★★
First, an answer to the obvious question — no, the fans mainly stood for Sit Down. I don’t blame them, given the things I’ve seen on the ground at Glastonbury.
The Manchester band were firmly a part of the early Nineties indie boom, with rousing hits including Come Home and How Was it for You? But they’ve actually been around since 1982 and their set took in a worldly cross section of styles, from arty folk to full-on prog rock wig-outs. “We needed a bit of that,” their captivating singer Tim Booth said after one of the latter.
Booth cuts a different figure from his curly locked youth. Shaven headed and wearing an extraordinary fur jacket, he looked like a bohemian cult leader. But he sounded like a proper rock star, moving from a whisper during the quiet bit in Sit Down to a roar several bars later. His mellifluous baritone has aged well, as have his band’s songs.
Expect cowboy hats — and Harry Styles?
Shania Twain has been lauded with the fabled Legends slot — a teatime set that has become somewhat mythical (Jonathan Dean writes). Cat Stevens was arguably the best show at the whole Glastonbury last year, and when I met Twain last month, she was gearing up to a show she has been looking forward to for her entire career. Expect a cowboy hat. You can even cross your fingers for a Harry Styles to turn up. But, above all, expect a packed crowd for a one of a kind artist, who talked to me about how her wild life led up to this one defining moment.
Cate Blanchett ‘would return as Galadriel’
Cate Blanchett has said she would return for the upcoming Lord of the Rings spin-off if asked, as she would “do anything with Andy Serkis” (Ali Mitib writes).
It was announced this year that Serkis would direct a new film about his character Gollum, with Sir Peter Jackson, the director of the original trilogy, set to return as a producer.
After a screening of her 2007 film I’m Not There, Blanchett was asked if she would return as her character Galadriel in the film, which is set for release in 2026.
“I would do anything with Andy Serkis, anything, I love him to death,” she said. “That bunch of people have been like a life raft for me, and I adore Andy, so yes. I finagled my way into The Hobbit. [Serkis] is here [at Glastonbury] … so I will go and hunt him down.”
Blanchett said she had not yet had any discussions with Serkis about the project, as she set off to watch the singer-songwriter Paloma Faith on the Pyramid stage.
Shania fans dress to impress
Glastonbury has been awash with animal prints and cowboy hats of every colour in honour of the Canadian dame of country music before her Sunday legends slot (Will Humphries writes).
The Pyramid Stage field looked more like a rescue centre for wounded cougars (and other big cats) as it began to fill with fans ready for a hit of Nineties country and pop nostalgia.
Juliet Davidson, 35, a marketing consultant, was dressed in leopard print flares and a white cowboy hat.
“She was on a Now album at school discos,” she said. “I grew up on her songs.”
Some people dressed in a nod to the country crossover star and some went the whole hog.
A man dressed in stetson, neckerchief, waistcoat and cowboy’s chaps over his blue jeans paused in front of the urinals.
“I didn’t think this one through,” he said, with a cigarette half falling out of his mouth.
Review: Don Letts (the Glade)
★★★★
To the Glade, a den of electronic barminess at night but graced in more languid style on Sunday afternoon by the dreadlocked polymath Don Letts (Ed Potton writes).
The Londoner, now a well preserved 68, emerged from that creative convergence of the reggae and punk scenes in the Seventies and has written books and directed films, as well as working as a musician, radio presenter and vibe-creating DJ.
His warm and varied set took in sweet reggae, fierce dancehall, the odd bit of stomping techno, a lovely dub version of Kate Bush’s Running Up that Hill (A Deal with God) and Chris Isaak’s Nineties croon fest Wicked Game. Weirdly, it’s the second time I’ve heard Wicked Game this weekend after Jarvis Cocker and Alexis Taylor played in on Friday. Could they and Letts be making a point about the nefarious goings-on at Glastonbury? If so, it’s well made.
Review: Paloma Faith (Pyramid)
★★★★★
Paloma Faith brought fierce feminist energy to her barnstorming performance on the Pyramid Stage, in a fitting precursor to Shania Twain’s legends slot (Will Humphries writes).
She came out swinging with an army of backing singers clad in black PVC as she let her supersonic voice soar.
Her second song, Bad Woman, repeated the line: “I’m not a good girl, I’m a bad woman.”
When the song ended, which received the first field of waving hands of the day at the Pyramid Stage, she spoke about singing that song every night to her three-year-old daughter after breaking up with the girl’s father.
