Everything that happened at Glastonbury
That’s a wrap for Glastonbury 2025
With that, the UK’s biggest music festival comes to a close. We hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage — find all of our reviews below. Next year is a fallow year for Glastonbury, so see you back here in 2027.
Review: Olivia Rodrigo’s stunning set steals the weekend
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people in life,” shrieks Olivia Rodrigo as the last Glastonbury headline slot for two years, before next year’s fallow year, tears into the fastest start possible with fireworks, tossed guitars, shredding, some unprecedented writhing visuals through a pane of glass — encompassing everything about why so many had a nagging suspicion that Rodrigo would steal the weekend (Jonathan Dean writes).
By the third song, Vampire, a rousing, high camp power ballad about “blood suckers, fame fuckers”, frankly she could have sold coals to Newcastle. This festival likes acts who think this place is special and in fairness, it looks like Rodrigo is having the best night of her life.
★★★★★
Read the full review here
The Cure’s Robert Smith joins Rodrigo on Pyramid Stage
The legendary frontman joined Sunday’s headliner to sing two of the Cure’s biggest hits — Friday I’m in Love and Just Like Heaven.
Rodrigo said she “couldn’t be more excited about this next guest” and called him “Glastonbury royalty” and one of her personal heroes. Watch the moment below.
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In pictures: Rodrigo rocks Glastonbury headline set
Review: Jorja Smith projects effortless star power
The honour of closing the Woodsies Stage on the final day of Glastonbury fell to soul singer Jorja Smith and she gave the weekend a send-off to remember (Ed Power writes). There was a satisfying symmetry to the performance, with the Brits-winning West Midlands vocalist having done her bit to kick off the festival with her cameo during Loyle Carner’s opening night show on the Other Stage.
Smith’s own slot was more intimate but no less impressive as she negotiated Try Me and Blue Lights — both in the realm of noir-ish r’n’b, and touching on her uneasy relationship with fame (her cheerleaders include Drake and Burna Boy).
But if the lyrics communicated an ambivalence about fame, this gig, part of a comeback by Smith after an extended break from live performance, was fuelled by her effortless star-power and darkly hypnotic voice.
There were unscripted moments too, such as when she muddled a lyric and encouraged her musicians to keep playing as she got back on track. There was also a fun guest turn from rapper AJ Tracey, who didn’t have far to travel, having played the same venue just beforehand. They duetted on his hit Ladbroke Grove.
Backed by an unobtrusive eight piece band — she went all in and brought two drummers — Smith’s set served as a soulful and, in its final stretches, outrageously funky, counterpoint to the teenage kicks served up by Olivia Rodrigo over on the Pyramid Stage.
The crowd more or less filled the tented venue yet it felt small scale in the best sense: it had quality of a secret whispered between friends. In other words, the perfect Worthy Farm comedown.
★★★★☆
Read our review of Rodrigo’s most recent album
The singer’s second album Guts got four stars from our critic Will Hodgkinson in 2023. “The bridge from Disney star to pop star is a precarious one,” he wrote. “Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake are among the former showbusiness kids who had to present themselves as convincing adults, and the results were not always pretty.
“She is only 20, so it is too early to say how it will all pan out, but so far Olivia Rodrigo seems to be crossing that bridge at a steadier pace than most. She didn’t oversexualise herself to prove she was no longer a child as Cyrus did. She hasn’t crashed in the face of endless scrutiny as Spears did.
“Instead she has made a smart second album that flits between heartfelt balladry and raucous indie rock on songs about being — beyond worldwide fame and a few million in the bank — a typical 20-year-old.”
• Read the full review here
Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter: from Disney to festival headliners
The singers have often been depicted as bitter rivals: two Disney Channel alumni whose overlapping journeys to superstardom were powered partly by lyrics that may, or may not, have been written about the same ex-boyfriend (Megan Agnew writes).
But really, they are both lessons in how to pull off the Disney breakaway — what happens when young women wriggle out of their contracts and embrace their new freedom by singing about the brutality and reality of modern girlhood, its shattering heartbreaks and the fun of the rebound.
• Read the full story here
Guts and glory of youngest headline act
It’s been a festival for the girls. After standout performances by Lorde, Doechii, Gracie Abrams and Charli XCX, it is fitting that the Pyramid Stage reaches its pinnacle tonight with Olivia Rodrigo (Charlotte Alt writes). Her set is about to begin.
The 22-year-old, the youngest headliner this year, has had stratospheric success since she released her debut single, Drivers License, in 2021, breaking a Spotify record as the first song to hit 80 million streams in seven days. Her first studio album, Sour, followed months after and in 2023 she released her second album, Guts.
She first played Glastonbury three years ago. Back then, she brought out Lily Allen to sing F*** You, dedicating it to the Supreme Court justices who had overturned Roe v Wade. On Friday she was joined by Ed Sheeran at BTS Festival in London — there is a good chance she’ll bring out another surprise guest.
Review: Wolf Alice show they still have bite
A few years ago, Wolf Alice almost missed their Glastonbury slot when their plane back home from the US was late (Jonathan Dean writes). There was no such panic this time around, with this set the latest step in the harder-than-you-expect British rock band’s carefully curated return for their fourth album, due in August.
Launch single Bloom Baby Bloom sounds particularly spiky live, a fuller-pelt take on the recorded version in which the singer Ellie Rowsell attacked the chorus intro line of ‘Look at me trying to play it hard’ with a vigour you tend to find in the more extreme tents at Download. (Indeed, later, they mix in a riff of Black Sabbath).
The rest of the set focuses on the past of their stacked shelf of songs mixing shoegaze with ragged indie rock, highlights not limited to Don’t Delete the Kisses, The Last Man on Earth, Delicious Things, a sunblessed cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams.
The band are at a slight crossroads. This is the sort of set and time slot they could have played three years ago, and they need the new record to blossom to avoid stagnation. Yet as guitarist Joff — in a weather-inappropriate leather jacket — constantly hypes up the crowd, and Rowsell’s superb, operatic, hugely emotive voice shows range previously not reached, the show opens into a part celebration of the past, part statement for the future: they want to be on the biggest stages, headlining. This will be a key year.
