After months of anticipation, the full Glastonbury Festival line-up (complete with set times) has finally been released.
When the initial poster dropped at the start of March, I thought that the undercard was strong enough to make up for an underwhelming set of headliners.
But with Glastonbury, it’s never that straight forward and I’ve spent the intervening months worrying about potential clashes.
Clashmageddon
There’s no getting away from it, there are some pretty horrendous clashes.
The most high profile is probably on Saturday afternoon when the legendary John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival fame takes to the Pyramid stage right in the middle of Kneecap’s much talked about West Holts slot, and just as Weezer are finishing up on the Other stage.
Meanwhile Rod Stewart’s 90-minute legends slot overlaps with the likes of Djo on Woodsies, along with Royel Otis and Girl in Red on the Park.
For me, a particularly egregious one is one of my favourite bands Wolf Alice on Sunday night clashing with one of my favourite poster discoveries, Parcels. Almost as bad is Jalen Ngonda clashing with and Neighbourhood Weekender standout and (more importantly) Mrs Molloy’s favourite CMAT.
Then there’s the other poster discoveries that I mentioned in my poster reaction piece and their respective clashes: En Vogue (Blossoms), Joy Crookes (The Libertines), Faye Webster (Wet Leg) and Greentea Peng (Father John Misty, as well as two TBA ‘secret sets’).
Secret sets
One of the many things that Glastonbury is famous for is secret sets. Usually appearing as ‘TBA’ on the set times, there are 56 in total this year, including big ones on the Pyramid, Woodsies and Park stages.
There is also an act on the line-up under the pseudonym ‘Patchwork’, in a similar fashion to when Foo Fighters were listed as ‘Churnups’ in 2023.
The identity of all these secret sets will usually come out the closer we get to the festival and there are already strong rumours about the likes of Pulp, Mumford & Sons, Haim and Lewis Capaldi filling some of the slots.
Overall thoughts
While I’m still not particularly sold on any of the headliners (Scissor Sisters at Woodsies on Saturday is my only lock so far) and despite some of the horrendous clashes, I’m actually pleasantly surprised at the acts I’ll be able to get to.
CMAT, Wet Leg and Blossoms on Friday makes for an incredibly solid start to the main festival.
Depending on who the Saturday TBA are, Kneecap into Amyl and the Sniffers into a secret set should make for a lively Saturday.
Then a run of The Libertines, Rod Stewart, and Nile Rodgers & Chic on the Pyramid, followed by a short trip over the Other stage for Wolf Alice is a pretty great Sunday, even before having a choice between Prodigy, The Maccabees and Olivia Rodrigo to close out the weekend, depending on vibes.
There’s also plenty to be excited about on Wednesday, Thursday and late at night – even though my house music days were left firmly behind me when I left university nine (!) years ago.
From a Noughties/Nineties sing-a-long on Greenpeace followed by the new Theatre & Circus show at the Pyramid on Wednesday, to exciting smaller acts like Cliffords and Nat Oaks on Thursday, and even a Saturday night post-headliner line-up in the Park which includes a ‘Britpop Classical’ DJ set from Blur’s Alex James at the Bimble Inn and a Confidence Man DJ set on the nearby Stonebridge Bar, there’s loads to be excited about.
Here’s hoping the next three weeks fly by.
Are you going to Glastonbury? Let me know your worst clashes and who you’re looking forward to in the comments and if you’re a first timer, read Mrs Molloy’s tips on how to survive the beautiful madness here.
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