“This show is dedicated to all the single mothers out there,” she said. “People say ‘boys will be boys’, and ‘be a good girl, always behave’.
“It’s not right, because I’m a bad woman and proud. I hope you will all raise bad women.”
Later in the set she introduced a song with: “This is another song about a rubbish ex.”
Heartstrings were pulled when she segued from Mama Cass’s anthem Make Your Own Kind Of Music into Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. “I love you Amy, you are here in spirit,” Faith declared.
Review: Jalen Ngonda (West Holts)
★★★☆☆
“Oh man!” said Jason Ngonda, clad in blue jeans and a bandanna, a bright surge of Yankee soul on a cloudy Sunday morning.
The 29-year-old singer-songwriter from Washington DC played a delicate, stripped-back and charmingly traditional set — down to his pair of old-school backing singers, arms undulating to the beat. In the midst of a festival (and a music culture) sliding ever more electronic, this was a coolly refreshing contrast.
Ngonda’s voice is the star: light, quavering, with just a hint of a growl in the throat. The title track from his 2023 debut album, Come Around and Love Me, showed off his falsetto. There was also an intriguing, swelling cover of Funny Valentine.
Two nitpicks: the atmosphere of slow-jam serenity might have been lifted by a couple more ripping solos, and the backing singers could have given it a touch more oomph.
But Ngonda and his gently grooving band like to keep things simple. Strumming along on a slim guitar, the sound as clean as a bar of Dove, his evident pleasure was infectious. “We’re just going to stay in the groove for a little bit longer,” he reassured the crowd. No one demurred.
‘Glastonbury has always been a festival of peace’
Emily Eavis has called for festivalgoers to take Glastonbury’s message of love and unity home with them (Ali Mitib writes).
The co-organiser of the festival said that the world is currently in “a time of conflict and division” and that people should disagree in a “healthy way” by coming together and finding common ground.
Eavis told the Glastonbury Free Press: “This is a peace festival. It always has been. And I think, more than ever we need to be reminded that peace is an option.”
Eavis joined the Serbian artist Marina Abramovic on the Pyramid Stage on Saturday for a seven minute silence. It was the organiser’s first appearance on the festival’s main stage since she played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in 1985, aged five.
“That was just a beautiful, reflective moment. It was incredibly powerful to see that many people standing together in silence,” she said.
“Marina gave me the job of hitting the gong to start and end the silence. The stage crew were asking whether I favoured a short mallet or a long one. I plumped for short and made sure I gave it some welly!”
Festival offers vital support for local fundraisers
Glastonbury Festival gives millions of pounds away each year to charities, and revellers would be hard pressed to leave Worthy Farm having not seen a big screen message or poster from their joint charity partners — Oxfam, WaterAid and Greenpeace (Will Humphries writes).
But the festival also provides a lifeline to hundreds of local charities who raise money by having volunteers paid to be stewards, or through being given food stall pitches.
Tor Rugby Club, based six miles from the farm in the town of Glastonbury, has raised more than £10,000 each festival by having a Mexican food van near the Pyramid Stage.
They have been given a pitch there for the last 25 years and it has enabled them to buy floodlights for their ground, scrummage machines, new kits and lawnmowers.
“It’s really been the lifeblood of what we do at Tor and we have always been so thankful to Michael and Emily [Eavis] for giving us this opportunity,” said Dan Ferriday, from the club.
The PTA of Marksbury Primary School, which is 16 miles from the farm, form the campsite crew at the main pedestrian gate. The festival pays their volunteers to be stewards, helping give directions, sort bing bags and be a point of information for bewildered revellers.
Mark Barrett, the PTA chairman, said: “This is our main fundraising event for the year and covers the cost of all the school trips for the children throughout the year and improvements to the playground and school facilities.”
Andy Burnham’s tent mishap
Forgetting your tent is a nightmare that would fill even the most seasoned festivalgoer with dread (Ali Mitib writes).
But as Andy Burnham can attest, you can count on your fellow revellers at Glastonbury to give you a helping hand.
The mayor of Greater Manchester, who will make an appearance at the Left Field stage to discuss homelessness, said that he and his wife were saved from disaster by Billy Bragg’s brother during the festival in 2022. “I’d chucked a load of stuff into the car at the last minute, and what I thought was a two-man ridge tent was actually a windbreak!” he said. Their saviour lent them his spare.