★★★☆☆
Jorja Smith can’t escape her body-shaming trolls: ‘It’s getting to me’
The singer, who is starting on the Woodsies stage now, found fame as a teenager and even turned down Drake. In 2023 she spoke to Lisa Verrico about coping with abuse about her weight.
“When I’m here at home I feel completely fine, then I see something horrid and it makes me not want to do photoshoots, not want to go anywhere,” she said.
“My mum will say it’s great that I can make women feel good about their bodies, which is true, but . . . Mum, all these people are online saying I look s***. I just want them to listen to my music, but I’ll probably have to deal with this throughout my whole life.”
• Read the full interview here
A reminder of the weekend’s best perfomances so far
Neil Young put on a tender and ferocious performance for the Pyramid Stage crowd on Saturday. “There certainly wasn’t much in the way of production or costumes — in his Davy Crockett hat and faded plaid shirt, Young looked like an old docker who didn’t save enough for his retirement — but all the energy was in the music,” wrote Will Hodgkinson, who gave it ★★★★★. Read the full review here.
Charli XCX dazzled the Other Stage with a high-octane set last night, putting an end to her ‘brat summer’ in the process. “When Charli XCX shouts “jump” as she did many times tonight, her fans don’t ask how high? They simply do it,” wrote Roisin Kelly, also awarding ★★★★★.
Doechii, performing on the West Holts at the same time, also got the maximum score from Jonathan Dean. “Her set could’ve felt like an afterthought on a busy night, but majestically, any pressure simply does not seem to exist for the 26-year-old.”
And then there was Pulp, performing perhaps the least secret of this year’s ‘secret’ shows under the alias of Patchwork. “It is truly immense, flags waving, smoke grenades going off, nostalgia mixing with people hearing the greatest track of the 1990s live for the first time,” wrote Jonathan, awarding all five stars. “Then the flipping Red Arrows fly over and everything seems to fall into place, just like it did 30 years ago.” Read the full review here.
Olivia Rodrigo: another ★★★★★ performance?
Our reviewer, Ed Power, awarded the maximum to the 22-year-old former Disney star’s Dublin concert last May. She’s headlining the Pyramid Stage for the first time in an hour, at 9.45pm — will it be another winning show?
“Music has no shortage of young pop pretenders spilling their hearts out for their audience,” Power wrote. “This riveting performance was a reminder that Rodrigo does so with more humour and cheeky audacity than her peers.
“In a crowded pop landscape, her stomping, lip-curled chutzpah gives her the edge.”
• Read the full review here
Review: St Vincent chills hot crowd with uncompromising art rock
On the final day of a sometimes scorchingly hot Glastonbury, St Vincent brought a satisfying chill to the Woodsies stage (Ed Power writes). The cult alternative rocker — real name Annie Clark — wore a sharp grey jacket with oversized shoulder pads and her performance was cut from the same severe cloth as she kicked off with the flensing Broken Man.
You wouldn’t guess it from her Bowie-goes-indie sound but Clark has cameoed in the ascension of two mega stars. She has a songwriting credit for Taylor Swift’s Cruel Summer, its origins in an instrumental she created with producer Jack Antonoff. Meanwhile, her bespoke line of St Vincent guitars are a favourite of Sunday headliner Olivia Rodrigo (Clark played one here).
However, it is hard to imagine any huge crossover with Rodrigo’s pop fanbase — who might have been alarmed, if not plain terrified, by this hour of fantastically uncompromising art rock. Whether cranking out riffs lying on her back, pretend snogging her guitarist or balancing on the shoulders of a security guard while high-fiving fans, from the start Clark was mistress of her wintery domain.
★★★★☆
Review: Girl in Red electrifies Sunday afternoon on the Park Stage
“It’s so good to be back. It’s so good that I’d never call it a Bad Idea! Let’s f***ing go,” Girl in Red said as she jumped into the Park Stage crowd at the start of her set (Emily Prescott writes).
“We’re coming to the end of Pride month, so if you’re a real ally you carry a lesbian,” she joked.
Sunday afternoon slots are the toughest to fill, but Girl in Red — real name Marie Ulven — knew how to deliver a fun, flirtatious performance. This is her third Glastonbury, after all.
Her set included songs such as Dead Girl in the Pool and Serotonin (in which she sings about self-harm) but armed with her band, flashing lights and lots of jumping, the 26-year-old Norwegian singer kept things upbeat, for the most part.
At the end, like some kind of lesbian Moses, the queer icon who opened for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour parted the audience. As they formed a gap she walked through her adoring fans, before briefly joining them in a mosh pit.
She may have asked the crowd to carry her but really, Girl in Red was carrying them through the exhaustion and hangovers, and into a moment of uninhibited joy.
★★★★★
The many flags of Glastonbury
Noah Kahan, starting now on the Pyramid Stage
After the funky disco-dance tunes of Nile Rodgers come the folky singalongs of Noah Kahan, the Vermont singer-songwriter who burst into the top tier last year with his smash-hit song Stick Season.
He is the latest in a line of country artists who have earned their spurs at this year’s festival.
After two pop albums failed to fly and his battles with depression and alcohol, he set his tales of small-town life to folk music on his third album, 2022’s Stick Season, a slow-burner turned snowball. Playing live, his songs switch from Mumford & Sons-style banjo and ukulele-strewn stomps to stripped-back beauties that recall Cat Stevens.
Review: The Brian Jonestown Massacre hold it together with beautiful moments
The blazing sun does not provide the best accompaniment for hazy psychedelic rock with something of the night about it, but nonetheless the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s set offered a nice bit of Sixties-leaning spirit on the West Holts Stage, an antidote to the jollity elsewhere (Will Hodgkinson writes)
Leader Anton Newcombe has been known to self-combust on stage — as seen in Dig!, a bizarre documentary on the band and their travails — but he held it together here, having recovered from a major heart attack a year earlier.
