1 hour ago Share Save Mark Savage Music Correspondent, at Glastonbury Share Save

Getty Images “Hi, my name is Jarvis,” said Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, greeting the crowd

Glastonbury’s worst-kept secret is out. The mystery band billed as Patchwork were, in fact, Pulp. Still, no-one was prepared to believe it until it happened. “If Robbie Williams comes out? No, I’m leaving,” said a woman next to me in the audience, as the stage filled with random people – common people – dressed in plastic raincoats. Then Jarvis Cocker strode onto the Pyramid Stage, receiving a hero’s welcome as he launched into Sorted for E’s & Wizz, from Pulp’s career-making 1995 album Different Class. “Sorry to the people who were expecting Patchwork,” he drawled after the song ended. “Did you know it was us?”

The crowd responded “yes”, with what I can only describe as a collective eye-roll. “But how?” Cocker deadpanned. In the run-up to the festival, the Sheffield band had tried in vain to keep their identity secret. Cocker said they’d only attend if it was a “life or death situation”, while keyboard player Candida Doyle told BBC 6 Music that organisers “weren’t interested” in booking them. Of course, it was all an elaborate double bluff. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the band’s historic 1995 headline set on the Pyramid Stage – and they’re currently enjoying a renaissance, with a new album called More! topping the charts. With Glastonbury taking a fallow year in 2026, it was now or never.

EPA The star threw a paper cup full of tea bags into the audience, for reasons known only to himself

Their set featured several new songs, including the celebratory Spike Island and a gospel-flavoured Got To Have Love. But everyone was really waiting for the big hits: Babies, Misfits and Common People. As the crowd bounced, Cocker flapped across the stage like a washing line in a stiff breeze, his arms flailing and pointing at random. And during Acrylic Afternoons – a hymn to the mundane realities of suburban sex – he walked along the front of the stage, tossing tea bags to fans. His idiosyncrasy remains intact.

Zoe Ball takes a photo of Pulp, as they play Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage

Among the fans singing along (and taking videos) in the audience were Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis and former Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball, who said she was experiencing “total euphoric recall”. “Hearing all those songs again, with my old mates, jumping up and down… I love being here with all these people who love them as well,” she said. “It was a real high.”

A poem from Robbie Williams

Pulp’s set at Glastonbury 1995 has gone down as one of the most beloved headline performances of all time.

Pulp’s 1995 headline slot has gone down in history as one of Glastonbury’s most memorable and triumphant sets – but it was actually a last-minute booking, after Stone Roses guitarist John Squire broke his collar bone. Cocker later revealed “it was the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life”. “But then Robbie from Take That came and wished us luck,” he told Vox magazine. “Robbie read us some of his poetry. I was dubious at first, because sometimes poetry can be embarrassing, but it was really good.” The performance came just a couple of weeks after the release of what would become their signature song, Common People. With the anthem lodged at number two in the charts, the band held it to the very end of their set for maximum impact. As he introduced the track, Cocker gave a heartfelt speech about the band’s slow-burn career. “If you want something to happen enough, then it actually will happen – and I believe that,” he said. “In fact, that’s why we’re stood on this stage today after 15 years, because we wanted it to happen, do you know what I mean? “So if a lanky git like me can do it, you can do it too.” And with that, they launched into a celebratory, communal, 7-minute singalong that confirmed Pulp’s status as the poet laureates of Britpop. “That was the event that made the success a concrete fact,” Cocker later told Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.

EPA The band drew one of the biggest crowds of the festival so far

The rumours were true — Pulp performed a not-so-secret set on the Pyramid stage, and Haim were the surprise act on the Park stage

The BBC broadcast the rap punk duo Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury performance earlier, but has said it will not be made available on demand on iPlayer.

The corporation said: “Some of the comments made during Bob Vylan’s set were deeply offensive.

“During this live stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language.

“We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.”

The culture secretary has asked the BBC for an urgent explanation of what happened, and police are assessing whether a crime was committed.

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Neil Young out to prove the doubters wrong

Neil Young has been a divisive headliner ever since the old man was announced in the festival’s premium Saturday night slot. First of all, he fell out with the BBC over TV rights. Then, people wondered why he wasn’t on the Other stage so that Charli XCX could take his slot. Finally, those not familiar with Young asked why he was a headliner and not, say, in the legends slot.

That’s a lot of people to prove wrong — but if anyone is up for the fight it’s cantankerous, wild Young, a man who’s been making glorious music for decades and so will attack this slot with the vigour and beauty his songs hold. The crowd is not, to be fair, huge but the sweet acoustic singalongs — Heart of Gold and, yes, Old Man — plus 20 minute wails of distortion and woe — Down by the River, Like a Hurricane — should prove the doubters wrong.

Charli XCX gets another bite of the Apple

Charli XCX has unfinished business with Glastonbury. The hyper-pop firebrand appeared here last year in the midst of her Brat Summer, playing a euphoric roadblocked DJ set at the Levels dance area (Ed Potton writes).

Thousands of people didn’t get into that one, though, so her headline set this year at the Other stage feels like a much needed second bite of the cherry (or apple). The festival has been awash with people in lime-green Brat merch all day, and another reminder of how much Charli has entered the popular consciousness came when Pulp took the stage here in front of the words “Pulp Summer”.

At the Coachella festival, Charli had officially bid farewell to the Brat Summer and Pulp were one of the acts she passed the torch to, along with the likes of Lorde, A$AP Rocky and Bon Iver.

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Among the crowd for Charli XCX were Ellie Desmond, 24, and Marc Brown, 25, from Birmingham, who proved their devotion by doing a synchronised display of Charli’s viral Apple dance. “We didn’t make it to see her last year so this year was a must,” Ellie said. So they weren’t tempted by Neil Young, Doechi or Scissor Sisters, who are all playing at the same time? “Are you having a laugh?” Marc said. “This is the big one.”

Review: Raye

Raye performs on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE

With Adele on hiatus, there’s a vacancy for the title of queen of British pop and two women playing Glastonbury today are contenders (Ed Potton writes). While Raye may not have surfed the zeitgeist like Charli XCX, last year she won a record six Brits and she is a star from her rollered curls to her bare feet.

The 27-year-old Londoner, real name Rachel Keen, was brought on stage in a flight case with a sign reading “Caution: contents may be fragile”.

The vibe was classic Hollywood — tuxedoed big band, leading lady and her backing singers in black sequinned fishtail frocks. Oscar Winning Tears felt apt, then, Raye mixing soulful gymnastics with high-speed rapping.

Equal parts warm, confident, sad and vulnerable, she looked out at the fairly vast crowd and said, “This is a very intimidating sight. I’ve got a bit of a croaky voice which is not ideal when you’re playing the 8pm sunset slot at Glastonbury.”

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It sounded pretty fine on Suzanne, her new collaboration with Mark Ronson, very Amy Winehouse-like, even without Ronson’s presence. Another new song, I Know You’re Hurting, hit Bond-theme levels of lushness and even heavier was Ice Cream Man, her exquisite ballad about “sexual violence and sexual assault and rape”.

Yet she expertly upped the mood in the “nightclub section”, pouting “You’re done to me” on Black Mascara, a pumping banger fuelled by a past betrayal.

“There are gonna be a lot of dramatic endings tonight,” Raye had said at the start and she gave us one worthy of Tinseltown in her closing signature tune, the rap-pop monster called Escapism. “Wow,” she said as the crowd roared. Quite.

★★★★★

Ministers reprimand BBC over Bob Vylan comments

The government has “strongly condemned” comments made by the punk duo Bob Vylan in a performance at Glastonbury that was broadvast on the BBC.

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A spokesman said: “We strongly condemn the threatening comments made by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury.

“The culture secretary has spoken to the BBC director-general to seek an urgent explanation about what due diligence it carried out ahead of the Bob Vylan performance, and welcomes the decision not to re-broadcast it on BBC iPlayer.”

During the set on the West Holts stage led the crowd in chants of “death, death to the IDF” and “free Palestine”.

The lead singer also said: “We’re not pacifist punks sometimes you got to get your message across with violence… that is the only language some people speak unfortunately.”

Police have said they were assessing video to see if a crime was committed.

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Review: Haim

It’s no secret Glastonbury likes to spring surprises and this year it has outdone itself (Ed Power writes). Following “hush hush” gigs by Lorde, Lewis Capaldi and Pulp, the weekend’s quartet of under-the-radar performers was completed by Los Angeles all-sister trio Haim who brought California sunshine as late evening gloom descended on the Park stage.

With a soft rock sound indebted to Fleetwood Mac and the Laurel Canyon folk scene, Haim’s set had a blissful, easy-on-the-ear quality, from the first note of breezy opener The Wire. That remained the case even as they were singing about messy break-ups, a recurring theme of their recent fourth album I Quit, showcased with hazy bangers Relationships and Blood on Tte Street.

Sisters Danielle, Este and Alana were determined to make this a “surprise” to remember, even if their presence at Glastonbury was open knowledge. They swapped instruments, switched lead vocals and brought on a saxophone player who smooched up soft-focused ballad Summer Girl. Finishing with the new song Down to Be Wrong — already a favourite judging by the reaction of the huge crowd — the siblings brimmed with charm, soft pop harmonies and glinting sharp hooks. Secret or not, this was a tea-time treat to cherish.

★★★★☆

Review: Pulp

Do you remember the first time? Well, a host of fans in front of the Pyramid Stage in Pulp T-shirts and grey hair clearly do — 30 years ago, in the same field, Jarvis Cocker launched his sassy, smart band into the mainstream that they never left, with a late addition headline show replacing the Stone Roses, after their guitarist John Squire smashed his collarbone. It was the stuff of legend. They had ten days to prepare. But pop history changed; the old guard shifted out; Britpop ignited and, this year, Pulp were back on site.

They came on stage after a parade of people in anoraks and a sign announcing Pulp Summer — a nod to Brat Summer and Saturday night’s de facto headliner Charli XCX. Cocker was in playful, relaxed mood as Sorted for E’s and Wizz and Disco 2000 burst out of Candida Doyle’s keyboard traps. Both songs were debuted here three decades back and when they played those indelible hits, the crowd swayed, applauded, sung back — it was glorious.

After lull, the gig shifted into its second phase, and a quite extraordinary run of hits just toppled over each other. The provocative, pummelling Mis-Shapes was the anthem for a generation and, judging by some twentysomethings next to me, the anthem for another generation too. Someone should tell Kneecap that this is how you marshal a disaffected youth — write a hit.

Then, after Something Changed, Do You Remember the First Time and Babies, Pulp played Common People. “The song that started it all off,” said Cocker and people born after its release yelled “This is the best song ever written!” and the weekend’s biggest singalong began. It was truly immense, flags waving, smoke grenades going off, nostalgia mixing with people hearing the greatest track of the 1990s live for the first time, and then the flipping Red Arrows flew over and everything just seemed to fall into place, just like it did 30 years ago.

