I’ll be honest… I’ve not been entirely sure how to start this post. Although Glastonbury is predominantly a music festival, the headlines about this year’s edition have been dominated by a chant during a Saturday afternoon performance by Bob Vylan on the West Holts stage.
Regardless of anyone’s views, it seems clear to me that the airtime given to this incident by the mainstream media – compared to what’s currently going on in Gaza – is frankly bizarre, so I’m not going to dwell on it or wade in with my opinions on it. However it also felt wrong to completely ignore it, especially as I was in the area at the time and witnessed it.
With that being said, Glastonbury Festival is a beautiful, magical, often surreal, sprawling world of its own with so much happening at any given moment, so we’ll focus on that instead.
The Headliners
As discussed in a previous post, the headliners this year weren’t massively to my taste, especially compared to my last Glasto in 2023 – when my favourite band Arctic Monkeys and the legendary Sir Elton John topped the Pyramid bill.
Going into the weekend, the only headliner I’d only really locked in was Scissor Sisters at Woodsies on Saturday. Despite clashing with some huge names like Charli XCX and Doechii, I couldn’t be happier with my choice, as it turned out to be the highlight of the entire weekend.
It was incredibly camp and ludicrously fun, with huge mass sing-a-longs and lots of dancing that made it a perfect act for a Saturday night. In true Glastonbury fashion, there were also special guests aplenty, with Jessie Ware, Beth Ditto and even (Bolton’s very own) Sir Ian McKellen popping up at different points throughout the set. Five stars.
As I wasn’t particularly passionate about any of the headliners on the Friday and Sunday, I just decided to head to the Pyramid for The 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo, with it being such an iconic stage to watch live music.
Olivia Rodrigo was my most pleasant surprise of the weekend. Her songs were a lot heavier live than on record and she already comes across as a seasoned performer, despite this only being her second ever Glastonbury. Getting Robert Smith out to duet on The Cure classics ‘Friday I’m In Love’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’ was also a masterstroke (even if some of the predominantly Gen Z crowd didn’t seem to recognise him at first).
I also enjoyed The 1975. I felt like it lulled a little bit in the middle but I found Matty Healy to be quite a captivating performer, even though I can understand why a lot of people don’t enjoy his performing style. I did also laugh out loud when they played ‘Chocolate’ and displayed nonsense lyrics on the big screen after Matty referred to himself as the ‘best songwriter of a generation’ with his tongue firmly in cheek.
The best of the rest
As an overall lineup, I’ve said before that this year was the strongest for me personally, with a number of my favourite bands making an appearance.
Blossoms, who I genuinely believe are one of the best live acts in the UK at the moment, put on another brilliant show that proved that they should have a more prominent slot than 6pm at Woodsies next time they’re invited to play. Unfortunately, the set was cut short during the last song due to a generator blowing but it was incredibly special for me and Mrs Molloy to see them play our first dance song ‘Oh No (I Think I’m In Love)’ at the festival we got engaged at back in 2023. They also brought out CMAT as a special guest for their single ‘I Like Your Look’ after her triumphant Pyramid debut a few hours earlier.
Patchwork being Pulp was one of the worst kept secrets in Glastonbury history but their Saturday afternoon performance in the sunshine was pretty great. Starting a set with a one-two of ‘Sorted for E’s and Wizz’ and ‘Disco 2000’ is a bit of a power move and set closer ‘Common People’ felt like a religious experience (even if the Red Arrows flying over almost gave me a heart attack).
I’ve been very lucky with some of the bands and artists I’ve seen in my life so I don’t actually have many more on my bucket list. However, Nile Rodgers and Chic were definitely on there and they did not disappoint at all. Nile Rodgers is responsible for writing some of the biggest songs of all time and as a result, their set was basically just an hour of wall-to-wall hits. It definitely brought the energy back to a scorching Pyramid field (and me) after Rod Stewart’s slightly disappointing Legends performance. It also saw another bit of Glastonbury magic, as a plane ‘drew’ a heart and a smiley face in the sky as they played ‘Good Times’.