Finding the sweet spot between the jingle jangle of the Byrds and the droning noise of My Bloody Valentine, the Brian Jonestown Massacre were unquestionably off on their own trip, right down to having three guitarists playing the same chords and tambourine player Joel Gion taking centre stage. Needless to say, there was no cry of “We love you, Glastonbury!” from Newcombe. Just dreamlike rock, tinged with melancholy, reaching a climax in the firm favourite Anemone, one of the coolest songs ever to emerge from the underground. The band are a total one-off and it was good to have them here.
★★★★☆
Michael Eavis celebrates 90th birthday with Rod
Michael Eavis, the Methodist dairy farmer who founded Glastonbury festival in 1970, was famed and loved by attendees for turning up around the Worthy Farm site to speak with revellers.
As he has neared his 90th birthday this year, his presence on site has naturally lessened as his health has waned.
But this year, for the first time in many years, he was at the gate opening at 8am on Wednesday morning.
Since then he has been spotted watching Neil Young, his favourite artist, from the side of the Pyramid Stage in his wheelchair as the veteran rocker tore through a barnstorming Saturday headline set.
On Sunday he was wheeled on to stage by his daughter Emily Eavis, the organiser of the festival, during Rod Stewart’s afternoon legends slot.
At the opening of this year’s festival Emily said she wanted it to be a “big 90th birthday celebration” for her father.
She said it was “emotional” being there with him at the opening, and by Thursday her father had told her it was the best festival in its history.
Last year Eavis was able to sing a 30 minute set on the Park stage, including his personal favourite My Way.
High praise for Glasto guests
As Nile Rogers and Chic closed a galactically incredible hour of monster hits with Good Times, a sky-writing plane appeared in the clear-blue sky above the Pyramid Stage and drew a heart and smiley face above the dancing thousands.
The plane was organised by the Pop-Up Hotel, the private glamping site which boasts a swimming pool and helipad, to show their “love for Glastonbury and all our fabulous guests”.
Mark Sorrill, 55, who creates the temporary glamping site each year on the festival perimeter, is a local boy whose family know the Eavises.
Furry hats are all the rage
The statement headpiece this year, rather bizarrely, has been the furry bucket hat. They come in all colours, from pink and blue to red and purple — the fluffier, the better.
It’s been a favourite accessory of celebrities such as Rihanna and Emily Ratajkowski, and festivalgoers committed to the fuzzy trend despite the smothering heat.
Jordan Moss, 26, has been wearing a white version with black dots today as temperatures top 27 degrees.
She said: “I nearly threw up earlier because of the heat. I had to leave Rod Stewart early, it was too hot. I’m also wearing a wig. But I’m committed now.”
Some shade and water has made Moss feel better and she’s excited to see the Prodigy take to the Other Stage at 9.45pm.
Starmer gives statement on Bob Vylan IDF chants
Sir Keir Starmer has criticised chants of “death, death to the IDF”, led by the punk duo Bob Vylan at Glastonbury, as “appalling hate speech” and demanded answers from the BBC on why they were broadcast to viewers.
The prime minister said: “There is no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech.
“I said that Kneecap should not be given a platform and that goes for any other performers making threats or inciting violence.
“The BBC needs to explain how these scenes came to be broadcast.”
Review: Rod Stewart had roguish charm with a touch of the cruise ship
Just after whatever controversy was aroused by Rod Stewart saying “we should give Farage a chance” in an interview I conducted with him that ran on Saturday, Stewart was carrying on regardless (Will Hodgkinson writes). He came on stage in a glittering tuxedo and white frilly shirt, backed by three blonde backing singers who looked like all his wives put together. Then he proceeded to ensure pure entertainment won through.
“I’m here!” announced Stewart, before adding, possibly in acknowledgement of Glastonbury’s inclusive ethos: “Music brings us together.” And Stewart does have the tunes to bring us together. Some Guys Have All the Luck was a mid-period favourite, while his throaty roar on The First Cut Is the Deepest, a soul classic made famous by PP Arnold, still had the power to cut through everything.
★★★☆☆
• Read the full review here
St Vincent: I signed autographs while visiting my father in prison
The art-rocker, who is starting on the Woodsies Stage now, spoke to Will Hodgkinson in November about dealing with grief, writing for Taylor Swift and why she recorded a Spanish version of her latest album, All Born Screaming.
“Being the loved one of someone who was incarcerated for ten years was its own wild trip,” she said. “How will I make sense of that? I know: I’ll heal myself by immersing myself in the music my father loved, and then I’ll transform into ‘Daddy’ myself.”
• Read the full interview here
Life with the Brian Jonestown Massacre: ‘Each day I go into battle’
It is 20 years since the classic 2004 rockumentary Dig! shone a light on the chaotic, hilarious, violent world of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, who are playing the West Holts stage in 15 minutes
(Will Hodgkinson writes).
Filmed over seven years, Ondi Timoner’s film tells the story of the psychedelic rock band from San Francisco, led by their frontman Anton Newcombe, who seem to destroy every chance they get, while their more careerist but less inspired friends/rivals the Dandy Warhols play the game and get huge.
I met the combustible Newcombe last year to talk about stage bust-ups, drug-fuelled touring with Oasis and his life-saving heart surgery.
• Read the full interview here
Still to come tonight at Glastonbury
Here’s what’s left on the line-up for the final evening of Glastonbury 2025…
Pyramid Stage
Olivia Rodrigo — 9.45pm
Noah Kahan — 7.45pm
Nile Rodgers & Chic — 6pm
Other Stage
The Prodigy — 9.45pm
Wolf Alice — 7.45pm
Snow Patrol — 6pm
West Holts Stage
Overmono — 9.45pm
Parcels — 8pm
The Brian Jonestown Massacre — 6.30pm
Woodsies
Jorja Smith — 9.30pm
AJ Tracey — 8pm
St Vincent — 6.30pm
The Park Stage
The Maccabees — 9.15pm
Future Islands — 7.35pm
Kae Tempest — 6pm
• How to watch Glastonbury live on TV
In pictures: around the stages
Snow Patrol: U2 showed us you could be Irish and touch the world
The Northern Irish-Scottish rock band are starting on the Other Stage now. Gary Lightbody and Johnny McDaid spoke to Will Hodgkinson last year about writing music with Ed Sheeran, living with Friends’ Courteney Cox and making their most recent album The Forest is the Path in a little Somerset house.