★★★★★

In pictures: Haim at Glastonbury

Danielle Haim, the lead singer of the rock band Haim, with her sisters on the Park stage JAMES VEYSEY/SHUTTERSTOCK

JAMES VEYSEY/SHUTTERSTOCK

Police investigate band’s ‘death to IDF’ chant

Comments made on stage by Kneecap, the Belfast rap trio, and Bob Vylan, a punk duo from London who were on stage before them, are being investigated by police.

Avon and Somerset police said on social media: “We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon.

“Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.”

Both bands made comments in support of Palestinians and criticised Israel’s military action.

Bob Vylan led the crowd in chants of “Death, death to the IDF”. During Kneecap’s set, the rapper Móglaí Bap said: “The prime minister of your country, not mine, said he didn’t want us to play, so f*** Keir Starmer.”

Expectant crowd grows for Haim

There were a suspicious number of young women and men on their phones in the crowd watching Gary Numan perform his brand of hard gothic electronic rock on the Park stage.

Perhaps it had something to do with the much-rumoured secret set by Haim, the three soft rock sisters from Los Angeles, which follows at 7.30pm.

As Numan finished his powerful performance, and the average age of the crowd dropped by about 30 years, one overheard conversation went: “I didn’t expect that from an Eighties pop star. I thought he would be more Rick Astley vibes.”

Gary Numan performs on the Park stage JAMES VEYSEY/SHUTTERSTOCK

In pictures: Pulp perform at Glastonbury

LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

Jarvis Cocker, the lead singer of Pulp, who were confirmed as the secret act when they took to the stage on Saturday evening LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

Pulp begin ‘secret set’

It was never much of a secret, but now it’s official.

Pulp are the band billed as Patchwork with a slot on the Pyramid stage.

They opened with Sorted for E’s and Wizz and Disco 2000, which they first played at Glastonbury 30 years ago.

Lineker: BBC has an agenda

Gary Lineker told an audience at Glastonbury that those “at the very top of the BBC” have “an agenda”.

Speaking to Andy Cato, the Groove Armada DJ and nature-friendly farming advocate, the former Match of the Day presenter said of the national broadcaster: “I think they have lost their way a little bit. There are thousands of brilliant people at the BBC but at the moment I don’t think that’s reflected right at the very top.”

He later added: “I feel for Tim Davie, the director-general, because I believe there are people above him that have an agenda.”

Lineker left the BBC after a series of run-ins with his bosses about political tweets and sharing his views on the war in Gaza, when he had been told he must remain impartial.

Asked why he became more political in recent years, he said: “I did have a very big platform and thought, what’s the point if you don’t use it, if you don’t push beliefs that you believe to be right.”

Lineker said he will not ramp up his political output on social media now he has left the BBC.

He said: “I don’t really use Twitter any more because it’s become a hateful place, which is a shame really because I used to enjoy it, but I will keep posting on Instagram, so more of the same.”

Lineker finished his talk by saying he “wanted to see Kneecap” but his talk clashed with their performance, before adding: “Free Palestine.”

What to expect from Pulp on stage

Pulp are in the middle of a summer tour, which would not be complete without an appearance on the Pyramid stage.

The Times was there to review the first gig in Glasgow.

• Read in full: Pulp first night review — Jarvis Cocker, magnificent as ever

Festival’s worst kept secret

On a weekend of badly kept secrets, this is the worst one. It is all but confirmed that the mysterious act “Patchwork” to perform at the Pyramid stage at 6.15pm will be Pulp.

In recent days members of Pulp have tried to squash rumours that they will be performing at the festival on the 30th anniversary of their first appearance.

But fans have prepared just in case. Annie Warren, 31, and Peter Bradley, 33, have been sporting their Pulp merchandise since this morning.

Peter Bradley and Annie Warren

Bradley said: “I was four when they last played at Glastonbury and I saw them at Leeds Festival when I was a teenager and we just saw them last week.”

That was part of the tour for their latest album, More, their first studio album in 24 years.

Warren said: “The show was incredible, one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, so we’re hoping for Pulp. We’re going to look really stupid if it’s not.”

Half an hour before the set was scheduled to start a large crowd had already formed by the stage and far up the hill. There will be a lot of disappointed fans if the secret act turns out not to be Pulp after all.

Kneecap support pro-Palestinian activists facing ban

Kneecap on stage at Glastonbury YUI MOK/PA

Kneecap used their set to comment on a number of recent political developments including the government’s plan to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

Mo Chara, himself facing a terrorism charge, said: “We would like to give a f***ing shoutout to Palestine Action who might soon become a proscribed organisation. I know first hand what happens if you’re willing to speak out for Palestine and especially in this industry.”

He added: “Palestine Action isn’t arming the genocide in Israel, that’s Keir Starmer and the British government who should be proscribed.”

The trio led the crowd in chants of “Free Palestine” and “F*** Keir Starmer” at several points throughout the set.

Móglaí Bap ended the gig by saying: “We want to thank Glastonbury again for standing by Kneecap, for standing by Palestine.”

Pulp rumours grow

Pulp have still not officially been confirmed as “Patchwork”, the previously unknown band playing the Pyramid stage at 6.15pm.

However, after Jarvis Cocker performed performed a DJ set yesterday and with no sign of the other rumoured secret act, Chappell Roan, it looks as if X accounts like @secretglasto are on the money, as The Times reported last week.

• Read in full: Who are Patchwork? Glastonbury’s secret stars ‘revealed’

Review: Jade

Jade Thirwall was thrilled to be on the Woodsies stage at Glastonbury HARRY DURRANT/GETTY IMAGES

The story behind Jade Thirlwall is a twisty one: discovered on The X Factor, did her years in mega-band Little Mix, broke free of her manufactured pop constraints, went solo — and then put out an entirely unexpected single, Angel of My Dreams, which blended Kate Bush and Lady Gaga.

After giving by far the best performance at this year’s Brit Awards, she has now played Glastonbury at Woodsies — a stage surely never trodden by anyone from the The X Factor before. And she was, it is fair to say, absolutely thrilled to be here.

There was no hint of pop star aloofness as the South Shields singer, in “Glasto” T-shirt and sparkly combats, was introduced by the actor Ncuti Gatwa, before going full pelt into It Girl — a sparkling, satirical song about the ups and downs of fame.

This is a titchy tent for a star birthed in arenas, and its immediacy clearly moved her. “This has been one of the best days of me life,” she said tearfully. The set was all hits, her solo singles mixed with Little Mix crowd-pleasers and, surprisingly, a genuinely moving cover of Madonna’s Frozen.

The packed tent sung every word of Angel of My Dreams, which follows a Jade template of slow start and big finish (some of these tunes could do with a touch more light and shade). But it is her voice that is the selling point here: the instrument that got her noticed all those years ago, and that now suggests a far more interesting future.

★★★★☆

Kneecap address terrorism arrest and political controversy

DJ Provaí of Kneecap during their Glastonbury set on Saturday, which the BBC decided not to broadcast live LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

Kneecap opened their set with a video montage using news clips about the arrest of one of their members and the controversy surrounding their performance at Glastonbury.

To cheers and a sea of Palestinian flags, Mo Chara, wearing a keffiyeh, said: “Glastonbury, I’m a free man.”

The rapper, real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, was released on bail after a court appearance in London earlier this month.

After several songs, the frontman Móglaí Bap said: “On August 20 Mo Chara is back in court for a trumped-up terrorism charge. Trust me it’s not the first time that there has been a miscarriage of justice against an Irish person by the British justice system.”

He added: “So if anyone is available on August 20 to support Mo Chara, let’s start a riot.” He later added: “Just to clarify, I don’t want anybody to start a riot.”

Móglaí Bap also thanked the Eavis family for their support in recent weeks before getting the crowd to shout: “F*** Keir Starmer”.

Starmer had said it was not “appropriate” for Kneecap to play and Kemi Badenoch and others called on the BBC not to broadcast the set.

Review: A Tribute to Bob Dylan

To the disappointment of some young women at the front, Timothée Chalamet did not honour the rumour that he would turn up at Glastonbury’s tribute to the great songwriter of the late 20th century (Will Hodgkinson writes).

Even with that omission, this was a delightful chance to appreciate some beloved Dylan songs by people who not only performed them extremely well, but clearly had a great love for the material.

“I remember seeing Dylan’s concert in 1965,” said the English folk legend Ralph McTell, “but I don’t remember coming home. It was the greatest thing I had ever seen.”

McTell’s rendition of Mr Tambourine Man was sung along to by the entire crowd, as was the band leader Sid Griffin and singer Paul Carrack’s I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, one of Dylan’s loosest, most romantic songs.

There were some great choices here too: You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, made famous by the Byrds, had a lazy feel suited to the afternoon heat.

A singer called Katya reimagined One More Cup of Coffee in tribute to her Armenian heritage, and finally came a beautiful I Shall Be Released, Dylan’s modern hymn. Gorgeous.

★★★★☆

In pictures: Kneecap kick off Glastonbury set

Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap of Kneecap take to the stage on Saturday LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

Fans sport Irish-flag balaclavas like the band’s JJ Ó Dochartaigh, and T-shirts supporting the protest group Palestine Action YUI MOK/PA

LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

Kneecap have a history of controversy

Even before allegations of supporting Hezbollah and urging fans to kill an MP, Kneecap were known as Britain’s most controversial band.

They were accused of inflaming sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland and hiring Gerry Adams to star in a drug-fuelled movie. Then they sued the government for withholding arts funding,

The Times interviewed them last year.

• Read in full: Kneecap: meet the UK’s most controversial band

Kneecap rapper wears T-shirt supporting Palestine Action

This image was apparently taken backstage before the show

JJ Ó Dochartaigh, a member of the Belfast rap trio Kneecap, has appeared in a picture online wearing a T-shirt supporting Palestine Action, the protest group due to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation after vandalism at an RAF base and other sites.

An Instagram post shortly before their Glastonbury set was captioned: “One hour to go.”

Another member of Kneecap has been charged with a terrorism offence for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah during a concert last year.

Large crowd for Kneecap set

Forty-five minutes before Kneecap were scheduled to take to the West Holts stage, Glastonbury Festival closed access to the site.

Large crowds had already gathered, many of them holding Palestine flags or wearing keffiyeh, traditional Palestinian scarves.

Bob Vylan, the English punk duo, were on before Kneecap and led the crowd in chants of “Free, free Palestine” and “Death, death to the IDF”.

Bobby Vylan of Bob Vylan during their set on Saturday afternoon LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

Bobby Vylan, one of the two performers, said: “We’re not pacifist punks sometimes you got to get your message across with violence … that is the only language some people speak, unfortunately.”

He called his band the “most violent” in Britain.

Kneecap will take to the stage at 4pm.

Review: Brandi Carlile blasts the barn doors off her set

JAIMI JOY/REUTERS

It seems like its been a long time coming, but when Brandi Carlisle was finally given the chance to play her first Glastonbury festival, more than 20 years into a multi-Grammy award winning career, she grabbed it with both hands (Will Humphries writes).

