Glastonbury Festival 2024 Review

For Glastonbury 2024, we arrived on Wednesday morning by coach at gate A, to be greeted as "climate heroes" by a large display board. Wow. Quite amusing for us two who consider public transport to be the default position, very little hardship in travelling by coach straight to the entrance, on priority routes, if you ask me, but we'll accept a compliment graciously if we can get one! 

The entry queue moved swiftly. We got our programme, although the small lanyarded version one could wear around the neck is no more, it's been replaced by the app you can download in advance. Then we made our way over to Big Ground, where a very early arrival had thoughtfully secured us a great camping spot. It seems that all the world minus their dog now tries to turn up on Wednesday morning and the popular areas fill up very quickly.  The view from our tent across the site took in both Pyramid stage and Glastonbury Tor in the background, one of my favourite views anywhere, even without a sea of tents. 

Somewhat worn out by the heat, we pottered about the large site, checked out the merch stalls (but the T-Shirt I really liked was already sold out - Wednesday afternoon!) sampled the liquid delights of various cider bars and met up with friends and festival acquaintances everywhere; this included a stint at the  perennial eFestivals meeting, a most welcoming gathering for fans of this website. There, I got to closely admire that now famous pyramid hat and its wearer, not yet knowing that both would soon be immortalised by the Saturday headliners and beamed into the nations sitting rooms courtesy of the comprehensive BBC coverage. 

Having seen the opening ceremony near the stone circle in previous years, always struggling a bit with getting a decent view because of milling crowds, we decided to walk back to the Pyramid field for the new drone show feature. Which was nice enough and drew a big crowd, though it could have done with some music to go with it, and perhaps a bit more emphasis on the good causes the festival supports - it did include a CND peace sign, at least. The main aim clearly was to draw a good chunk of the crowd away from the fire ceremony near the stone circle - that worked.  

Temperatures settled a bit on Thursday, allowing for a lie-in before we faced the site again. I get that preparations had to be made for all weathers, particularly after a very wet spring, but there was just too much coarse woodchip everywhere, it hurt our feet and made large areas quite unpleasant to sit on, this was particularly bad around the West Holts stage and seemed to reduce the popularity of the Brothers Cider bar.

We love milling around the Theatre/Circus fields and the Greenfields areas, so early Thursday afternoon found us nursing a chilled cider in a quiet corner of the Greenpeace Field; there and then it finally happened, something I had contemplated for some years but never got round to: I became a fully signed up Greenpeace member, nudged by a charmingly serious young volunteer who did all the registration stuff and made it easy. Cheers, Hector! Hope you had a great weekend. Worthy message aside, the area has its own stage and was always buzzing with ravers in the evenings under the beautifully lit tree sculpture.

The rest of our Thursday afternoon was spent between Lizard and Small world stages: Mazaika Duo warmed us up with music from around the world, anything goes, Czardas, Tango, Jazz as long as it can be done by violin and accordion. Quite the contrast to Cam Cole and his wizards, first time I saw an active mosh pit at the Small World stage! His is a perfect mix of very heavy blues rock and psychedelia, I'd never heard of him before but apparently, he organises a regular blues event near Birmingham and has recently released a documentary about his travels in the deep US-American South, looking for The Blues. That's dedication.  

The Egg are amongst our all-time dance favourites who play the smaller stages and we seek them out every year. Thursday evening, they served up a nicely scrambled ambient set at the new Tree stage just outside the Woodsies tent. It's a beautifully designed new stage area providing shade and great surround/immersive sound, right next to the Tolpuddle fire and tree-top walk in the little woodland. A great addition for those who fancy something less full-on after hours, it finished with Steve Hillage & Miquette Giraudy at about 3am that day. A whole day of great music before the main programme has even started! No wonder everyone tries to arrive early, particularly in good weather, and after the heat broke on Thursday it was pretty much perfect (caution, though - a muddy year is now overdue).

The licence conditions won't allow the big stages to swing into action before mid-day Friday; it's a slightly strange year for us, line up wise: none of the top brass on the bill appealed much, but with over 100 stages providing entertainment that was no problem whatsoever.  

So, Friday. The avantgarde is alive and present: The Park stage opened with a performance of Yoko Ono's Voice piece for soprano. I remember seeing her play this stage in 2014. Alas, she's 91 now and no longer performs live, so Bishi Bhattacharya did it instead. Like a lot of Yoko's work (there's a comprehensive exhibition at the Tate Modern until September), this bit involved audience participation - and screams. Let's keep in mind that at the time, discord was very much a response to the war in Vietnam, and decades later that message stands strong, although the geography of wars has shifted. The thought is mirrored when Marina Abramovic, another vintage performance artist of international renown, later takes to the Pyramid stage in a peace-sign outfit and asks the crowd to observe 7 minutes of contemplative silence.  

Sofia Kourtesis offers more light-hearted fare at West Holts; she is a Berlin based Peruvian DJ who has branched out into live music. I then managed to squeeze in a bit of Squeeze at the Pyramid, only to return to the Park for a rousing set of Irish folk punk by The Mary Wallopers, followed by the lovely This Is The Kit. 