After Nile Rodgers and Chic it was a quick dash over to the Other Stage for Wolf Alice, who moved me to tears during their set in 2022. They seem even more polished this time around; Ellie Rowsell is a sensational frontwoman and the range in her voice is absolutely astonishing. Both of their new songs, including unreleased single ‘The Sofa’ sounded brilliant and their cover of ‘Dreams’ by Fleetwood Mac was heavenly. Meanwhile, finishing with ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ and being able to belt that out alongside tens of thousands of people as the sun set over the festival for the final time that weekend was immaculate vibes.
Hidden gems
Anyone who’s ever been to Glastonbury will tell you that some of the best stuff happens away from the main stages and there were some huge highlights on the Wednesday and Thursday before the festival even got properly going.
The festival started off on a brilliant foot for our group personally as we won the ‘Overeasy Quiz’ in West Holts Bar and were given a litre of tequila in return, which made for quite a lively Wednesday evening (as did a surprisingly good pint of Guinness from the Bimble Inn).
Thursday started strongly with Cliffords on Greenpeace and progressively got better with the very exciting and likeable Nat Oaks at Bread & Roses, which genuinely felt like we were watching someone just before they absolutely blow up and become massive. We then made our way over to the Astrolabe Theatre for Lucie Jones – the first solo performance by a musical theatre artist in Glastonbury history and one which absolutely brought the house down, including a big dance-a-long to the ‘Time Warp’, powerhouse performances of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ and ‘Defying Gravity’, and a brilliant Abba medley to finish.
Another surprising highlight of the weekend was Dermot O’Leary’s ‘Alternative Sounds of the 90s’ DJ set on the BBC Introducing stage in the early hours of Sunday morning. He didn’t keep to the 90s brief at all but there were indie bangers all over the place, dance offs and plenty of Dermot’s trademark energy.
What I ate
You didn’t think I was going to forget about the food did you?
I love street food anyway and the culinary offering at Glastonbury is out of this world.
My first stop was to my old favourite – BBQ Cajun stall Bayou at West Holts. Their blackened shrimp and chicken remains the absolute king of festival food and I just wish they had a restaurant or stall around here, because I’d be there every week.
My other favourites were Gourmet Mac and Cheese and Tommy’s Pizzeria (both Silver Hayes), Goan Fish Curry, Taste Tibet (both West Holts), Soul Bowl (Bushy Ground) and Crumble Pots (Left Field). Also big shout out to Pancake Pod, which was technically outside the festival gates but had a food van on the way to the car park and served up a delicious breakfast wrap, which was exactly what I needed as I lugged my stuff back to the car.
I don’t really want to do this but on the other end of the scale, I do feel as if I have to mention Chick N Strip by the Other Stage because the quality of their food for what they were charging (£13 for three chicken strips, some frozen fries and watery hot sauce) was frankly scandalous.
The flipside
I’d be lying if I said that Chick N Strip was the only aspect of Glastonbury that wasn’t great.
Some of the scheduling decisions were downright bonkers and borderline dangerous. Any normal person could have foreseen the incredibly relevant Charli XCX and huge millennial nostalgia act Scissor Sisters drawing bigger crowds than Neil Young, but instead the Canadian rocker played to a half empty Pyramid field while the other two completely packed out their respective stages. Woodsies even had to be closed off for Scissor Sisters. Likewise Kneecap, with all their recent media attention, playing a mid-afternoon slot of West Holts was also ridiculous.
This is my third Glastonbury and I’ve been incredibly fortunate that each one has been dry, but the heat this time especially was just completely debilitating at times. There is just nowhere near enough shade around and I’m not sure how this can be solved but it does make it very hard to get through the early afternoons in particular. That being said, the hammocks in Silver Hayes are an absolute Godsend and I’d happily see plenty more of those dotted around.
That being said, there really is no place on Earth like it and I’ll be more than happy to put up with the heat and some questionable scheduling decisions if it means I can secure a ticket in 2027.
Did you go to Glastonbury or watch it on TV? What were your highlights?