Already a God-tier country-adjacent act in the US, she blasted the barn doors off her opening song Broken Horses. After that any reservations in the growing crowd had bolted.

She swept through blazing-hot country rock — which matched the puddle-inducing heat of the midday sun — tender ballads about motherhood and heartbreak anthems to “dark lesbian drama”.

Flanked by twins Phil and Tim Hanseroth, two mildly camp cowboys who have backed her entire two-decade career, the Seattle-born singer gave a nod to Glastonbury’s storied past and her love for the festival by delivering a blistering version of Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees, continuing the Nineties takeover of the weekend started on Friday by the likes of Alanis Morisette, Supergrass and Shed Seven.

“My wife told me how special this would be,” Carlisle said of her British spouse, as she looked out in wonder at the swelling Pyramid Stage crowd halfway through her set. “Look how many there are of you now, holy shit!”

After rendering the crowd silent with You Without Me, her delicate ballad about her eldest daughter, played solo on acoustic guitar, she said: “Only in Glastonbury could I get away with that. This is the best festival in the world!”

★★★★★

Dominic West performs poetry with his family

Revellers who made the trek uphill to the intimate Crow’s Nest near the Glastonbury sign to see Dominic West got a special treat.

The English actor, known for his roles in The Wire and The Crown, performed a series of poems and songs alongside his daughter, Martha, and son, Senan.

With dishevelled hair, West introduced the act: “We’re just going to have some gentle, hangover poetry. This is a hangover sonnet.”

Half way through reciting William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29, he stumbled and forgot the next lines. “The mushroom tincture is getting to me,” he said apologetically, and decided to move on to his next three poems.

Martha read three original poems, including one about the Round Table from Guinevere’s perspective that included several verses of raunchy sex. Senan performed three songs with a friend on the electric guitar.

West closed off the somewhat chaotic but relaxed performance by saying: “Thanks for bearing with us, the von Trapp family.”

Review: Fcukers did their best to look like they weren’t trying very hard

A New York outfit with a rumbustious line in live electronica and a name straight out of a French Connection ad campaign, Fcukers went for it from the off (writes Ed Potton).

Shannon Wise is an understated but beguiling frontwoman, all chiming vocals and deadpan cool, while her musical partner Jackson Walker held it all together on bass and keyboards and a drummer and scratching DJ added beef and urgency.

It’s no surprise that Fcukers have worked with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem — they have the same laconic swagger,

Moving smoothly between deep house, indie electro, art-rock and pogoing techno. They all wore sunglasses despite playing in a tent and did their best to look like they weren’t trying very hard, but you could tell they are tightly marshalled by Walker.

Bon Bon was a riot of thundering bass, I Don’t Wanna crackled with insouciance and Homie Don’t Shake brilliantly sampled Devil’s Haircut by Beck.

Wise’s lyrics were mantra-like rather than poetic, but the animated post-lunch crowd didn’t seem that interested in contemplating rhyming couplets.

★★★★☆

Kneecap set will not be streamed live on BBC

A number of politicians have called for them to be banned from Glastonbury but the Irish rap trio Kneecap is performing at West Holts as planned. However, the BBC said that the performance will not be livestreamed but is likely to be made available on-demand. The band will be on West Holts Stage at 4pm.

The band said on Instagram: “The propaganda wing of the regime has just contacted us … they WILL put our set from Glastonbury today on the iPlayer later this evening for your viewing pleasures.”

RITZAU SCANPIX/REUTERS

It comes as one of the band’s members Liam Og O hAnnaidh, 27, was charged with allegedly displaying a flag in support of proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah while saying “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” at a gig in November.

Last week the rapper, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court. He was released on unconditional bail until the next hearing on August 20.

Last week Sir Keir Starmer said it would not be “appropriate” for Kneecap to perform and Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, said the BBC “should not be showing” the set.

Annie Mac: Glastonbury is an annual pilgrimage

DJ Annie Mac has been to nearly 20 Glastonbury festivals and calls it an annual “pilgrimage” as important as Christmas, so it’s no wonder she has accumulated some survival tips (writes Emily Prescott).

“You have to invest in a really good pair of wax earplugs,” she said. “Eye masks, magnesium, all of that. But the older I’ve got, the more into camping I’ve become. It’s only a few days, so even if you come home smelly and sleep-deprived, it’s alright.”

Annie Mac performing at last year’s Glastonbury SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE

The 46-year-old, who left BBC Radio 1 in 2021 and published her debut novel Mother, Mother the same year, said that her relationship with the festival has evolved with parenthood.

“It’s the only time of the year where I can be safely uncontactable,” she explained. Though she has considered bringing her children, aged 12 and eight, “I’d need my husband’s full support. He’s sober and not quite ready for a fully sober Glastonbury.” Mac — whose full name is Annie Macmanus — will DJ at the Glade this evening and at Arcadia from 1am tomorrow.

Mac praised the festival’s “fallow years” and said: “They do that for the land but they also do it for themselves. It’s quite radical in this day and age for someone to go, yes, I could be making money I’m not going to put my family, my mental health or my land before that. We all need a fallow year, or week of the month.”

Review: Sorry struggle to excite their audience with confusing set

The north London band Sorry took to the stage without any fanfare for their early afternoon Saturday set, but struggled to build up much atmosphere (writes Roisin Kelly).

Beginning with Jive and into the eerie baseline of their newest song, Jetplane, vocalist Asha Lorenz sang: “Arrest me/I’m a hot freak/I’m bombastique/ I’m making modern music/In Spain/I’m on the jet plane.”

A more relaxed vibe was welcome after last night’s high energy headliners but the band struggled to excite their audience, with bizarre interludes between sets, including a recording of Watcha Say by Jason Derulo, leaving fans looking confused.

The guitarist Louis O’Bryen has previously said they “never wanted to be a straight down the middle guitar band”, but the result on stage is a mash up of genres and live ad-libs that makes their identity seem confused. At times, it feels more like watching a friend’s band performing in a pub than a Glastonbury set.

They did manage to end on a high though, with fans singing out the lyrics to Starstruck, their most popular and energetic track.

★★☆☆☆

Brandi Carlile: I sat beside Joni Mitchell as she relearnt her own lyrics

The musician recently shared her favourite song lyrics with The Times — “I’m frightened by the Devil and I’m drawn to those ones that ain’t afraid” by Joni Mitchell.

Brandi Carlile said: “I’ve been fortunate enough to sit beside Joni as she relearnt her own lyrics. Something about seeing them in written form makes them even more brilliant.

“She once said, ‘If you see me in my music, I haven’t done my job, but if you see yourself, my job is done.’ Joni has a knack for speaking the unspeakable and for making us all feel seen and uniquely understood.”

• Read in full: The musician on the song that changed her life

Huge support for Dave (and Brandi Carlile)

Brandi Carlile might be the star of the show on the Pyramid Stage (performing now), but not in the eyes of Wendy Quilter. She has made a huge banner to support her nephew, Dave Mackay, the country rock star’s keyboard player.

Quilter was already signed up to volunteer for Oxfam at the festival when she found out that her nephew, from Leicester, would be appearing with Carlile.

“He’s been playing for Brandi for two or three years, all over the world,” she said. “We’ve sent him a photo of our banners so he knows we’re here. This will be a conversation about the Christmas dinner table, won’t it!”

This is the ideal Neil Young set list — but will he play ball?

Neil Young may be a famously mercurial figure who is prone to subject audiences to an hour’s worth of sustained guitar noise should the mood take him, but at the same time he’s nothing if not competitive.

That’s why I predict he’ll be blasting out the classics at the Pyramid Stage on Saturday night, if only to show young pretenders like the 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo how it’s done.

Besides, he’s got a hot new band called the Chrome Hearts to put through their paces, featuring Willie Nelson’s son Micah on guitar and Spooner Oldham, legendary session ace from Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama who played with everyone from Aretha Franklin to Bob Dylan, on Farfisa Organ.

Here is a dream setlist for what will be, should he play ball, the highlight of Glastonbury 2025.

Brandi Carlile: reviving legends and about to light up the Pyramid Stage

Three years ago you would have been forgiven for not knowing who Brandi Carlile was. The 44-year-old from Seattle had achieved success with her country and Americana music — seven Grammy nominations and six wins by 2022 attest to that — but had never quite broken through to the global mainstream. Then Carlile pulled off an extraordinary feat, one that garnered both praise and gratitude among music lovers: she got Joni Mitchell to perform again at Newport Folk Festival.

Brandi Carlile and Joni Mitchell at the Grammy Awards in 2022 JOHNNY NUNEZ/GETTY IMAGES

How did she do it? In an article for The Times, she explained that she organised monthly “Joni Jams” at Mitchell’s house with other musicians, encouraging the 81-year-old to see she still had more to offer musically. This year she helped another great get back on the stage: Elton John, who recorded a new, widely lauded album, Who Believes in Angels?, with her. Read our review of it here.

“She’s the most remarkable singer,” John said of Carlile in an interview with The Times. Meanwhile, Carlile said in her recent Culture Fix that John would be the only guest at her fantasy dinner party. Will John make an appearance at Carlile’s Pyramid slot at 1.30pm? Unlikely, but it’s Glastonbury, so anything is possible …

Bucket hats, stand aside…

The humble bucket hat might once have been a Glastonbury staple but this year, as temperatures hit 26C, large straw sun hats that are usually seen poolside in St Tropez have become the accessory of choice.

Even Rosie Webb, 49, who owns a business designing and selling bucket hats in Bristol, opted for one to go with her pink sundress today.

She said: “I love bucket hats but all of mine have bold prints. Today it’s extra hot and a bucket hat would clash with my sundress.”

Rosie Webb

Young’s set to be shown on BBC in U-turn

Neil Young’s headline set at Glastonbury Festival will be shown live on the BBC after all, the broadcaster confirmed.

It comes after the BBC said on Friday that Young’s performance with his band the Chrome Hearts would not be shown “at the artist’s request”.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We are delighted to confirm that Neil Young’s headline set from Glastonbury on Saturday will be broadcast live to audiences across the UK on the BBC.”

Earlier this year Young announced his headline set at Glastonbury only to cancel after learning the BBC was involved. He said the broadcaster “wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in”. The Canadian singer later took back his remarks. Young, 79, last played Glastonbury in 2009

His set will be shown on the BBC iPlayer Pyramid Stage stream from 10pm, as well as broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Radio 2.

Rising tide of nitrous oxide

People do drugs at music festivals. Shocker! But while most drug taking across the Glastonbury site has historically been furtive and leaves no trace, a rising tide of discarded gas canisters increasingly litters Worthy Farm by the end of each night.

In one recent year, more than two tonnes of “laughing gas” nitrous oxide canisters — a Class C drug since 2023 — were picked up by hand from the King’s Meadow alone, home to Stone Circle.

Police patrol the festival on foot, horseback and bicycle, to keep the roughly 210,000 citizens of this temporary city safe during the festival week. They maintain a very light presence, allowing people to enjoy the festival largely how they wish to, but drug users typically try to hide their small packets of pills and powders as they consume them hunched over in crowds.