“It was difficult to grow up where I did and not be inspired by U2,” McDaid said. “We’re from Northern Ireland, where you get a GCSE in not getting ideas above your station. They proved it is possible to be from Ireland and still write songs that touch people around the world.”
• Read the full interview here
Nile Rodgers: ‘I’m alive because the garbage men found me dead’
The party-starting Chic guitarist is bringing his irresistible disco tunes to the Pyramid Stage in 15 minutes. Last year he sat down with Georgina Roberts to talk surviving cancer and quitting cocaine.
“At 71, my work ethic is still exactly the same as it was. Last night I was up playing guitar until some ugly hour. I did four recordings and three videos yesterday. Some records fail — that’s why I do so many.”
• Read our full interview here
Your summer style icon is … Rod Stewart
Leopard print for men couldn’t be more in vogue, from slouchy trousers at Vuitton to seriously sexy (Do Ya Think …) coats at Lanvin and Dolce & Gabbana. “I’m a very flamboyant person,” is how the man himself describes his sartorial prowess.
• Check out the Style Barometer
In pictures: Rod Stewart plays the legends slot
Glastonbury headliners ‘safer than ever before’
Last week we looked at line-up trends, which reveal how the once-humble festival has evolved.
Fifty-five years ago the first Glastonbury festival was attended by 1,500 hippies paying £1 each, five dogs and one goat. This year 140,000 revellers splurged £373.50 to attend the five-day event. But more than just the size of the festival and ticket prices have changed since then.
Since 2020, just three of the 24 biggest artists released their first album less than five years before headlining. The average time an artist has to be active before being booked is now more than 13 years.
Data analysed by the Times also shows that rock acts have fallen out of favour and pop artists now make up the majority of headliners on the Pyramid stage.
• Read the full story here
What happens to Glastonbury’s rubbish?
Early risers at Glastonbury will be familiar with the hundreds of volunteers litter-picking in the morning. But only few know where the cans, cups and containers end up.
At the top of Big Ground, Glastonbury runs its own recycling plant, the largest privately owned waste facility in the country. Here, 80 volunteers work in two shifts every day to separate cans, plastic and compostable waste for recycling.
Most of the volunteers are regulars and specifically request to work at the recycling plant. Matthew Chidgey, 43, the centre manager, believes the focus on welfare has made the site a place volunteers want to come back to.
He said: “It’s so humbling to think that people come and ask to do this job because it’s so different to what they’re doing in the real world. We have doctors, lawyers, professional people, mechanics, hairdressers, nurses, all come and ask to do this specific job.”
The amount of cans that come through the plant fluctuates depending on how much music is on the stages, Chidgey said. Plastic has decreased massively over the past few years as the festival no longer sells single-use plastic bottles.
Human waste is stored in silos separately and transported to waste water treatment plants after the festival ends.
According to the festival’s sustainability team, the Glastonbury plant consistently achieves higher rates of recycling than local authority averages and do not send anything directly to landfill.
Rod on politics and potholes: We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance
As the raspy-voiced legend delights the Pyramid Stage with his legends slot set, check out the wide-ranging interview he gave to our chief rock critic, Will Hodgkinson, recently.
On ageing: “The older you get, you’ve really got to look after [your voice]. Plenty of water, plenty of sleep, and if you feel like the voice is not so good, silence. Before a gig, I have a sign up for eight hours that says: ‘Can’t talk today.’ It works miracles.”
On politics: “It’s hard for me because I’m extremely wealthy, and I deserve to be, so a lot of it doesn’t really touch me. But that doesn’t mean I’m out of touch.”
On the pressures of fame: “If you don’t like it get out of the f***ing business. I don’t mind the spotlight. If you’re going to be in the public eye, then the public need and want to see you. They’ve given me what I’ve got. You always have to remember that.”
• Read Will’s full interview with Rod Stewart here
Review: Joy Crookes’s balmy return showcases a new direction
Joy Crookes knows all about making an impression at Glastonbury, with the London soul singer’s 2022 Pyramid Stage set receiving raves (Ed Power writes).
She later stepped away from music for several years to focus on her mental health — making her Sunday afternoon performance at the Other Stage something of a soft reset for the meditative vocalist.
Crookes has a new album, Juniper, due in September and under clear blue skies her suitably balmy slot showcased her new direction, via beautifully groovy ballads such as Carmen — a protest against western beauty standards rooted in her experience of growing up the daughter of an Irish father and Bangladeshi mother.
She was also the latest performer to speak out about Palestinians — albeit less controversially than Bob Vylan and Kneecap on Saturday. She dedicated new tune Forever “to the people of Palestine” as the big screens flashed to a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf hung around a microphone stand.
Swaying in an eye-grabbing green and purple dress and headscarf, she finished with her heartfelt 2021 belter When You Were Mine. Lewis Capaldi’s comeback was one of the weekend’s talking points — but Crookes return to the spotlight proved no less rewarding.
★★★★☆
Review: Shaboozey gets feet stomping with high energy show
In the space of his 45 minute debut Glastonbury performance, Shaboozey turned a toe-tapping energy-sapped Sunday afternoon crowd at the Other Stage into a raucous bar room by sheer force of personality and a slew of easy listening country stompers (Will Humphries writes).
The US singer-rapper — born Collins Obinna Chibueze — plays radio-friendly unchallenging modern country with a hip hop edge, which suited the sunny afternoon perfectly.
Backed by a bravely double denim-clad backing band, with classic Americana scenes on the big screens, he was clearly overcome by the size of the crowd and the rapturous reception he was receiving.
“How y’all doing, this is a crazy crowd man,” he said. “I want to be up here forever. This is the best day of my life.”