Burnham said that despite the hiccups he had a great time. “With my Liverpudlian leanings, Paul McCartney was quite something,” he said. “But the best things are these spontaneous, unannounced things — like the Hoosiers playing in some tiny tent.
“Glastonbury represents everything that’s right about Britain: hundreds of thousands of people looking out for each other, a sense of commonality and celebration.”
Review: The Zutons (Other Stage)
★★★★☆
The Zutons were unfortunately overshadowed 17 years ago when Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson covered their hit song Valerie and took it to stratospheric heights (Will Humphries writes).
The Liverpudlian rockers have had to confront some demons in the last two decades but they came out of their wilderness years to kick off the Other Stage this morning and reclaimed their rightful place as the hit makers they are.
David McCabe, their formerly troubled frontman, admitted to some nerves while addressing the sizeable crowd. “We haven’t played here for years,” he said, before being told by a band member it was in fact 16 years since they were last on stage here.
Laughing, he continued: “Things were bad but they’re a lot better now. Thanks for coming out to see us, it means the world.”
With driving guitars and the blaring saxophone of Abi Harding, they delivered a pleasing slice of foot stomping Noughties nostalgia.
“Hands up how many men over 40 are here,” McCabe asked at one point. After a sea of hands shot enthusiastically into the air, he contentedly added: “That’ll do.”
Finishing their set he said: “You’ve made our day and it’s only just beginning.”
With a new album out you hope it really is a new dawn for The Zutons.
Sunday highlights: from bittersweet house to kaleidoscopic headliners
Ah, Sunday at Glastonbury, when the last vestiges of the outside world have been shaken off, you’ve stopped worrying about whether you might be having a better time at another stage and you can just, well, have a blast (Ed Potton writes).
Funnily enough, the bill today is packed with people who suit that freewheeling vibe, from Baxter Dury (4.30pm, Park), the subversive and lyrically vibrant son of Ian, to Janelle Monáe, (5.45pm, Pyramid), one of the most incendiary performers on the planet, a funk-fuelled pocket rocket in the mould of Prince.
Nigeria’s Burna Boy (7.30pm, Pyramid) is now a genre-defying global star while Romy (8pm, Woodsies) has transformed herself into a queen of bittersweet house bangers. SZA (9.30pm, Pyramid) will be primed to silence the doubters with a headline set of kaleidoscopic R&B. And how could I forget Shania Twain (3.45pm, Pyramid), who is set to be one of the most rousing occupiers of the legends slot in years. Worthy Farm may well go into orbit during That Don’t Impress Me Much.
Vintage football shirts make a comeback
Football shirts once signified the ugly side of the beautiful game. But now vintage jerseys have taken Glastonbury by storm as fans revel in nostalgia and the outlandish designs of the early Nineties (Ali Mitib writes).
James Gillespie, 47, who was wearing an Ipswich home jersey from the inaugural Premier League season, and his son, Bailey, 10, were among the thousands of enthusiasts at Worthy Farm making the fashion statement.
A veteran of nine Glastonbury’s, he fondly recalled wearing the shirt with pride at the festival over the years and sense of belonging it gave him, adding that he’d seen more vintage shirts this time around.
“This is one of my favourite ever football shirts. I love this shirt,” he said. “With Ipswich doing well this season it’s only right that I wear this”.
The trend has gone viral on social media with Twitter/X account @Glastofooty documenting the best shirts on show at the festival, ranging from 1980s AC Milan jerseys to Northampton Town shirts from the early Nineties.
On Thursday afternoon, thousands of enthusiasts gathered outside the Stonebridge bar for a classic football shirt meet up.
Shania Twain joins a starry list of legends
Shania Twain arrived at Worthy Farm on Saturday to soak up the atmosphere before her hotly anticipated Sunday legends performance (Will Humphries writes).
The Canadian dame of country music has never been to Glastonbury festival before and it appears she was keen to experience as much of it as possible.
“She’s really embraced it,” Emily Eavis, the festival co-organiser, told the Glastonbury Free Press, the onsite newspaper. “I think that’s part of the reason the anticipation for her show is so wild.”
The coveted Sunday afternoon legends slot officially began in 1998, when the late American jazz singer Tony Bennett took to the Pyramid stage and wowed his audience and set the standard for every act that has followed.
Since then James Brown, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, Barry Gibb, Diana Ross and Cat Stevens have all enraptured the crowds with their embarrassment of classic singalong songs.