However, nitrous oxide users — who inhale the gas to feel lightheaded — are uniquely conspicuous by the loud “whooshing” sound the canisters make when being used to fill the brightly coloured balloons, which many of the younger festival goers can be seen sucking from repeatedly in the bars and crowds around the site.

Liz Eliot, founder of the Green Fields area at Glastonbury Festival, has made repeated pleas for people not to use the “damaging drug which pollutes our beautiful field with noise, litter and N2O gas, a greenhouse gas which is 298 times more polluting than carbon dioxide”. An army of volunteer litter pickers clean the site every morning, leaving the fields looking pristine for the start of another day.

Surprise highlight as iPlayer crashes

Some viewers experienced issues as their BBC iPlayer livestream feeds crashed yesterday, but an unexpected bonus for some was their discovery of the signed coverage for the hearing impaired.

One temporarily irritated viewer tweeted: “So, BBC iPlayer shut down midway through Supergrass doing Alright … went back on and the Pyramid stage stream was gone, but the signed version was still going. And it’s ace!”

Another person watching the signed coverage of Supergrass, who opened the Pyramid stage on Friday, suggested that the “signing guy [is] putting in more effort than the boys”.

Ryan Taylor said on X that the British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter for The 1975 headline set “hit a new high” and was “worth the TV licence alone!”

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Review: I stumbled onto Fat Dog, my show of the weekend so far

“This one’s called Go F*** Yourself,” (Ed Potton writes).

Looking for one last thing to do while walking home from the Park stage at 2am on Saturday morning, we stumbled on the show of the weekend. Fat Dog, the south London band who mix ska, techno, rock and klezmer, were in full flow and it was an incredible sight.

This was their fourth show at Glastonbury in 24 hours and they had the air of battle-hardened desperados, grooved in, fired up and on the money. Supplemented with touring reinforcements including a fiddler, the band spilled across the stage and the singer Joe Love often delivered his vocals from the crowd. It’s a legacy of emerging from lockdown, when being close to fans felt special, and it gave him and his bandmates a powerful connection with their audience.

JIM DYSON/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES

The intensity barely let up, the tempos high and the dancing wild. King of the Slugs was a blast of white noise, the aforementioned Go F*** Yourself as uncompromising as its title suggests, yet the mood was never anything but warm and celebratory. It was hilarious to watch new punters arrive.

Either they knew what to expect, and charged to the front, or they were caught by surprise, processed what they were seeing… and charged to the front. It felt like a unique experience, but this was the fourth time they’d done it that day. What a band.

★★★★★

Who could Patchwork be?

It’s possibly the worst kept secret in the music industry. The Britpop pioneers Pulp will be playing the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury festival today at 6.15pm, in a slot occupied by a previously unheard of band named “Patchwork”.

That is according to the anonymous team behind SecretGlasto, the social media account which spills the beans on the secret sets being played at Worthy Farm.

Normally they tweet out their tips to festivalgoers an hour before the performance, to allow fans of the secret acts a chance to “drop everything” and get across the site to see them in a small tent or at one of the main stages.

• Read in full: Glastonbury’s secret stars ‘revealed’

How to watch Glastonbury: an armchair guide

Didn’t manage to get tickets, or just hate camping? We’ve got you covered — read our guide to enjoying the festival’s highlights from the comfort of your own home, including when every act is playing.

As always, the BBC has exclusive rights to broadcast the festival as the corporation decamps from offices in London and Manchester and heads to Worthy Farm to offer viewers and listeners more than 90 hours of televised coverage and many more on radio and across BBC Sounds.

• Read more: our full guide to watching Glastonbury live on TV

Bin tributes to loved ones throughout site

A select and mysterious group of artists and volunteers spent two weeks feverishly painting the 17,000 oil drum bins which are scattered across the festival site.

Sarah Lawrence, 65, an administrator from Plymouth who has volunteered with Oxfam at the festival since 2016, said it took her almost a decade to get admitted into the secretive group, known as Binnies, this year.

“There are about 100 of us and some are faster than others, I was one of the slower ones,” she said.

WILL HUMPHRIES FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

Glastonbury lovers donated up to £850 each this year to Care International, the humanitarian organisation, to have a bin painted by hand as a tribute to a loved one. “I was asked to paint a bin in memory of someone who never quite got to Glastonbury,” Lawrence said. “They say you can take your time over certain bins and then you are told we have to finish this field of bins this afternoon and everyone goes crazy — those are the bins which just have a few squiggles.”

The first painted bin appeared in the 1980s to hold flowers on the Pyramid stage. Michael Eavis loved the idea and asked for more. Since then they have been exhibited in America’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and entered the festival’s archive in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

How to navigate the worst clash of the weekend

From left: Charli XCX, Doechii and Neil Young will be playing at the same time

Neil Young, Doechii and Charli XCX are all appearing at the same time tonight — who would you pick? We asked Jonathan Dean, Will Hodgkinson and Roisin Kelly to cast their vote for the headliner they’ll watch in Saturday night’s big clash.

“Neil Young may be a grumpy old git with a voice like a rusty tin can being kicked down the road, but he embodies the spirit of Glastonbury better than anyone,” writes Will.

“Doechii is the thinking punter’s choice when it comes to a show you can’t predict,” says Jonathan.

“Every music festival needs that one, middle-of-the-weekend, late-night act that is guaranteed to see you limping back to your tent with sore feet and a heavy feeling that you might have overdone it — and nobody does that better than Charli XCX,” argues Roisin.

Which would you pick? Let us know in the comments below

• Read more: Glastonbury 2025 clashes

Welcome to Saturday: Neil Young will bring the hits and keep us guessing

We’re almost halfway through Britain’s annual weekend of rocking in the free world, and that means it is time for Neil Young. (Will Hodgkinson writes). A famously mercurial figure, Young has stayed relevant by going wherever the mood takes him, never simply doing greatest hits sets. Still, he won’t want his big Glastonbury moment to be a damp squib. That’s why I’m guessing Old Man, Heart of Gold and more mellow gold will make it in the Pyramid headline set, alongside whatever else he damn well pleases.

• Read Will’s interview with Neil Young

Elsewhere in the day, the mystery guests Patchwork look set to be preaching from the Pulp-it (with dad jokes like that, no wonder I’m choosing Neil Young over Charli XCX), Kneecap will supply Glastonbury’s big pro-Palestine/anti-Kier Starmer moment, and the peaceful, ambient guitar sounds of Ichiko Aoba will be just the tonic to ease into what is, let’s face it, as much an endurance test as a music festival. And will Timothée Chalamet pop up at the Dylan tribute over at the acoustic stage at 3pm? Almost definitely not. But false rumours are all part of the Glastonbury fun.

That’s a wrap for today

With that, the first day of Glastonbury comes to a close. Check back tomorrow at 11am when we’ll be taking you through the best of Saturday’s performances, including Neil Young, Charli XCX and… maybe even Pulp?

Review: two stars for Matty Healy and the 1975

The first headliner of the weekend was a strange choice (Will Hodgkinson writes). The 1975 certainly made a big splash about ten years ago, combining rock, pop and everything in between as a reflection of the new genre-free era of music, but more recently they have been working on an album yet to be released and singer Matty Healy has become known for being immortalised by his ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift in her song The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.

Matt Healy strutted across the stage like a drunken George Michael SAMIR HUSSEIN/GETTY IMAGES

Still, they were determined to make an impact, from the blinding lights of the multi screen setup to Healy arriving on stage with a pint of Guinness (a real glass one — where did he get that from? Did he bring it with him?) and a cigarette before leaping about in imagined rock star fashion. It was all very flash, but with their uptight white funk sound, and Healy coming across like a drunken George Michael, it was frankly hard to take seriously.

• Read our full review

Review: Loyle Carner lights up the Other Stage

Loyle Carner’s stunning set drew heavily from his new album Hopefully! SHUTTERSTOCK EDITORIAL

It’s been a busy week for the meditative rapper (Ed Power writes). He was on CBeebies on Monday reading the bedtime story and just about outdid that accomplishment by headlining Glastonbury’s Other Stage on Friday.

His CBeebies performance had a charming lullabying quality. Much the same could be said of his stunning Glastonbury slot. It drew heavily on his guitar-infused new album Hopefully! — a celebration of parenthood that, as recreated at Glastonbury, was the perfect goodnight story. But there was a spice to go with the syrup, when he declared “f*** Nigel Farage” before swerving into a moving anecdote about singing for his son.

While in many ways an unassuming record, Hopefully! does find Carner doing something no rapper should ever attempt: sing. That gamble has paid off. Starting with the conversational rush of In My Mind and All I Need, the Mercury-nominated south Londoner proved as adept a vocalist as a rhymer.

In a genre that is all about bigging yourself up, his humble stage persona was striking. Not that humility has stopped him from building a fanbase broad enough to include both David Beckham and the late writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah.

It was unclear if Beckham was there, but if he was he would have enjoyed a set that featured cascading pianos and soulful guest turns by the producer and rapper Sampha and the singer Jorja Smith. He finished with the brilliantly vulnerable Ottolenghi (named after chef Yotam Ottolenghi). Calming and balmy, this was just what fans will have wanted at the end of a long day.

★★★★★

In pictures: the 1975 on the Pyramid Stage

The 1975 have had five No 1 albums in the UK OLI SCARFF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The frontman Matty Healy has been involved in several controversies in recent years SCOTT A GARFITT/INVISION/AP

The band formed in Wilmslow, Cheshire, in 2002. The members met while attending Wilmslow High School ANDY RAIN/EPA

This is their first performance on the UK’s biggest festival stage YUI MOK/PA

It will be the band’s only show this year OLI SCARFF/AFP

A reminder of Friday’s biggest moments

Lewis Capaldi made an emotional comeback with a surprise Pyramid Stage set. The Scottish singer had not performed for two years after taking a break to focus on his mental health.

YUI MOK/PA

Lorde also made a ‘secret’ appearance at the Woodsies, albeit one that had been heavily anticipated online.

OLI SCARFF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Wet Leg brought muscular sounds to their Other Stage set. The indie favourites have a new album, Moisturizer, out next month.

JOSEPH OKPAKO/WIREIMAGE

Alanis Morrisette conjured grungy 1990s vibes during her nostalgic set on the main stage.

ANTHONY DEVLIN/HOGAN MEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Self Esteem‘s singalong pop tunes and spectacular choreography wowed the Park Stage. Jonathan Dean gave it five stars.

OLI SCARFF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Catch up on all of our reviews below

Review: five stars for the brilliant Self Esteem

Six years ago, I met Rebecca Lucy Taylor — aka Self Esteem — by a stage on the fringes of Glastonbury, where you find artists who dream of playing somewhere bigger (Jonathan Dean writes). “This is all I know, and I’m good at it,” she said back in 2019. “And, while I’m never going to roll in cash, I’m thrilled to play Glastonbury.”