Back to the Pyramid for who turned into the highlight of that day, although neither time nor location were quite right for her: PJ Harvey delivered a mesmerising set, ideal for a sunset, midnight, or failing that, inside-a-tent slot. There's a darkness of the human soul to it (sorry if that sounds pretentious, I can't word it any better) - actually, it fitted very well with the atmosphere at Heilung, who we saw next at West Holts, performing a decidedly weird shamanic ritual accompanied by hypnotic drums (a week later, I am still trying to figure out what it all could have been about). 

After so much oddity, we did not fancy a big pop workout (Dua Lipa), but went for a wander around the South East Corner instead. I am keenly aware that "tourists" who mainly want to look at the bizarre artworks are clogging up valuable hard-core dance space after midnight, so an early stroll before the big crowds arrived was perfect for us. The IICON stage in Block9 can apparently take about 15,000 ravers, but even that's not enough when Bicep are scheduled to play their Chroma show.

 

Our Saturday started with Femi Kuti's energetic performance at the main stage, family tradition, his father played there back 1984, followed by a good run at Woodsies: Mannequin Pussy (provocative punk), Soccer Mum and Fat White Family, another excellent high-octane performance. 

A good deal mellower but utterly beautiful was Michael Kiwanuka, and for him the afternoon-in-the-sun slot at the Pyramid was very well-timed and placed. Saturday's highlight for me, come on, Michael, give us some more new music, it's been a while!

Having missed out on Lankum due to the schedule clash (Saturday afternoon was just the worst, almost everything I really wanted to see was on at the same time, and the distances and crowds make stage hopping neigh impossible), I would have liked to hike up to the Park again for The Breeders, but the rest of our little group objected to so much exertion, so we went to West Holts instead. There was a time, back in the day, when the West Holts stage line-up aligned so well with my musical taste that I could have happily milled around there all day (assisted by the great food & drink choices, hello Leons!), but their genre has shifted a little. The end of  Black Puma's set and the full jazzy sound of Masego made me very happy, though. Always good to try something new.

Then I was persuaded to come along and see Coldplay. I don 't even like Coldplay! Readers, I was weak, tired and a bit emotional. And that's how they get you. On the upside, I was there to see and hear the wearer of that Pyramid hat being serenaded and to hear Chris Martin sing Fix You to Michael J Fox and whilst I found that, errm, a little odd, MJF later said it was a great moment for him and that makes it alright. Plus, the whole light and wristband show was quite spectacular. So, well played, Coldplay. 

I finished the night at the new tree stage listening to something ambient and chatting to strangers and I can't remember for the life of me what/who it was, but it was lovely. 

 

Our Sunday started with Interlinked, a beautiful performance by the Birmingham Royal Ballet with new music by Luke Howard. Their earth-coloured understated outfits made a cool little contribution to the gender debate,  oddly enough they also perfectly matched the orange-brown dust that was covering the whole festival site by now. One of the few downsides of warm & dry weather.

Seasick Steve's pared down blues was quite the contrast afterwards. 

I managed to drag my somewhat exhausted friend up to the Park again, my high expectations for the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets based entirely on a hunch and a line in the programme that described them as being akin to King Gizzard & the Wizard Lizard; sometimes a well-placed comparison saves a thousand words.  Few things make me happier than the sound of a psychedelic guitar turned up to 10, and whilst they attracted a good crowd the Park wasn't bursting at the seams and left us room to dance;  I have learned to avoid the Park area when very popular acts are playing, it gets uncomfortable when too full.  These Crumpets also managed to drown out the soundbleed from the Stonebridge bar. Perfect! Apart from that name, though...

From the new to the tried and trusted, Steel Pulse played West Holts again and are still one of the UKs best reggae bands with a great blend of message and music, this must be the third time we saw them play here and they never disappoint.  Nor did The Cat Empire who played the Avalon tent stage, which is now bigger and has an outside screen, but somehow the whole Field of Avalon looks diminished. It suffers from the loss of the Cafe venue that hosted many late-night gigs and used to be a favourite refuge on rainy nights. I wonder what happened to it, and whether a venue like the Tiny Tea Tent that now suffers a bit from the noise surrounding its traditional spot could fill the gap and make that field more of a hang-out destination again, but is there even room in the new lay out? 

The National had been on my must-see-one-day list for some time, I finally got to scratch that itch on Sunday night. Their surprise guest was Kate Stables (from This is the Kit) and Matt Berninger, the singer, is more willing to immerse himself in the sea of fans than any front man I have ever seen, must be a nightmare for security but the crowd loved it and the general atmosphere was just great. 

Hungry, thirsty , quite exhausted and a bit low because, well, Sunday night it's nearly over, we made our way over to the cider bus for a final pint of that hot and spicy stuff. Call out to Exotic Tagine, who sorted out our hunger with a large portion of couscous and super friendly chat, the Moroccan chap who served us must have been tired too, but he hid it well. We had same very good meals over the weekend (another call out to that Indonesian Curry place opposite the BBC introducing stage) and even found some stalls that did the £6 meal deal. 

