Sunday night fever
Barry Gibb, from the Bee Gees, was one of the acts to feature on the main stage at Glastonbury yesterday on the last day of the festival before Ed Sheeran brought the curtain down on proceedings. This year music fans were lucky enough to avoid the mud that had blighted previous events as the weather stayed warm and dry.
Glastonbury Festival Worthy Farm
Ed Sheeran’s closing set last night at Glastonbury was a throwback to where this kind of musical gathering probably began, the ultimate campfire singalong, just one man and a guitar leading a couple of hundred thousand friends in a joyous singalong. He was aided, of course, by an enormous sound system and his mastery of hi-tech loop pedals that allow him to layer up sound to rival any big band. But at its essence not much has changed since the dawn of musical time, it is still just some good songs and friendly people expressing human connectedness through music.
It was a wonderful end to another wonderful festival.
This year, the music felt like a bonus for a warm, dry, happy crowd. Colour and madness caught the eye everywhere you looked. I watched a team of muscular lifeguards in the skimpiest of briefs being taunted by a woman dressed as a shark. And this was not just young people out for a lark. A grey-haired man sported a dazzling geometric suit apparently fashioned in honour of the old BBC Test Card. There is something inherently joyous about the sense of liberation that utterly permeates a crowd effectively giving each other permission to shuck off adult responsibility and play the fool for one mad, wonderful weekend.
The performers who really get into the Glastonbury spirit grasp the sense of freedom abroad. Dave Grohl, of the Foo Fighters, kept asking for bright overhead stage lights to be turned on so that he could revel in the vast expanse of wild dancers waving flags, burning flares and bellowing his songs back at him. He had finally made it to Glastonbury after cancelling in 2015 with a broken leg. From the very first moment (“Hey, sorry I’m two years late. Traffic was a bitch”), he clearly enjoyed every moment of it, continuing to blast out thunderous good time rock’n’roll 20 minutes after his Saturday set was supposed to have ended.
His attitude was matched by another US star. Katy Perry squeezed every bit of bright upbeat drama from her brash, colourful pop. Visibly thrilled at the response, she bravely stage-dived dressed in a pink bodysuit and was carried overhead by delighted fans. Her proclamation that “I lost my shoes in a mosh pit and found my soul” is as good a summation of the joy of music festivals as you will ever hear.
It was quite a contrast with Radiohead on Friday night. The revered experimental rock band were utterly dazzling yet made little effort to really connect with their audience, proving, as usual, a little too obtuse to just give the people what they wanted. Glastonbury felt like an open goal that Thom Yorke insisted on dribbling around for a couple of hours before finally relenting and hammering in a bunch of hits.
The Radiohead frontman could have taken some tips in crowd pleasing from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who delivered a barnstorming greatest hits speech telling a huge Pyramid stage audience exactly what they wanted to hear. It was essentially an idealistic hippy-tinged ode to remaking the world in the model of Glastonbury. Without the silly hats and dodgy drugs, presumably. This year’s bill might have looked a bit unspectacular on paper, but with the rain holding off it proved fabulous fun peppered with extraordinary sets, especially around the edges. Brighton rock duo Royal Blood practically pummelled the Pyramid into submission, arty New Zealand pop star Lorde dazzled eyes and ears on the Other Stage, veterans Barry Gibb, Chic, The Jacksons and Craig David reminded everyone that fashion may be fickle but talent is timeless, while Grime stars Stormzy and Dizzee Rascal gave notice of their intent to take over this festival one day soon. The farm goes fallow next year, but these merry festivalgoers will surely be back, come rain or come shine. Especially shine.