BEN BIRCHALL/PA

Self Esteem on the Park Stage OLI SCARFF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

She did tiny tents then, but two albums and a role in Cabaret later and she’s a star — holding a big, devoted crowd with her power and poise. The stage is filled with her Handmaid’s Tale-style dancers; choreography for a theoretically far bigger artist — 12 singer-dancers and a wind machine, unknown in these fringe parts.

Her music is a mantra to many and it is tough to think of a fan base as in step with their idol. When Self Esteem sings about barriers that society puts up to women, her fans believe she is the first pop star to do so quite so honestly, wittily and, well, melodically. This is not a sermon, it’s a party.

And as the singalongs — I Do This All The Time, of course, and Fucking Wizardry — keep coming, she confirms herself as the brilliant artist she was at the start: not changing, just now filling the spaces she was always meant to.

★★★★★

The 1975 are ready for their big league moment

I met Matty Healy of the 1975 about two and a half years ago, in the snug room of his house in north London, an Architectural Digest type of place, full of large windows and light (Jonathan Dean writes).

It was just ahead of what is still their most recent album — Being Funny in a Foreign Language, a wonderfully succinct (which the band are often anything but) collection of vibrant pop songs that you can assume will fill most of the set tonight, starting at 10.15pm on the Pyramid Stage.

Healy knows he is a star — when he talked to me about big artists, he said, “Taylor [Swift], me, Kendrick [Lamar], Frank [Ocean], Lana [Del Rey] … any of the culturally important artists of the past ten years” — but this is his first Glastonbury headline slot. After Healy’s romance with Swift, the band got a whole new level of attention and they have more than enough hits to glide past the gossip. The Sound, Love It If We Made It, Oh Caroline, Somebody Else — this should be a set with the potential to stun the stans and captivate the casuals.

• Read Jonathan’s full interview with Matty Healy

Self Esteem: ‘I’m political, I’m outspoken — and I’m terrified’

Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem OLIVIA RICHARDSON FOR THE TIMES

The Rotherham-raised singer, born Rebecca Lucy Taylor, is currently delighting the Park Stage with her off-kilter pop.

In April she sat down with Lisa Verrico to talk about her sexually explicit songs, becoming an actress and why people love to see confident women fail.

Taylor has frequently spoken about the sea of privileged musicians that seems to surround her and the unfair advantage that having wealthy parents gives artists trying to break through. Her mother has warned Taylor not to pretend that she grew up poor, but money remains a constant worry for the singer.

“The reason I get depressed and stressed about the music industry is safety — and that means money,” she says. “All I want is to no longer rely on anyone. To know that the rug cannot be pulled out from under me, the way it has been so many times.”

• Read Lisa’s full interview here

The 1975 singer who incurred the wrath of Swifties

Matty Healy, the frontman of the 1975, has made a career out of enraging people, be they the leaders of Malaysia and Dubai or the female pop stars he has ridiculed in interviews over the years (Will Humphries writes).

Perhaps the most formidable foe the controversial singer has angered is the army of Taylor Swift fans, or Swifties, who haven’t forgiven him for his doomed dalliance with the megastar.

Rhian Bailey and Deanna Kenward, two die-hard Swifties at the Pyramid Stage, are willing to give Healy a shot at redemption.

Rhian Bailey, left, and Deanna Kenward at the main stage WILL HUMPHRIES

“I feel pretty excited we get to see the smallest man who ever lived up close on the biggest stage,” Bailey said, in reference to the Swift song about her feelings towards Healy.

“I love the music, but the man? He can redeem himself tonight,” Kenward added. “But I’ll still stand by my girl, Taylor.”

It seems that the band are pulling out all the stops tonight to win over any wavering supporters, having reportedly spent four times their actual fee on production for their headline performance.

• Read the story behind each song on Taylor Swift’s latest album — including several about Matty Healy

Jo Whiley on her undying love for Glastonbury

Last year the Glastonbury TV veteran told Julia Llewellyn Smith how her appetite for the festival, and new music, remains as strong as ever.

Jo Whiley has been the BBC’s chief presenter at Glastonbury since 1997 HARRY DURRANT/GETTY IMAGES

Over 43 years she’s witnessed huge changes. “The first time there was just the Pyramid stage and a cider bus. Van Morrison performed, it rained the whole weekend, we got no sleep and about 4am on Sunday the tent started to slide down the hill because it was so muddy. We packed up, got ourselves to the station and cooked a fried breakfast on the platform, waiting for the first train.”

At 59, Whiley is the unofficial high priestess of the festival. “One day I’ll count how many Glastonburys I’ve been to,” she says.

• Read the full interview here

In pictures: celebrities spotted at Glastonbury

The actors Dominic Cooper and Gemma Chan JED CULLEN/DAVE BENETT/GETTY IMAGES

Pixie Geldof SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE

Monica Barbaro SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE

Review: PinkPantheress has found her stride

An innovative presence on the border between pop, R&B and electronica for several years, PinkPantheress remains an enigma despite winning the BBC Sound of 2022 poll (Ed Potton writes).

Real name Victoria Parker, the singer-songwriter-producer has a low-key media profile and some of her early live shows failed to do justice to the dreamlike atmospherics and shadowy lyrics of her recorded work.

SCOTT A GARFITT/INVISION/AP

Now, though, she has found her panther stride. Introduced in a video by Louis Theroux — another curveball — Parker sang with shimmering confidence over punchy beats and rolling drum’n’bass. Moving with demure funkiness and clearly enjoying herself, she connected easily with an audience skewed towards Gen Z, who roared along to the “Me, me, me” refrain in Just For Me. It’s tempting to make a joke here about that generation’s egocentricity but I’ll resist.

Songs from the recent mixtape, Fancy That, were futuristic and retro at the same time. Illegal borrowed the synth chords from a remix of Underworld’s Dark and Long, while Girl Like Me was a quasi-cover of another clubland oldie, Romeo by Basement Jaxx, released in 2001, the year Parker was born.

Her decision to vanish for a “quick intermission” while her band played tearing dance music was a bit puzzling in a short show like this. Yet that kind of “because I can” behaviour is what makes Parker so much more interesting than most pop stars.

★★★★☆

The Searchers: the world’s longest-serving band

Formed in 1957, the band are playing Glastonbury for the first time, right now at the Acoustic Stage — after which they plan to quit. Last month they spoke to Ed Potton about partying with the Beatles and missed opportunities.

The Searchers are seeing out their long career with a Glastonbury debut

It will be a challenge to attract punters to their show who “aren’t really from our era”, Allen says. “You’ve got to get people in who are outside watching something else. With any luck the interest will be there to catch us on what is going to be our last performance ever. If we get the crowd I don’t think we have any problem because we’ve always gone down well with audiences.”

• Read the full interview here

Review: Alanis Morissette brings grungy nostalgia to a sunny evening

Wasn’t it ironic that Alanis Morissette’s dark and grungy teatime set should begin in blazing sunshine (Ed Power writes)? But Morissette soon sent the pleasant weather packing and clouds gathered at the Pyramid Stage, literally and figuratively, as she rolled back the years with an enjoyably cathartic turn caked in 1990s angst. Two days ahead of Rod Stewart’s legends slot, this was nostalgia of a different sort — powered by Morissette’s’ full-throated Gen X fury.

Alanis Morissette played the hits on the Pyramid Stage JAMES VEYSEY/SHUTTERSTOCK

Morissette has released nine records since her 1995 breakout Jagged Little Pill hastened the end of Britpop and sent female rage to the top of the charts, most recently releasing a meditation album with an accompanying app.

But her Glastonbury set was all about living in the moment — that moment being the mid-to-late 1990s — and as the performance went on, the vintage vibes intensified. By the end, you expected a fair chunk of the crowd to have swapped their festival gear for Kurt Cobain-style plaid shirts (though, to be fair, they would have immediately passed out in the heat).

She started with Hand In My Pocket, her voice retaining the same vitriolic vroom that made the tune stand out 30 years ago. The Canadian singer then broke into her cult hit Ironic, accompanied by fans holding spoons aloft as she sang “it’s like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife”.

There wasn’t much banter with the crowd, though she introduced final track Thank U by proclaiming Glastonbury a “bucket-list moment”. After an intense hour, the sun came out and the queen of old school emotional trauma departed with a smile.

★★★★☆

Review: Blossoms deliver a set of crowd-pleasers

Sometimes as a hot sunny afternoon becomes a balmy evening at a music festival, all you want is a good, solid, reliable indie-rock band. Enter, Blossoms, whose long, shaggy haircuts, tight tank tops and flared jeans set the tone as much as their universally popular opening tracks, Your Girlfriend and I Can’t Stand It (Roisin Kelly writes).

With four number one albums, it was crowd-pleaser after crowd-pleaser for the Oasis-inspired Stockport quintet as they move through Perfect Me, then (Oh No) I think I’m in Love and Honey Sweet.

Energy dipped slightly in the middle of the set, which could have been helped by a little more fan interaction (the first thirty minutes saw only a few “hello Glastonbury” and “are you having a Good Friday?” shouts).

That is until, much to the crowds excitement, CMAT joins the band on stage and performs a funky take on I Like Your Look.

The atmosphere as Blossoms played their penultimate track, Charlemagne, their most famous song released almost a decade ago, is proof that, amongst the big pop star headliners with their huge productions, there’s nothing wrong with being a bit predictable. Sometimes, it’s the ultimate crowd pleaser.

★★★☆☆

Still to come tonight at Glastonbury

Pyramid Stage

Biffy Clyro – 8.15pm

The 1975 – 10.15pm

Other Stage

Busta Rhymes – 8.30pm

Loyle Carner – 10.30pm

West Holts Stage

BADBADNOTGOOD – 8.30pm

Maribou State – 10.15pm

Woodsies

Floating Points – 9pm

Four Tet – 10.30pm

The Park Stage

Self Esteem – 9.15pm

Anohni and the Johnsons – 11pm

• Explore the rest of the line-up in our TV guide

Gracie Abrams: ‘When I met Taylor Swift it felt like we knew each other’

The singer-songwriter, who is also the girlfriend of actor Paul Mescal and the daughter of Star Wars director JJ Abrams, has just finished playing to a large audience on the Other Stage.

She started recording music when she was a shy 16-year-old — and last year she scored a No 1 album and a hit song, Us, with the biggest artist in the world Taylor Swift. Zing Tsjeng sat down with her last year to talk about fame and her famous friends.

Abrams on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last year; with Taylor Swift in NYC, November 2023 GETTY IMAGES

If you haven’t heard of Abrams, it’s likely you’re not her target demographic. For a subsection of emotionally febrile and very online young women, she is the high priestess of sensitive bedroom pop — a 21st-century Cat Power for a generation of girls raised on the internet.

“I never wanted to be a performer,” Abrams told Style magazine. “I just wanted to write.”

• Read the full interview here

Peter Capaldi joins Franz Ferdinand

It’s been a day full of surprises. After “not-so-secret” gigs by Lorde and Lewis Capaldi there was a genuine surprise appearance during Franz Ferdinand’s performance.