In 2007, Dame Shirley Bassey arrived in a helicopter, wore a fur-trimmed hot pink gown with diamond-covered wellies, and performed Pink’s Get the Party Started with a full black-tie orchestra.
Of the seven Glastonbury performances most watched on TV, the legends take three of them. In 2014, a rhinestone-covered Dolly Parton drew a Sunday afternoon television audience of 2.6 million. The following year, Lionel Richie got 2.9 million viewers, and in 2019, Kylie Minogue was watched by 3.9 million people, the joint third-highest for any Glastonbury set.
Revellers brave the heat to stay on theme
The sun is out at Worthy Farm and so are the bikini tops, crochet frocks and hot pants. Emily Eavis has said that soaring temperatures can be worse than rain at Glastonbury and that’s true from a clothing perspective too. The general rule tends to be: less is more (Hannah Rogers writes).
Still, it is amazing how committed so many folk remain to their fancy dress. Wigs, furry bucket hats, pink scratchy sequins offset by sunburn — not even the risk of heatstroke gets in the way of this crowd dressing up. Cool girls, meanwhile, are keeping the heat off in vintage bandanas. Andrew Scott was keeping cool at the Pyramid’s backstage bar on Saturday afternoon in a baggy white tank top and lime green Adidas shorts. Hot priest!
The festival’s most wanted accessory? You can barely see them. After one of the illuminated wristbands designed for Coldplay’s headline slot yesterday, a pair of Loop earplugs is what revellers really want. Look closely and you can find the minimalist metallic £39.95 volume filterers nestled into ear canals in every crowd. Say hello to summer’s tiniest status item.
I’ve already seen plenty but am expecting even more cowgirl cosplay ahead of Shania Twain’s legends slot later. Cowboy hats and boots! Men’s shirts and short skirts! You know what’s coming next. Let’s go girls.
This year’s hottest accessory? Furry bucket hats
Glastonbury is a place of phenomenal innovation — Britpop, rave culture, wellies as a status symbol. It also spawns the odd catastrophically bad idea. Step forward: the furry bucket hat. Perhaps, lucky reader, this concept is not yet familiar to you. So take a moment. Consider. Conjure the image in your mind (Susie Goldsbrough writes).
Boiling heat, burning sun, a classic and bumblingly lovely British hat shape designed to keep you cool and comfortable. For a century, this eminently practical design has flourished. Alas, people always f*** things up, in the end, don’t they? (It’s possible I’m a little tired today).
This year, roughly one in ten revellers seems to be sporting this moronic twist on the trusty bucket, resembling a sort of hairy puff-ball, dyed bubble-gum pink, mustard yellow, or tie-dye swirl. Tough to look at and tough to look past, if you’re stuck behind one during a set.
But most of all, I have just a simple question. I’m genuinely fascinated. Are you not all absolutely roasting inside those things? Have your brains not melted to a crème-egg consistency and leaked out your eyeballs? “I was a bit hot earlier, yeah,” says Monty, 17, sporting a black-and-white cow design, plus horns. So why does he do it? He looks at me, a little puzzled. “Because it’s a cow.” Ah yes, Monty. You got me there.
Match of the day: England v Janelle Monae
It’s the morning after the lights and optimism extravaganza that was Coldplay and as that band’s glowing bracelets are kicked around the withered ground alongside the standard empty cans and cups, it is clear that this is a festival is adjusting to its twilight era (Jonathan Dean writes).
It will be, in truth, be a slightly odd day, with uncertainly lingering over what exactly happens come 5pm. No, not how many people will go and see the excellent, dreamy Alvvays at Woodsies. But, rather, how many punters will take 90 minutes, plus a bit perhaps, to watch England play Slovakia in the Euros.
It is good news for Shania Twain, the day’s one true household name, whose legends slot wraps up bang in time for kick off — but less good for Janelle Monáe, Avril Lavigne and one Y U Qt, who is out at the Levels arena.
The festival made the decision to not show the football and it makes sense, given that this is a music festival, but the exodus will be felt, as dozens try to get enough data to watch on their phones. Still — the evening will be free, and I’m yet to decide between the smart, personal, intricate R’n’B of SZA on the Pyramid Stage, and the emotionally fraught tension rock of The National on the Other Stage. A lot, though, depends on the result — if England win, expect a throng to head toward the southeast corner fringes of the dance areas, to party this final night away.