Things took an unexpected turn when he began playing a country-tinged version of Bob Dylan’s Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, saying it was the “song that inspires me every day”.
He closed the set by playing his mega hit A Bar Song (Tipsy), which was No 1 for 19 weeks on the US charts, a Billboard Hot 100 record.
He looked like he never wanted to leave. Glastonbury will have him back again soon, there is no doubt.
★★★★☆
How I got Rod, 80, fit to perform
For the King, it is a daily 11-minute Royal Canadian Air Force workout, known as 5BX, while Sir Mick Jagger prefers a mix of kickboxing, running, cycling and “explosive workouts” (Laura Pullman writes).
For Sir Rod Stewart, the battle to stay in shape is approached with military precision, helped by his long-time personal trainer, Gary O’Connor, who was tasked with ensuring the Do Ya Think I’m Sexy star was fit enough for Glastonbury on Sunday afternoon.
It was O’Connor’s job to take the 80-year-old father of eight through an “extensive physical warm-up” so he could strut onto the Pyramid stage for the legends slot, starting right now.
• Read in full: Massages, push-ups, sprints and swimming underwater got the star in shape
Review: The Libertines are still one of the best British indie rock bands
There could be something embarrassing about two middle-aged men wearing tight white vests, braces, neck ties and hats and playing the guitar — but not if you’re Pete Doherty and Carl Barât (Roisin Kelly writes).
The Libertines took to the Pyramid Stage this afternoon and, despite a slightly slow start, proved that 23 years on from their first hit, they’re keeping the stripes they’ve earned one of the best British indie rock bands.
Beginning with Up the Bracket and Likely Lads, the band continued into some of their most loved tracks like Death on the Stairs, Good Old Days and Can’t Stand Me Now. Their trademark slurry singing up close to the microphone together was fully in tact.
This afternoon, as they closed on Don’t Look Back into the Sun, the Libertines showed that despite their trials and tribulations over the years — and Doherty’s recent ill health — the band’s music and showmanship is still current and captivating enough to hold a crowd.
★★★★☆
Rod and his talented girls ready for blockbuster show
The Rod Stewart t-shirts have been flying off the shelves at the Glastonbury merchandise shops and an expectant crowd at the Pyramid Stage is peppered with leopard print and backcombed wigs, ready for the Sunday afternoon legends slot.
When Fiona Hamilton, chief reporter of The Times, tried to join the “Rod Squad” by buying a t-shirt emblazoned with the rocker’s name, she was bitterly disappointed to be told only a few XL and XS sizes were left. “We’ve had some younger ones buying them as well, it’s been all sorts of ages,” the man at the kiosk said.
Zena Simmons, 66, and her wife Tracey Middle, 56, from Langford, North Somerset, had donned their leopard print tops in readiness.
“He surrounds himself with great musicians, and the girls he has on stage with him in their leopard print dresses and playing instruments and all looking the same,” Simmons said. “I thought ‘where did Rod get these girls from?’ because they are so talented and they just enhanced his performance.”
Asked how the famously leftist Glastonbury crowd might treat Stewart after he recently told the Times that Nigel Farage should be given a chance, Simmons said: “Oh, they’ll love him. He’s an icon isn’t he.” They are particularly looking forward to Maggie May and raising their arms aloft for Sailing.
Peter Doherty gave a nod to the sea of Rod fans at the front of the crowd during the Libertines set on the Pyramid Stage, by singing Do Ya Think I’m Sexy? in a thick Scottish accent.
The best legends slot performances, ranked
Taking place on Sunday afternoons, when festivalgoers have found a less frenetic rhythm, the legends slot has become a cornerstone of Glastonbury (Ed Potton writes). It’s a chance to see a big star, possibly a few years past their peak but in possession of a bulging back catalogue and eliciting bucketfuls of goodwill.
Some say the first occupier of the slot was Johnny Cash in 1992 but Tom Jones insists it was his show two years earlier, while the first official legend was Tony Bennett in 1998. So who has pulled it off most triumphantly?
• Here is our top 10, from Paul Simon to Kylie Minogue
Is Joy Crookes the new voice of London?
Crookes, who has just started on the Other Stage, is a south London singer-songwriter with a strong claim as the new voice of the capital.
The 26-year-old took the music world by storm with her debut album Skin, released in 2021, and her second effort Juniper is set to be released in September.
Earlier this year she sat down with Andy Silvester to talk about growing up on the streets of Brixton, Camberwell and the Walworth Road and of her childhood as the daughter of an Irish father and a Bangladeshi mother.
• Read Andy’s full interview with Joy Crookes
Still to come on the main stages at Glastonbury
Pyramid Stage
• The Libertines — on now
• Rod Stewart — 3.45pm
• Nile Rodgers & Chic — 6pm
• Noah Kahan — 7.45pm
• Olivia Rodrigo — 9.45pm
Other Stage
• Joy Crookes — 3pm
• Turnstile — 4.30pm
• Snow Patrol — 6pm
• Wolf Alice — 7.45pm
• The Prodigy — 9.45pm
Check out all of the timings in our TV guide
I would cycle 650 miles...
Performers travel by train, plane and automobile to play at Glastonbury, but not many can say they’ve cycled more than 650 miles to make their stage time.
Jack Cullen, who started cycling from Edinburgh four weeks ago, stopped off along the way to play gigs in pubs and gardens with his acoustic guitar, before his set at the Wishing Well Stage in The Park area at 2.50pm today.
He even made a special detour to a family wedding with everything on his bike, including his guitar on his back and his suit rolled up.
Once a professional rugby player, he pivoted to music after surgery that ended his sports career. What started as a healing process evolved into a full-time creative path — and one that has led to support slots for Good Neighbours, the indie duo who stormed the Other Stage on Saturday afternoon.
“This trip has been made so special by everyone we’ve met along the way,” he said, before his debut Glastonbury performance.