Three quarters through the set, lead singer Alex Kapranos said: “My favourite thing about Glastonbury are the rumours.”

He added that one of the rumours he had heard was that a fellow “Glaswegian” with Italian heritage was at Glastonbury tonight. Kapranos then continued: “He is here with us tonight: The original Peter Capaldi”.

Peter Capaldi, right, on stage with Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand

To a roaring crowd Capaldi waked on stage dressed in a black suit and red shirt to perform an energetic rendition of Take Me Home.

The artist Master Peace also joined Franz Ferdinand to sing Hooked.

In pictures: around the festival

OLI SCARFF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

OLI SCARFF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

JAMES VEYSEY/SHUTTERSTOCK

LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

Review: En Vogue take us back to the Nineties

With TLC and Destiny’s Child, En Vogue formed the holy trinity of girl groups that ruled R&B in the years around the turn of the millennium (Ed Potton writes). They have a clutch of songs that any child of the Nineties is pathologically impelled to sing along to, from Hold On to Free Your Mind, and they sprinkled them through this crowd-pleasing set.

First up was a slick and powerful rendition of My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It), whose climactic vocal breakdown proved that original members Terry Ellis, Cindy Herron, Maxine Jones are still serious singers in their sixties. They and their more recent addition Rhona Bennett, another vocal powerhouse, gave us formation dancing and fan fluttering and a fearsome Whatta Man — whatta song.

Once you get past those mega-hits the recognition factor falls off a cliff, which explains why they segued into a medley of covers, from the Beatles’ Yesterday to the Pointer Sisters’ I’m So Excited. It may have felt like world-class karaoke but it sustained the energy very effectively.

The imperious dance moves on stage were matched by equally enthusiastic if less skilled booty shaking from the crowd and the group stopped the music to take a selfie of the fans. “This is really really big for us,” they said sweetly.

There was time for one last original classic, Don’t Let Go (Love), whose Oscar-worthy drama had the hordes throwing themselves about in ecstasy. En Vogue have clearly still got it.

★★★★☆

Jarvis Cocker performs surprise DJ set

Jarvis Cocker on the decks at the Greenpeace field KI PRICE/WIREIMAGE

The Pulp frontman has popped up at the Greenpeace field, playing crowd-pleasing disco tunes including Kiss by Prince and Love Is in the Air by John Paul Young.

The crowd in attendance is tiny, making it a genuine surprise after secret sets by Lorde and Lewis Capaldi were spoiled by the internet.

A mysterious act called Patchwork, due to play on the Pyramid Stage at 6.15pm tomorrow, has got tongues wagging online, with many speculating that Pulp will appear.

“We wanted to,” said keyboard player Candida Doyle in an interview with the BBC. “Just because it’s the 30th anniversary and that kind of thing, and they weren’t interested.”

Alanis Morissette: ‘I like being messy and slightly surprising’

The Canadian singer is perfoming her biggest hits on the Pyramid Stage right now. She spoke to Scarlett Russell recently about her fashion sense and favourite looks from the 1990s to today.

“When I moved to LA from Canada in the early 1990s I lived in sweatpants. I was too frugal to spend money on nice clothes,” she said. “I was writing Jagged Little Pill and Guy Oseary, at Madonna’s record label Maverick, asked me for a meeting.”

“I only had sweatpants to wear, but played him Perfect, Hand in My Pocket and You Oughta Know and then he signed me. Madonna was always coming in, weighing in, and one day she said, “Girl, I’m going to get you your first blouse.”

• Read the full story here

Review: Lola Young duets with herself

Lola Young performing on the on Woodsies Stage BEN BIRCHALL/PA WIRE

The last time Lola Young played Glastonbury, she was a relatively unknown, slightly shy 22-year-old. This afternoon though, opening with Good Books on the Woodsies stage, she was cool and confident in front of a packed-out crowd (Roisin Kelly writes).

Dressed pointedly Gen-Z in a bralette, chunky rings, and hoop earrings with boldly lined lips and exaggerated clumpy lashes, Young, who grew up in Croydon and trained at the BRIT school, held a captivated audience as she breezed through tracks like One Thing.

“I’m so grateful to be here, this is so special, this is so important to me. I take my job very seriously,” she said. What the moment meant to her was clear: when she sang the slow, emotive, You Noticed, Young and the audience began shedding tears.

She was immediately back to attitude and teenage angst with Conceited, before bringing on a “guest” (a blow up doll of herself) for her newest track, I’m Only Fking Myself and building to the moment everyone is waiting for.

Within the first few bars of Messy, the shouty, indie pop track which went viral on TikTok before hitting number one in January, the crowd is jumping, shouting and dancing as Young takes in a huge moment of her breakthrough year.

★★★★☆

Review: Lewis Capaldi makes emotional return

Lewis Capaldi appeared on the Pyramid Stage SCOTT A GARFITT/INVISION/AP

The Scottish singer’s not so secret return to Glastonbury was always going to be emotional given the vulnerability he displayed during his 2023 appearance at the festival (Ed Power writes). And so it proved as Capaldi, making just his first major appearance since that last Glastonbury spot, delivered a punchy and moving set, willed on by an audience in his corner from the outset.

“I’m not going to say too much up here or I might start to cry,” he said, explaining he had come back to finish where he had left off from two years ago.

He was in fine, husky voice as he restarted his career at the festival where, in 2023, he had struggled with a flare-up Tourette’s syndrome while experiencing vocal issues (and shortly before he announced a break from music to focus on his mental health).

The crowd had carried him along on that occasion and was in equally supportive voice here, as, playing a trim 35 minutes, he unpacked weepies such as Before You Go and hard-hitting new single Survive (“how long til it feels / that the wound is finally going to heal”).

“The last few years they’ve been difficult at times,” he said by way of introducing the latter. “This has been my goal to get back here.”

Glastonbury is typically about pop stars taking a twirl in the festival’s global spotlight. This was different: a songwriter who has worn his struggles on his sleeve finding healing in the love of his fanbase.

★★★★☆

Why English Teacher won the Mercury prize

The Leeds band, who have just finished their set on the Park Stage, were rightful winners of one of the biggest prizes in UK music last year (Will Hodgkinson writes).

When I first heard the debut album by four former students of Leeds Conservatoire I wasn’t blown away. Wasn’t this just more post-punk, with its scratchy guitar melodies and spoken word monologues from the frontwoman Lily Fontaine? Then — and this is rare in our attention-deficit age — it grew on me.

Why did English Teacher win? Because they do something new and they do it well, in songs that feel reflective of contemporary British life.To do it in a way you don’t even at first notice — at least, I didn’t — is frankly remarkable.

• Read the full story here

Review: Wet Leg flex their muscles

Sun’s out guns out for Rhian Teasdale, the increasingly forthright frontwoman of Wet Leg, who opened their show by flexing both biceps (Ed Potton writes). What came next was equally muscular: beefed-up older songs such as Wet Dream and some from their forthcoming album, Moisturizer, including Davina McCall, which Teasdale dedicated to her partner, Eva, and a jerky, Elastica-like Catch These Fists.

Rhian Teasdale put on an energetic show with Wet Leg YUI MOK/PA WIRE

The last time the Grammy-winning Isle of Wight band played Glastonbury they were ridiculously shunted to the Park Stage but this time they were playing one more in line with their profile. They made the size count.

When they broke through, Teasdale and her fellow guitarist Hester Chambers would share centre stage but now the former, with her pink hair, tiny shorts and fluorescent guitar, is the undisputed centre of attention. Both women seemed happy with that.

“You think I’m pretty? Get lost for ever,” Teasdale drawled on Mangetout, before they threw themselves into a faster, punkier take on their biggest song, Chaise Longue. Teasdale ended the show ranting into an old-fashioned telephone and made it look like the coolest thing in the world. Ladies and gentleman, we have a star.

★★★★☆

Lewis Capaldi: ‘I didn’t expect my life to be so sad’

ALEXANDRA GAVILLET

The 28-year-old Scottish singer has just appeared on the Pyramid Stage, two years after an emotional performance when festival-goers lent their vocal support as he struggled to finish his set. He took a touring break in 2023 to deal with the impact of his Tourette’s.

In a soul-baring interview with Lisa Verrico, the superstar-next-door revealed why his fragile mental health almost forced him to quit.

Surprisingly, the fame part of success doesn’t faze him. “Being famous is easy,” he says, laughing. “You’re out and about and people say hello. What’s hard about that?

“The pressure of the job is the problem. The mammoth tours of enormous venues. The expectations upon me. That’s surely anxiety-inducing for anybody, never mind a huge hypochondriac like myself.”

• Read the full interview here

In pictures: around the festival

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REUTERS/JAIMI JOY

REUTERS/JAIMI JOY

JULIE EDWARDS/ALAMY

OLI SCARFF/AFP

Lola Young starting on the Woodsies now

It took the 24-year-old singer’s hit song Messy 10 months to reach No 1 in the UK — where it remained for the whole of February (Will Hodgkinson writes).

Lola Young on stage at Wembley earlier this month MATT CROSSICK/SHUTTERSTOCK FOR GLOBAL

Messy was a prime example of a new model for finding pop success, months or even years after a song is released. The penultimate single from Young’s 2024 album, This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway, it wasn’t a huge hit until enough moments happened for it to reach critical mass.

Celebrities including Kylie Jenner and Will Ferrell picked up on the song and started using it on their TikTok videos, and soon it exploded into a smash hit.

• Read more about how it happened

My Wet Leg lover gave me the boot — and won’t stop kicking

Doug Richards and Rhian Teasdale, inset, started Wet Leg on the Isle of Wight in 2019

Doug Richards started the chart-topping band (playing the Other Stage now) with Rhian Teasdale but was pushed out after their bitter split. Now she belts out songs full of jibes at him, while he told Josh Glancy that he’s had no credit for the music.

Was Doug bothered by being evicted from the band? “I was really upset actually,” he said. “I had the sense of it maybe being quite successful. I also felt like I helped create it.”

Doug accepted his fate though. He never played with Wet Leg again.

• Read the full story here

Couple get married at Glastonbury

Two festival-goers have tied the knot in front of the Glastonbury sign with a crowd of 500 strangers cheering them on.

Michael and Francesca Anastasio, 32 and 35, have attended the festival three times over their six-and-a-half year relationship. When they got tickets again this year, they decided there was no better place to get married.

Francesca and Michael Anastasio married in front of the Glastonbury sign SWNS

Francesca, a veteran’s charity worker from Wymondham, Norfolk, said: “I’ve been coming to Glastonbury for eight years. When I met Mike I brought him and I was so excited. It became such a special place for us. There wouldn’t be anywhere better to get married than at Glastonbury. Everyone is so lovely and it’s got such a special energy.”

After their celebrant cancelled at the last minute, the couple found a replacement through a Glastonbury Facebook group.