Not quite ready to call it quits yet we caught up with Suntou Susso at the Bandstand in the market area, an enthusiastic kora player from The Gambia who'd surrounded himself with a good band of musicians from Bristol. Great to dance to, who needs famous DJs anyway?  Stopping here and where we then paid a final visit to the Greenfields to see the Magic Numbers,  at the Small World stage. Didn't quite make it to the end, but that's no slight on the band, we just didn't have the stamina and still needed to pack up our tent for a very early start as our return coach was scheduled for 5.30am. We waved goodbye to any notion of sleep and packed up our tent with the odd bat flattering overhead (we'd camped near the shrubs and trees lining Muddy Lane). As we left, the ubiquitous seagulls were descending onto the empty Pyramid field for their big feast. Soon cows and wildlife would take over the site again, and that's the way it should be, we'd had our fun, and lots of it.

 

Final thoughts, a few days later:

Nighttime entertainment is mostly split between the fabled South East Corner with its wild shenanigans and the Western area that centres on Arcadia, now a dragonfly, not as menacing as that big old spider sculpture but looks great when lit up at night. This part extends to the bar and small stages in the Park and Silver Hayes.  Some bottle neck situations around Arcadia have been improved, they've moved a toilet block. Perhaps there should be more emphasis in the programme on all the other late-night action that's dotted around, the small stages that run until late and the new Tree stage area, it would help spreading out the crowds. 

Other room for improvement: the soundbleed between the 2 Glade stage areas is as irritating as ever, walking the path between them is like being in one of the 7 circles of audio hell.  Similarly irritating is the lack of co-ordination between Park stage and Stonebridge bar. Why can't the bar tone it down during the stage sets? 

I somehow managed to avoid all major crowd issues, a mixture of having somewhat less-mainstream interests, knowing the area well enough to avoid bottlenecks - and a dollop of sheer dumb luck, I reckon. The site is large and can accommodate a lot of people, but there's now a lively debate about overcrowding in some areas; mostly at late night sets by more famous DJs and when/where performers with obvious mass appeal got booked for smaller stages: this year's examples being Sugarbabes at West Holts (capacity 35k) , Avril Lavigne at the Other Stage (capacity around 65k, but proved not enough), the ubiquitous not-so "secret set" at Woodsies that turned out to be Kasabian. Having big names play "smaller" venues whether announced or as surprises has been part of the Glastonbury tradition for some time, but in the age of mobile phones this creates problems. Phone coverage has much improved, and it is needed to make the event's app and various cash-free payment systems work, but Keeping a Secret is now a Lost Art (yes, that's a sneaky reference to one of last year's headliners - whatever you dooo, don't tell anyone!). 

So what to do, quo vadis, Glastonbury? In some ways the festival might find itself at a crossroads; where is it going, down the road of pure hedonism? Or will it insist on widening our horizons? Officially, it is the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and it has strong links to political protest and counterculture traditions.  This is still there with discussions and topical gigs at the Leftfield tent and Greenpeace Field, Green Futures and the Tipi village, to name some. There are loud calls to extend the crowded dance areas due to demand, more stages, earlier start, later finish (but what about the licence, guys?!), calls for that South East Corner to take over parts of the adjacent Avalon and Greenfields spaces.... I have read all sorts of proposal in recent days. Frankly, I would not like these other quirkier areas to shrink and disappear, they are very much what makes the whole vent so distinctive and special and rooted in its location.  Without them, the festival could morph into a just a mix of Hyde Park Calling (big pop and rock acts on the main stages) and Creamfields (the dance areas) - in rural Somerset. I am old enough to remember all-out dance acts like the Chemical Brothers headlining the Pyramid, perhaps that's something that could be reconsidered. 

There are even some calls for reducing punter numbers, seriously? Isn't it hard enough to get tickets as is? There aren't too many people on site, but too many people clustering at the same stages - sometimes. And part of the problem isn't so much a big increase in punters, but the fact that more of them are now aiming to be up all night. 

A lot of this could be addressed with clever scheduling of bigger acts and early announcements of areas that are at full capacity on the display boards - this happened when the Charli XCX gig packed out Silver Hayes and the announcement seems to have worked. There's so much entertainment on offer that picking an alternative is hardly difficult if your first choice is already full.

Glastonbury Festival is so popular and oversubscribed that it sells its 138,000 tickets in about half an hour without even announcing any confirmed line up. It would probably sell out in 5 minutes if the servers could cope. That should give the organisers some reassurance if they want to continue to make choices for the future that are not entirely driven by popular demand. But they also have to break even and the pandemic years must have brought them to the financial brink.  I've read that there are plans to take a gap year in 2026, it will be interesting to see what changes will be implemented following that. Anyway, the future belongs to the young crowd, and the policy to offer lots of on-site-crew jobs to those who can't afford the ticket price helps with that, assuming this continues. I hope it will. 

Enough of the sombre stuff - off to find Mdou Moctar, Little Simz and Lankum and some of the other things I missed on iplayer.... Glastonbury is the gift that keeps on giving!

Latest Updates