Peter Doherty and Carl Barât: the wild boys of Noughties rock
“In the old times there was a manic energy to everything — life or death,” says Pete Doherty, a large man with a surprisingly gentle voice (Will Hodgkinson writes). “We hadn’t lived, but we thought we had so we were writing epic romances like You’re My Waterloo and Music When the Lights Go Out. Nowadays we daren’t write about reality for fear of the people close to us knowing it is about them.”
“In the past we denied the songs were about each other when they clearly were,” Carl Barât says.
“Sometimes on stage, when I look into his cruel eyes,” Doherty adds, looking at me while talking about the bandmate next to him, “I think all the songs were about him.”
The Libertines are playing to the Pyramid Stage now.
• Read our interview with Pete Doherty and Carl Barât in full: ‘Life was a cup of tea and some speed’
Review: Amazing vocals but an insecure performance from Celeste
It’s been a four year wait for a new album from Celeste, the soulful voice whose track Strange was a hit in 2021 (writes Roisin Kelly).
But this afternoon on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, she gave a sample of what to expect when she releases her new album, Woman of Faces, in October.
“I didn’t expect it to take so long,” said the British-American singer, “but I think everything happens when it’s supposed to.”
After beginning with Dreams are Made of Gold and On With the Show and Lately, one of her most popular songs, she performed Only Time Will Tell, a pleasant yet slightly confused new number. While her vocals were undoubtedly amazing there was something shaky or insecure about the performance.
“This is another new song this isn’t even on the new album … I just felt like trying it,” she said, before debuting Guess We’ll Never Know.
“If you’re wondering what’s happened, the crazy part is over now,” she said of her new, faster tracks. “It’s time for a nice slow song” and began doing what Celeste does best: slow, brooding, soulful songs like Woman of Faces, This is Who I Am and Strange, which captivated the audience and left them with goosebumps.
★★★☆☆
The Libertines return with the same old chaos
When the Libertines rev up, Pete Doherty and Carl Barat’s hits take you back to the wilder days of your youth: it turns out that standing in a dank, beer-sodden venue in 2004 is not too dissimilar to hearing them in a huge festival field two decades later (Jonathan Dean writes). The best songs are still the same — Can’t Stand Me Now, What a Waster, Time for Heroes sound as good now as they ever did.
When I met Doherty for his solo tour and album in March, he had a bad foot caused by complications with diabetes — but on stage he freed himself from any shackles and demons. All that was missing, I thought, was oomph, which is why I’m looking forward to this full band set. He and Barat are, after all, a pair — brothers in arms through the thick and thin.
They’re taking to the Pyramid Stage at 2pm.
• Read Jonathan Dean’s full interview with Peter Doherty
Festival awash with support for Palestinians
Incendiary comments made on stage at Glastonbury about the war in Gaza have grabbed headlines, but the festival site has been awash with artwork, flags and posters in support of Palestinians since the gates opened.
At The Park area, the popular Bimble Inn tented bar is festooned with Palestinian colours. Murals in support of the Palestinians can be seen in many of the individual stage areas and hundreds of “Free Palestine, Stop Arming Israel” posters have been plastered across the long drop toilets. Palestinian flags have been held aloft on poles by festival-goers, or wrapped around shoulders.
On Thursday, the actress Ambika Mod, who starred in the TV series One Day, and Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, ended their talk at The Information Stage about “collective optimism through individual actions” by leading a chant of “free, free Palestine”.
CMAT, the rising Irish country rock singer, finished her afternoon set on Friday with an impassioned scream of “free, free Palestine”. On Saturday afternoon the punk duo Bob Vylan led chants of “death, death to the IDF”.
This was immediately followed by Kneecap, the Irish-language rap trio whose set was not broadcast by the BBC, who led the crowd in several chants of “f*** Keir Starmer” and “free Palestine”.
Glastonbury Festival said it was “appalled” by the statements made by Bob Vylan, saying: “Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”
In pictures: the best dressed performers and punters
Our dream Rod set list for Glastonbury...
The Glastonbury Legends slot is an easy win so long as you only play the hits. Elsewhere on site punters will be able to find scores of stages hosting electro-punk revivalist jazz but over on the Pyramid, late into a weekend of exuberance and exhaustion, this Sunday teatime set exists to boost a flagging crowd with songs that remind them of their childhood.
This is why Stewart will work — he is the nation’s friendly pop grandad. So what could the legend play, and are we missing any? Let us know in the comments below.
1. Having a Party
2. Forever Young
3. Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?
4. Young Turks
5. Maggie May
6. You Wear It Well
7. Downtown Train
8. Ooh La La
9. The First Cut Is the Deepest
10. Have I Told You Lately
11. Sailing
12. It Takes Two
13. Handbags and Gladrags
14. You’re in My Heart
15. Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)
• Read more: what to expect from Rod Stewart at Glastonbury
How country music became the hottest ticket
Country music is enjoying its time in the sun at Glastonbury this year, with the likes of CMAT and Brandi Carlile storming the Pyramid Stage earlier in the weekend, to be followed by Shaboozey and Noah Kahan on the two biggest stages on Sunday.
In past years, country megastars like Dolly Parton, the Chicks and Shania Twain have stood out on their own amongst the festival’s better represented musical genres of rock, pop, dance and increasingly hip hop and R&B.
But with the country roots of Taylor Swift, and other stars such as Beyoncé and Post Malone adopting the genre on recent albums, country music is enjoying a “golden age” in Britain, increasing its share of the UK singles market again last year, up from 1 per cent in 2018 to 3.3 per cent in 2024.
Country music’s 2.9 per cent album share — up from 2.5 per cent in 2023 — is the highest since 1999, when Shania Twain’s Come on Over was at No 1 for 11 weeks.
Some of the albums credited for the boost last year included Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Kacey Musgraves’s Deeper Well and Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene.
When Shaboozey takes to the Other Stage at 1.45pm there will be cowboy hats in the air for his hit single A Bar Song (Tipsy), which spent 19 weeks at No 1 in America, making it the longest-running top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 in the publication’s 66-year history.
• Read our piece on how country music is taking over the UK, and our critic’s choice of the ten best country songs
From Brazil to the bogs...
An army of artists come to Glastonbury to use every conceivable surface as a canvas — with one man travelling from Brazil to paint the urinals.