In pictures: around the stages

Elijah Hewson of Inhaler on the Other Stage SHUTTERSTOCK EDITORIAL

Jordan Stephens of Rizzle Kicks HARRY DURRANT/GETTY IMAGES

Glass Beams on the West Holts BEN BIRCHALL/PA WIRE

Joe Love of Fat Dog JIM DYSON/REDFERNS

Kae Tempest performs during Letters Live JIM DYSON/REDFERNS

Jane Norman on the Greenpeace Stage AFP

Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso on the West Holts Stage OLI SCARFF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Legendary photographer on her time at Glastonbury

Ann Cook had been taking lauded photographs at Glastonbury for more than 30 years, but at the age of 90 has decided this will be her last year working at the festival.

Ann Cook

Cook was an established travel photographer when she was first asked to work at Worthy Farm in 1992 and says her secret to taking a revealing portrait is to tell her subjects to “look serious”.

She has photographed Amy Winehouse, James Brown and Radiohead at the festival as well as CMAT and Supergrass this year and Tom Jones’s set in 1992. “In those days there were big speaker stacks either side of the stage and I climbed up one and took pictures of the crowd” — including a woman holding a cucumber in suggestive honour of Jones.

“Getting around is harder these days,” says Cook, who arrived at our interview on a mobility scooter. But she hopes to continue working as an “armchair photographer.”

Review: CMAT is a superstar in waiting

As lunchtime sunshine beat down on Glastonbury, country-pop superstar in waiting CMAT brought a hurricane to the Pyramid Stage. This was a statement performance from the Irish singer, whose star has ascended since her 2023 show at the festival’s Woodsies Stage (Ed Power writes).

It is set to soar higher yet when her third album, Euro-Country, arrives in August — and her set today kicked off the next chapter of her career in bravura style.

SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE

CMAT’s wild set on the Pyramid stage had everything SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE

SHANE ANTHONY SINCLAIR/GETTY IMAGES

It had everything — line-dancing, an ironic lament for Jamie Oliver’s war on turkey twizzlers, a wave from her mam (boogying at the side of the stage) and a Free Palestine plea right at the end, perhaps a nod to her fellow Irish artists, Kneecap, who will appear on Saturday.

It was a lot, and with a less commanding performer it might have been a mess. But CMAT has a firm grasp of what sort of pop star she wants to be: think Dolly Parton with a sprinkling of Kylie Minogue, Grace Jones and legendary Irish crooner Joe Dolan. There were lots of hits — and songs that deserve to be hits, including opener Have Fun! and Take A Sexy Picture Of Me, which has spawned a TikTok craze labelled the “woke macarena”.

Concluding with Stay For Something, she jumped into the crowd, a proper stage dive rather than the cagey high-fives with fans you often get from megastars. The paradox being that Glastonbury 2025 might be the moment CMAT joined their ranks.

★★★★★

Are Fat Dog the wildest band in Britain?

The London band, who make a fantastic genre-mashing racket, have just finished on the Woodsies stage. Our reviewer Lisa Verrico went to see them in Glasgow last year and gave them ★★★★★.

Joe Love of Fat Dog performing last year AMY E. PRICE/GETTY IMAGES

“Fat Dog’s sound variously recalled the Specials, Nine Inch Nails, Chemical Brothers and, on the spectacular All the Same, early Happy Mondays,” she wrote.

“The number of disappointed punters begging for spare tickets outside this small, sold-out venue suggested that Fat Dog could leapfrog to far bigger venues. Catch them while you can.”

• Read the full review here

Inhaler starting now on the Other Stage

The Irish rock group — whose lead singer Elijah Hewson is Bono’s son — spoke to Will Hodgkinson earlier this year about famous parents, their new album and why they struggled to break through.

LEWIS EVANS

Hewson on stage last year ANNA KURTH / AFP

“None of us have moved out of our childhood homes,” says the Dublin four-piece’s guitarist Josh Jenkinson. “We go on tour, the venues get bigger, and then we come home to Dublin. Our friends have got jobs and homes, but apart from the fact that some of us have partners, our lives are the same as they were when we were 16.”

“When you’re in a band,” Hewson says, poetically, “you press pause on life.”

Read Will’s full interview with Inhaler here

Review: Supergrass open the Pyramid stage

A huge crowd braved the midday sun for Supergrass, proving the appetite for 1990s Britpop of not great seriousness remains undimmed (Will Hodgkinson writes). And Supergrass were always the most charming (and youngest) of the Britpop pack. Coming on to Blockbuster by the Sweet, they blasted into The Strange Ones, from their 1994 debut I Should Coco, reminding us that Britpop was really 1960s and 1970s rock in new (now old) forms.

Gaz Coombes and Supergrass drew heavily from their first album for their Pyramid stage set ANDY RAIN/EPA

Being only teenagers when they broke through, Supergrass were also the most carefree of the big Nineties bands. Caught by the Fuzz is about singer Gaz Coombes being arrested for a bit of weed aged sixteen, and it still caught the thrill and fear of teen transgression. And never has being young been more joyfully represented than on Alright, Supergrass’s ode to keeping their teeth nice and clean, smoking a fag, putting it out, and other simple activities.

Supergrass’s set was unashamedly nostalgic: they pretty much played all of that first album, essentially replicating their Glastonbury debut set from 30 years ago. And why not? This was vigorous, straightforward rock and roll, enriched by electric piano and the occasional tabla, and full of life.

★★★★☆

Review: Aurora on the Greenpeace stage

Conveniently concise for the time-poor or the sun-frazzled, this micro-gig by the Norwegian singer-songwriter featured just one song (Ed Potton writes). It was a doozy, though: Through the Eyes of a Child, better known as the haunting track that featured at the end of Netflix’s Adolescence and which Aurora wrote when she was 13, like the title character in that miniseries.

Sat at a keyboard, she delivered it with a purity, power and Celtic lilt — Bjork meets Enya — that contrasted with her apology to whoever sat on her piano stool next: “I’m sweaty in places I’d rather not talk about.”

The stars turn out for Letters Live

A literary start to Friday, with Letters Live at the Greenpeace stage, featuring letters of note read out by actors of renown and Benedict Cumberbatch holding it all together.

Benedict Cumberbatch at Glastonbury TINA KORHONEN/AVALON

“Letters from across history, offering glimpses of lives once lived,” said Cumberbatch, before stating that Glastonbury was a place where we “could imagine a way for life to be better.” And see how little it has changed.

James Norton read a letter from 2008 sent to the Metro newspaper complaining about the treatment of Lance Armstrong for cycling on drugs, “because when I was last on drugs I couldn’t even find my bicycle.” Ambika Mod read a letter describing Nike as “malodorous perverts” for using a Beatles song, Simon Pegg read Robert Burns’ apology to the host of a party for being in a “fever of intoxication,” and Cumberbatch read out a letter from Rik Mayall to Bob Geldof, complaining about his treatment at Band Aid.

Stars from Bella Ramsay to Andrew Scott — who wrote a moving letter between two solders who fell in love during World War II, with only one surviving — to The Times’ own Caitlin Moran kept coming, because who doesn’t want a ticket to Glastonbury? A reminder, then, that the music is only a tiny part of Glastonbury. The rest of it is about life in its many forms.

Review: Lorde wows the Woodsies tent with hit-filled set

OLI SCARFF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

What better way for Lorde to kickstart her new, fourth album — Virgin, out today — than with the first major set at Glastonbury? The morning show was meant to be a surprise, but the internet ruined surprises years ago so, predictably, the Woodsies tent is packed for the New Zealander who might be the most influential pop star of her generation (Jonathan Dean writes).

The tent was full to bursting an hour ahead of the show, the whole area closed off before it began — this is how you build anticipation. If there is a disappointment, it is that it would have sounded better in a week, with the first 40 minutes dedicated entirely to the new album, meaning the crowd only know the singles — the punchy What Was That tears through the crowd, the deceptively euphoric Man Of The Year ending with Lorde lying on the stage.

The jittery Shapeshifter and full-of-joy Favourite Daughter are future favourites, but what really elevates the gig are of course the hits, which are served at the end. Ribs, from her debut album, is the shot, with her sensational Green Light is the chaser, the finale; still the best and weirdest pop song of the century that packs a clubby coda which has already laid claim to be the weekend’s biggest party.

★★★★☆

YUI MOK/PA

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So it begins: secret gigs and Nineties icons incoming

Ed Potton at Glastonbury

From left: Wet Leg, The 1975 and Alanis Morissette are the highlights today

Here we go again. Are you ready? The Times team certainly are, having survived the A303, pitched our tents — or parked our camper vans in the case of the chief critic, Will Hodgkinson — and filled ourselves with coffee and breakfast hoagies. After some early skirmishes last night, Glastonbury cranks into full life at 11.30am, when Jonathan Dean will be reporting from a secret gig by a global star who shall remain nameless for fear of causing an early roadblock.

Other highlights today include Wet Leg at the Other Stage (3.45pm), Self Esteem at the Park (9.15pm) and, for children of the Nineties, En Vogue at West Holts (5.30pm) and Alanis Morissette at the Pyramid (6.15pm). Headlining the Pyramid at 10.15pm are The 1975, who are as divisive as it gets but rarely dull — the last time I saw them Matty Healy swigged wine straight from the bottle and dived offstage through the screen of a television.

With our reviewers and reporters covering action across the site all weekend, check here for regular updates from the greatest music festival in the world.

Anticipation was high for Kneecap’s return to Worthy Farm. Headlines aside, they had a triumphant turn at the Pilton bash in 2024 with an early morning Woodies set and an explosive late night Shangri-la set – that saw them bring out Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten and proved to be a highlight of the weekend.

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Today (Saturday June 28), the Irish rap trio amassed a massive crowd to the West Holts stage.

Earlier in the day, the BBC walked back its plans to stream the rap group’s performance on iPlayer. Just hours before they took the stage, the BBC said in a statement that while the group were still welcomed to perform, the set wouldn’t be streamed live and would instead be made available as an on-demand version after the set’s end.

Over a half hour ahead of Kneecap’s set, Glastonbury announced on social media that access to the West Holts stage had been cut off, signalling an already full-capacity crowd.

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A vast crowd with a countless Palestinian flags aloft packed out the arena as the trio arrived on stage to their usual message on the screen of “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people, aided by the UK government. Free Palestine.”

Then, an audio montage of newsreels of the band’s recent controversy was played included pundits calling the band “disgusting”, while another spat that “they’ll never make anything of their lives,” before rolling through complaints by politicians that called for their Glastonbury set to be cancelled before the voice of one of their most prominent critics, Sharon Osbourne, rang out: “Shame on Glastonbury, they have destroyed it with one pathetic band”.

After DJ Próvaí arrived on stage to whip the crowd into a frenzy, Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap soon followed embracing one another before they kicked into the single ‘Better Way To Live’, with Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten’s vocals being played over the PA.

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“Glastonbury, I’m a free man,” declared Chara, nodding to being given unconditional bail from his first appearance on his terror charge. “Has anyone been watching the news?” he joked soon after, before leading a chant of “Free Mo Chara, free, free Mo Chara”.

