It was a “spectacular weekend of movie star cameos, fireworks and crowd-surfing”, mentioned Sky Information’s cultural and leisure reporter Gemma Peplow. Oh, “and music, after all.”
However sound points and scheduling oversights have left some feeling that this 12 months’s version of the UK’s greatest music pageant did not fairly strike the correct notice.Â
Classes to be learnt
SZA’s Glastonbury headline set “will go down in historical past for the fallacious causes”, mentioned the BBC’s music correspondent Mark Savage. Regardless of her “vocal command” and a “visible feast” of staging, the American artist “didn’t ignite any magic” on the Pyramid Stage.Â
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Attracting the smallest crowd of the weekend’s trio of headliners, persistent sound points resulted in “distorted and muffled” vocals, an issue which additionally dampened performances by Shania Twain and Cyndi Lauper. Nonetheless, SZA delivered one of many “most susceptible, transferring” performances of the weekend’s greatest acts. It was a “chic present” held “within the fallacious venue – an issue that has repeatedly blighted this 12 months”.Â
There got here some extent at this 12 months’s pageant the place it was “simpler to surrender a couple of mile away from the stage”, mentioned The Unbiased’s options editor Adam White. Noughties pop icons Sugababes and “grouchy, nostalgic pop-punk queen” Avril Lavigne have been two acts that have been “shoved on a too-small stage in entrance of an amazing sea of individuals”. Glastonbury organisers ought to “study classes from a 12 months that has vastly underestimated the attraction of pop nostalgia”, and “overestimated the curiosity in lots of performing over on the Pyramid”.Â
Hit-filled highlightsÂ
“When it comes to ‘I used to be there ‘ moments, this one wasn’t fairly up there with Jimi Hendrix doing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock,” mentioned arts author and pop critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney within the Monetary Occasions. Nonetheless, historical past was made in some respects. The pageant hosted its first Ok-pop act, Seventeen, who “rose above the demotion” of their set’s “low-status” mid-afternoon scheduling to attract followers and encourage “one thing of a singalong, the pageant’s seal of approval”.Â
And there have been different standout moments. Coldplay’s Saturday-night set “was a spectacle designed to be seen from outer area”, mentioned Hunter-Tilney. The fifth-time headliners “have been out to make a Large Glastonbury Assertion”, with a “massive, random assortment of company” and a “retina-dazzling, synapse-frying, sensory overload of a present”. It wasn’t for me, however “everybody else crammed into the huge Pyramid area” liked it.
Dua Lipa threw “every part she has at it” too, mentioned The Guardian’s head rock and pop critic Alexis Petridis. There have been pyrotechnics, particular company and “crowd-pleasing hits”. She drew an enormous crowd who stayed put – an indication that the singer bought it proper.Â
And organiser Emily Eavis does not appear too involved concerning the criticisms which have been levelled towards this 12 months’s invoice. “It is bought to be the most effective one but,” she informed The Solar, confirming talks with acts for subsequent 12 months’s pageant are already below means earlier than a deliberate fallow 12 months in 2026.