Emily Eavis said that the thousands of crew, technicians and artists who put the festival together are “just phenomenal”.
“It’s all in the little details,” she told the Glastonbury Free Press, the on-site newspaper printed using a 72-year-old, five-tonne Heidelberg cylinder press. “Do you know, we have a guy who comes from Brazil every year to paint the covers of the urinals. He’s fantastic and so devoted to it. Of all the places to put your art!
“The whole site has become a canvas. There is every single art form in all its glory — it’s like the best art gallery in the world. And that’s before you even get to all the live shows.”
Review: Selector brings rumbustious swing in a joyful set
What a treat it is to see a band as important as the Selector playing on the Pyramid (Ed Potton writes).
Despite being at the heart of Coventry’s inspiring 2-Tone scene in the late Seventies, they were often overshadowed by the Specials and Madness. Yet their singer Pauline Black was the ebullient, pogoing queen of 2-Tone — the most visible woman in a racially diverse but male-dominated scene. She is 71 now but looks far younger and still moves with vim.
The band were clad in classic 2-Tone black suits, black ties and white shirts with Black adding her trademark grey trilby, and they were in the mood to entertain.
Ska, along with Motown, is the most accessible form of dance music, especially with Black’s chiming vocals bouncing over the frisky blend of saxophone, guitar, drums and electric piano.
Murder was appropriately dark, Too Much Pressure full of rumbustious swing and their signature hit On My Radio was a protest song about representation wrapped up in shiny ska-pop wrapper. What a blast of joy to start the last day of the festival.
★★★★☆
In pictures: revellers wash off the Glastonbury grime
As the typical mile-long queues formed for the showers, some festival goers decided it was quicker and easier to improvise …
From Glastonbury with love
Tucked between various food vans, a small red postbox stands outside a stall crammed with dozens of people intently studying various postcard designs. Sending a card to loved ones straight from the festival site has become a staple for many revellers.
The first stand was set up in 1981 by Hester Moore’s parents to help finance their annual family trip to the event. Despite the rise of mobile phones, the appetite to send a greeting from the festival has only grown since then.
Moore, 43, who took over the stall 20 years ago, said: “These days we crave this analogue feeling. When mobile phones came out the head of markets said to me: ‘What are you going to do? Everyone’s going to be texting now.’ I said: ‘I don’t know, I guess we’ll just have to keep doing it until people stop buying them.’ And it actually grew. Then we thought, well if people can take photos on their phones and can send them, it’s not going to work. But it’s grown again even since then.”
There are now three stalls across the festival where revellers can pick from dozens of designs, write a message and drop it into a post box right on site. These get emptied three times a day and ferried over to the local post office.
Moore said: “In the morning we take the first load of postcards to the farm, so to Emily Eavis’s office, where the postman comes and collects that load. We all love going up to the farm.”
It has remained a family affair for four decades and Moore jokes that everyone working on the stall “has the same surname” as siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles and in-laws come together to keep the tradition going.
Rod Stewart will raise mischief in the legends slot
I must confess, I was a bit shocked when toward the end of our interview Rod Stewart announced, “We’ve got to give Farage a chance” (Will Hodgkinson writes). How’s that going to go down with the crowd at the Glastonbury legends slot? But then he spoke passionately about the humanitarian crisis in Palestine and, besides, my guess is that by Sunday afternoon most are going to be too tired to do much protesting. They’ll be too busy singing along to Sailing, Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? and all those other leopardskin-clad classics.
I couldn’t help but like Stewart, even if we’re politically miles apart. He had an air of charming mischievousness, combined with a peacock quality in his checked suit and mane of hair, which remained undimmed at 80. And he wasn’t starry at all. Within minutes of sitting down it was, “All right, mate?” and chatty asides about how bossy his wife, Penny Lancaster, had been since becoming a police constable. It all started with me asking how this less-than-utilitarian fellow was going to cope with Glastonbury Festival.
• Read Will Hodgkinson’s full interview with Rod Stewart
Sharing selfies for one more Glasto
Ivan Fisher’s face keeps popping up all over the festival site and strangers are flocking to post selfies with him.
Five years ago, Fisher was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and after putting up “a hell of a fight” he died on March 8, having hoped to make one last Glastonbury.
In an effort to make more memories with him, his friends and family have put up posters of his face at 23 of his favourite areas, asking fellow music lovers to take a selfie with Fisher and post it to the “Ivan at Glastonbury” page on Facebook to “spread the same joy that he spread in life”.
His son, Ben, is part of the backstage crew at The Park, and his partner, Kirsty Brown, from Glastonbury town, will scatter some of his ashes there today with friends and family, as well as at the Glastonbury sign on the hill.
“He just made the best of it and what they crammed into those last five years (including three Glastonbury festivals) was incredible,” Warren and Annette Davies, his friends who made the posters, said. “He was such a wonderful guy, his real passion was his music, and he just loved people, he would stop and talk to anybody.”
‘Some miracle happened, so I sing for you today’
Three years ago, Serhii Ivanchuk, a Ukrainian opera singer, was working with humanitarian volunteers helping civilians flee Kharkiv when Russian forces attacked. He was shot five times and told he might never sing again.
Ivanchuk, 32, said: “I’m an opera singer who got five gunshots in Ukraine in the war. Before the war I studied singing in Italy but when the war started I went back to Ukraine.
“After I was shot, doctors told me, Serhii, forget about singing for the rest of your life, it’s impossible because you have a gunshot in the lungs, in the liver, in the finger and in the legs. But some miracle happened, so I sing for you today.”
It is the second time he is attending Glastonbury. He said: “Last year Glastonbury was a big experience for me, about freedom, about peace.”
He is performing on Sunday at Toad Hall Stage at 1pm.
How Churchill’s granddaughter ran away to join the circus at Glastonbury
Arabella Churchill was named debutante of the year at the Queen Charlotte’s Ball in 1967 and romantically linked with Prince Charles, but she said she was “no good at being a Churchill” and turned her back on high society (Adam Bloodworth writes).