“Mo Chara was in court this month,” said Bap. “Was anyone there? Mo Chara’s in court for a trumped up terrorism charge. It’s not the first time there was a miscarriage of justice for an Irish person in the British justice system”.

Chara then attacked the Daily Mail for their coverage, before the first of many attacks on Keir Starmer – who argued that it was “not appropriate” for the band to be appearing at Glastonbury: “The Prime Minister of your country said he didn’t want us to play, so fuck Keir Starmer.”

They also thanked Glastonbury organisers the Eavis family for standing by them, before debuting an untitled, trancey new song that they said was “about our feelings”.

The court case came up again when Bap delivered the “disclaimer” that there should not be any “riots outside court” when Chara reappears at Westminster Magistrates on August 20, adding that focus should be on solidarity and “just support for Palestine”.

Chara added that the band “understand colonialism” under the foot of the British in Ireland, but added that the stress they’ve been going through was “nothing compared to the suffering of Palestinians”

“We were never bombed from the fucking sky,” he said of the Irish, adding that they’d also not experienced “kids being starved to death”. “There’s no fucking hiding it, Israel are war criminals,” he added.

Looking out at the sea of Palestinian flags being waved, Chara wished the BBC editor “good luck” with editing them out of the footage after it emerged that their set would not be streamed but should be uploaded to iPlayer later.

“Anyone going to Rod Stewart?” asked Chara, after tomorrow’s legend’s slot filler over his recent comments that people should “give Nigel Farage a chance”. “Did I miss something? The man’s older than Israel. Google it.” DJ Próvaí then called him “Rod the Prod”.

Kneecap then showed support for the Palestine Action group, who the UK government are looking to proscribe as a terrorist group. “Believe me, I know first hand what happens if you speak out against Palestine,” said Chara, while also looking back to their controversial Coachella appearance and argued that “everyone in the tent agreed” with his statements about Israel and Gaza and that “young people agree” the world over.

Another “fuck Keir Starmer” chant followed, along with “you’re just a shit Jeremy Corbyn”.

On their mission to use their music to revive the Irish (“a language no cunt speaks, not even at home,” they note) they said: “Everybody said it wouldn’t happen, now we’ve got 30,000 people at Glastonbury”.

Introducing the fan favourite ‘Get Your Brits Out’, Chara told the crowd:”We fucking love the English people, it’s the English government we can’t stand. Fuck Keir Starmer.”

The band ended by again thanking Glastonbury festival for their support of the band and for Palestine, with Bap stating: “One day it will controversial for the people that didn’t speak about Palestine,” with Chara agreeing: “remember those cunts, we will remember them”

After a feral crowd reaction to the closing trio of tracks ‘’Get Your Brits Out’, ‘H.O.O.D.’ and new single ‘The Recap’, Bap concluded: “We’ve said it before, the story isn’t about us. It’s about the genocide happening in Palestine. Free, free Palestine.”

Israel has continually denied that what’s going on in Palestine is considered a genocide, and has argued that it has not partaken in any war crimes.

“We wanna thank Glastonbury for standing by Kneecap, for standing for Palestine, for standing for the f*cking truth” @KNEECAPCEOL 🗣️ #Glastonbury2025 pic.twitter.com/uzZ6Tij0Hf — The Rock Revival (@TheRockRevival_) June 28, 2025

Kneecap’s slot made headlines in the lead-up to Glasto, after several MPs, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, called on the festival to pull the band from the line-up this weekend. Glasto co-organiser Emily Eavis responded by saying “everyone is welcome”, and her father, festival founder Michael Eavis added: “People that don’t agree with the politics of the event can go somewhere else!”

The controversy surrounding Kneecap’s set stems from their defiant pro-Palestinian remarks at Coachella in April. Since then, band member Mo Chara – real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – has been charged with a terror offence, for which he appeared in court last week and was released on unconditional bail.

On Thursday (June 26), the band shared a video reaffirming their pro-Palestine stance, asserting that “Kneecap is not the story. Genocide in Gaza is.”

So far, Glastonbury has seen a surprise set from Lorde – who performed her new album ‘Virgin’ in full (and scored a five star review in the process), a spunky set from Wet Leg, Lewis Capaldi’s triumphant return for a secret set at the Pyramid Stage, a surprise appearance by Peter Capaldi at Franz Ferdinand’s set and more.

The 1975 headlined the Pyramid Stage last night (June 27), earning a four-star review from NME, which read: “With their one show of the year, “The 1975 from the Internet” clear the decks on their career so far to deliver a reminder of their chops for tunes and showmanship away from the headlines.”

The weekend continues with Charli XCX, Deftones, Olivia Rodrigo, The Prodigy, Rod Stewart and many more. Check out the full line-up and schedule here.

In other news, the BBC have also confirmed that they will be streaming Neil Young‘s headline set, after all.

Check back at NME here for the latest news, reviews, interviews, photos and more from Glastonbury 2025.

West Holts, Saturday June 28, 2025

In 2017, Glastonbury’s Pyramid field resounded to the chant, “Oooh, Jeremy Corbyn,” hymning the Labour party’s then-leader to the tune of the White Stripes’ 7 Nation Army. In 2025, much has changed, and the crowd at the West Holts stage address the current leader and Prime Minister with “Fuck you Starmer”, conducted by Mo Chara and Móglai Bap, the two young rappers of Kneecap, the group from West Belfast who deliver their pungent rhymes in English and Irish.

The question before their show was, would they lean into recent attempts to have them withdrawn from the Glastonbury bill – a response to an overexcited suggestion made in the heat of a show that listeners might consider murdering their MP and charges against Mo Chara for allegedly displaying the flag of Hezbollah. Or would they cool the febrile atmosphere around the band by letting it slide?

The answer, it proves, is the former, in spades. A video montage that precedes their entrance includes high profile critics of the band, including Sharon Osbourne calling them a hate group. Later, they’re more explicit, sending out “a big thankyou to the Eavis family”, acknowledging “the pressure the family was under” to blackball them.

It’s fair to say they make the most of their reprieve, delivering colourful street scenarios with amphetamine-speed raps, their music maestro – DJ Próvai, hooded as ever in a tricolour balaclava, pumping out appealingly crude beats that call back to the ’90s heyday of hardcore-into-jungle and reach out to the contemporary street music across the Irish Sea: grime.

Kneecap songs feed back their Catholic-Nationalist community’s feelings of political marginalisation, plus winningly low-rent gangsta rap tropes, notably in today’s ecstatically-received Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite and the hilariously OTT Bloodbath. They make no bones, among constant reminders of their support for a free Palestine, of their feelings of kinship, as self-styled “Fenian cunts”. “We’re from West Belfast,” they declare, “so we understand colonialism”. Keir Starmer is fingered for his failure to act effectively against Israel’s actions in Gaza. Hence the chant.

The crowd respond to the group’s high energy exhortations with verve, a big Irish contingent evident in tricolours and Celtic FC shirts. But plenty of non-Celts are buying in, enough to have the field closed, deemed full – a rare occurrence in this rangy section of the site.

Kneecap walk a thin line. Today they allude to Mo Chara’s upcoming August 20 hearing in Westminster, advocating “no riots, just love and support”, but the conflicting elements of pantomime and agit-prop in their act that create such a frisson, also offer fertile ground for misunderstanding. There are elements of their recent experience that recall previous moral panics over provocative rap groups – The Beastie Boys and Public Enemy. Those groups surfed the publicity over their alleged outrages, but there would be blowback. For the moment, what does not kill Kneecap makes them stronger.

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A ‘F*** Keir Starmer’ chant was led five times during a performance by controversial Irish rappers Kneecap after the BBC axed their Glastonbury set from broadcasting.

Hailing from Belfast, Irish rap trio ‘Kneecap’ took to the stage for their highly anticipated Glastonbury performance despite their appearance at Worthy Farm being surrounded by controversy.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for their set to be scrapped after member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh appeared in court, charged with for allegedly waving a flag in support of the banned terrorist group Hezbollah and chanting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” during a performance in Brixton last November.

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Kneecap trio Liam Og O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain, and JJ O Dochartaigh have also been very vocal in their support for Palestine, which further spurred on the calls from politicians to remove their set from the Glastonbury lineup.

Despite not being axed, the BBC controversially decided to completely remove all broadcasting of their performance – although this wasn’t enough to stop crowds flocking to their support. Approximately 30,000 people joined them at the West Holts Stage donning Palestine flags or wearing balaclavas.

Prior to their performance, English punk duo Bob Vylan set the tone – chanting “Death, death to the IDF” as the BBC streamed the whole show live. Speaking on stage moments before Kneecap’s set, Bob also revealed his former boss signed the ‘secret’ letter demanding Kneecap to be dropped from the bill.

Despite not being axed, the BBC controversially decided to completely remove all broadcasting of their performance -Credit:Getty Images

He told the crowd: “This letter or this list of names came out recently of people trying to stop our mates Kneecap from performing. Who do I see on that f**king list of names but that bald headed c*** I used to work for.”

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This appeared to set the tone for the rest of Kneecaps’s set – highly anticipated, Glastonbury’s West Holts stage was shut down for 45 minutes due to crowd issues ahead of their performance at 4pm. Once they began, they decided to make their feelings towards Starmer known during the set, leading a ‘F*** Keir Starmer’ chant five times.

Kneecap also thanked Glastonbury for keeping them on the bill despite calls for them to be axed.

While on stage, the band clarified what they meant when they asked fans to support Mo Chara at his next court appearance. They said: “I have to make a disclaimer. When we support Chara (Liam) at the court case, I don’t want anyone to start a riot.

“No riots. Just love and support and more importantly support for Palestine because that’s what’s it’s all about.”

Mo Chara, real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, added: “It’s a good a time as any to remember that yeah, this situation can be quite f**ing stressful for us at times but the stress that we’re feeling is minimal compared to what the Palestinian people are going through every f***ing day.

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“We’re from west Belfast and still under British occupation – and Derry. So we understand colonialism. We understand how important it is for solidarity internationally. The Irish suffered 800 years of colonialism under the British state.”

“No riots. Just love and support and more importantly support for Palestine because that’s what’s it’s all about” -Credit:Getty Images

Fans have expressed their support for Kneecap amid the backlash of them being on the Glastonbury bill. One festival goer said: “Glastonbury has done the right thing by putting them on and keeping them on.

“Hopefully a lot of people will see it. The eyes of a lot of the world are on Glastonbury right now and I hope they see people are there and they care.”

Another fan added: “I think they are fabulous and I think they have every right to perform.”

When asked why the BBC would not be live streaming Kneecap’s, a BBC spokesperson said: “As the broadcast partner, the BBC is bringing audiences extensive music coverage from Glastonbury, with artists booked by the festival organisers.

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“Whilst the BBC doesn’t ban artists, our plans ensure that our programming meets our editorial guidelines. We don’t always live stream every act from the main stages and look to make an on-demand version of Kneecap’s performance available on our digital platforms, alongside more than 90 other sets.”