She went on to establish the Glastonbury theatre and circus fields where Paddy Bramwells has performed as compere every year there’s been a festival for the past 40 years. “Bella was immensely generous,” Bramwells recalls. “But she didn’t suffer fools gladly. She would not let anything stop the event that she wanted to happen.”
Wander through that area and you’ll discover a hundred street performers dressed in costumes such as frozen Everest climbers, the King and the Mona Lisa interacting with punters, alongside hundreds of other acts spanning trapeze, juggling, high wire and clowning. You can watch proper black box theatre, or simply sit on a bench with a pint and witness the chaos unfold.
• Read our interview with Paddy Bramwells on how the festival has changed
Glastonbury condemns Bob Vylan’s comments
After backlash and criticism from a number of politicians, Glastonbury Festival said it is “appalled” by the statements made by Bob Vylan during their set on Saturday.
Bobby Vylan, of the punk duo, had told crowds at the West Holts Stage that “sometimes you got to get your message across with violence” and led them in chants of “death, death to the IDF”.
Glastonbury Festival said in a post on Instagram: “As a festival, we stand against all forms of war and terrorism. We will always believe in — and actively campaign for — hope, unity, peace and love.
“With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share, and a performer’s presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs.
“However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”
Review: Doechii dazzles amid headliner clashes
It was not an easy task for Doechii — a US hip hop superstar in the making who was headlining West Holt Stage last night at the same time as Charli XCX was blowing up her Brat era on the Other Stage (Jonathan Dean writes).
Her set could’ve felt like an afterthought on a busy night, but majestically, any pressure simply does not seem to exist for the 26-year-old who, perhaps bizarrely, can count The Beautiful South’s Paul Heaton as a fan.
From the off, to a field that was dancing, cheering, laughing, singing, Doechii commanded with a panache and humour that will, surely, make her headline bigger stages in the future.
The set certainly belonged on one — a dazzle of screens, lights and dancers that supports the songs via lyrics and frequent close-ups of Doechii’s extremely expressive face. Her music is more chilled on record, but live, she beefed it up — Boiled Peanuts and Anxiety in particular became almost rave-like in their execution.
It was a thrilling spectacle, ultra-slick and confident in the way that big budget Americans can be, but never alienated or aloof and as the main closer, Denial Is A River, winded its way around its satirical dialogue about Doechii’s various mishaps.
As stage spotlights blared into the pit, nobody was left doubting whether they made the right choice. The Brat era ends and the Doechii era begins.
★★★★★
Worthy Farm set to enjoy balmy final day
The Met Office is forecasting a warm and sunny Sunday at Glastonbury, with temperatures climbing to around 27 degrees this afternoon and little chance of rain. So if you brought wellies, you can probably safely pack them away before your departure tomorrow.
Police investigate political statements by Bob Vylan
While many musicians see Glastonbury as a chance to solely show off their talent, others see it as a place to make political statements — and for some, there could be consequences.
After Bob Vylan’s performance before Kneecap on Saturday afternoon, police confirmed they were looking into “comments made by acts on the West Holts stage.” The English punk duo who performed before Kneecap led the crowd in chants of “death to the IDE”‘.
The Avon and Somerset force said: “Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.”
The chants prompted Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, to contact Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, and demand “an urgent explanation about what due diligence it carried out ahead of the Bob Vylan performance”, a government spokesperson said. “We strongly condemn the threatening comments made by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury,” they added.
During Kneecap’s own set, which was not broadcast by the BBC, the trio led the crowd in several chants of “f*** Keir Starmer” and “free Palestine”.
Last week, the prime minister declared that it would not be appropriate for Kneecap to perform at the festival after its band member, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, 27, was charged with a terrorist offence after allegedly displaying a flag in support of the proscribed organisation Hezbollah at a London gig.
A BBC spokesperson said: “Some of the comments made during Bob Vylan’s set were deeply offensive. During this live-stream on Player, 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.”
• Read our review of Kneecap at Glastonbury
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
Rod and Rodrigo are signing us off in style
It’s Glastonbury day three and things are getting emotional (Ed Power writes). At least they are among Team Times, where the weekend supply of spare socks is running low and several nights of camping have left us feeling like Leonardo DiCaprio halfway through The Revenant.
There is also the continued fallout from Saturday’s controversy-stoking double whammy of performances by Bob Vylan and Kneecap — sets definitively not coming to an iPlayer near you anytime soon.
But away from such contentious matters, there is still so much music to enjoy, beginning with a brunch-friendly 11.30am Pyramid Stage performance by ska legends The Selector. Other highlights include rejuvenated bad-boy rockers The Libertines (now largely well-behaved middle-aged men with an interesting selection of hats) on the Pyramid Stage at 2pm, followed by indie soul sensation Joy Crookes at the Other Stage at 3pm.
But given that it’s Glastonbury’s final day, all roads ultimately lead to the now traditional legends slot, where husky pop cockatoo Rod Stewart will belt out the hits (Pyramid Stage, 3.45pm) — and presumably not repeat his approving remarks about Nigel Farage.
After 90 minutes or so in the presence of Rod Almighty, it’s next time to head to the Woodsies Stage to see indie shapeshifter St Vincent (Other Stage 6.30pm), renowned for her molten guitar playing and enthusiastic stage diving.
The night — and indeed the festival — then reaches its Pyramid Stage pinnacle with Gen Z pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo (9.45pm), who may have a surprise or three in store, having just covered Fontaines D.C. in Dublin. Will she perform her favourite Idles track? Duet with Sleaford Mods? It’s Glastonbury, so there’s no telling — though it’s fair to say a guest appearance by Bob Vylan is off the cards. With our reviewers and reporters covering action across the site, check here for regular updates from the world’s most thrilling music festival.
Last time she played Glastonbury, Rodrigo brought out Lily Allen, so expect a good guest too (in New York earlier this month she welcomed David Byrne to the stage). It is anyone’s guess who, but expect her to go big — before we all head home and plan our next trip to Somerset in, gulp, 2027.