Saturday was a night of four headliners at Glastonbury, with fans facing the cruel choice between pop queen Charli XCX, rock legend Neil Young, disco scamps Scissor Sisters and Doechii – rap’s hottest new voice.
Charli XCX won the biggest audience, closing down The Other Stage and turning it into a sweat-drenched, laser lit club night.
Young, topping the bill on the Pyramid Stage, also delivered an all-time hits set, with gnarly, ragged versions of hits like Cinnamon Girl and Like A Hurricane.
Doechii, who only played for 45 minutes, still managed to mark herself out as a future headliner; while Scissor Sisters brought out actual Gandalf Sir Ian McKellen to perform Invisible Light.
There was a lot to take in, then, thanks to one of the most crammed line-ups in the festival’s history.
Let’s start with Charli XCX.
Using up the festival’s entire smoke machine budget, she was alone on stage all night, but in constant motion – a mesmerising blur of hip-rolls, hair tosses, stomach crunches and knee-drops.
She opened her set with a mash-up of 360 and Von Dutch, two of the the standout track from last summer’s culture-swallowing Brat album, as the record’s logo burst into flames behind her – indicating that she’s slowly coming to terms with leaving it behind.
Despite rumours that she’d bring out a host of special guests, Lorde doesn’t appear to duet on Girl, So Confusing, and Billie Eilish is missing from the number one smash, Guess.
The only famous face we got was Gracie Abrams, who appeared on the big screens to perform the “Apple dance” that went viral on TikTok last year.
Fans were momentarily disappointed, but nothing could detract from the insolent, messy glory of tracks like Club Classics or Sympathy Is A Knife.
At the end of her set, she reclaimed I Love It – the bubblegum pop anthem she donated to Icona Pop in 2012, before reassuring fans that she wasn’t really ready to let go of her breakthrough album, after all.
“I think you have all proven to me that Brat is forever,” flashed a message on the video screens as the music disintegrated into glitched siren sounds and pyrotechnics exploded.
“And honestly, I don’t know who I am if it’s over.”
So that’s settled: Charli can come back and headline again after Glastonbury’s fallow year in 2026.
Neil Young’s set was a very different, but equally gnarly, proposition.
The rocker walked on stage alone, hunched over with his face obscured by a corduroy cap, to play a hushed acoustic version of the classic Sugar Mountain.
But that was a cunning misdirect.
His new band, The Chrome Hearts, joined him immediately afterwards, launching into a furious flurry of guitar anthems – Be The Rain, Cinnamon Girl and Hey Hey, My My – full of jagged chords and intense solos.
The crowd swooned when they switched back to acoustic mode for The Needle and The Damage Done and Harvest Moon; and cheered when Young announced he was playing Hank Williams’ old guitar (a battered and worn acoustic) on the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song Looking Forward.
The star might be 79 years old, but his voice is still unusually supple and youthful, cutting through the night with crystalline clarity, and buoyed by The Chrome Hearts’ close-knit harmonies.
They were at their best on the heavier material – in particular Like A Hurricane, whose time-bending guitar solo was a revelation. Young always seems to get great pleasure from playing that particular song, and it was mesmerising to watch.
He ended the set with Tear Your Hatred Down, a savage takedown of politicians and the war machine, that contrasts the idealism of the 1960s with the cruelties of the modern world.
Both as a protest song and a lament for human nature, it was a powerful way to end a peerless set.
Doechii drew a huge crowd to the West Holts Stage – including pop star Harry Styles, who danced away to her brief set in the middle of the field, unbothered by fans.
The Florida-born rapper, known to fans as the Swamp Princess, sang, rapped, danced and changed outfits multiple times, in a show that was themed as a lesson in the history of hip-hop.
Her flow was flawless on breakout tracks like Persuasive, Anxiety, Denial Is A River and Alter Ego – and she even made fun of herself, recreating a popular social media clip from this year’s Met Gala, where she was overhead demanding “more umbrellas” to cover her body as she changed outfits.
She was aided by her eight dancers, who climbed over props, twerked and even vogued while descending a slide.
Doechii’s rise over the past year has been nothing short of phenomenal and, while fans await her debut album, this slick, bespoke Glastonbury performance felt like a new feather in her cap.
Scissor Sisters, meanwhile, continued their reunion by packing out the Woodsies tent for a set that reminded everyone how many classics they’d written – from I Don’t Feel Like Dancing and Laura to the everso sleazy Filthy/Gorgeous.
Beth Ditto joined them for the latter, while Jessie Ware took a celebratory strut through I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’, and Sir Ian McKellen recreated his monologue from the 2010 single Invisible Light.
As he stood in the wings, fans started chanting “Oh, Ian McKellen” to the tune of The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army, at which the actor clasped his hands to his face in shock.
What happened earlier?
Although the clash between acts was tough, none of them suffered the ignominy of a small crowd.
Charli definitively had the biggest audience and while Young’s set started with a thinner-than-usual crowd at the Pyramid Stage, people drifted in during the first 15 minutes – and most of those who did stuck with him.
Earlier in the day, Kaiser Chiefs opened up the main stage, striding out to the strains of the Was (Not Was) classic, Walk The Dinosaur.
Was it a self-deprecating reference to their advancing age? Who knows. But after 20 years, songs like Every Day I Love You Less And Less and I Predict A Riot sounded as fresh as ever.
US country singer Brandi Carlile was also a revelation to much of the audience.
A huge star at home, she’d never had a Top 40 album in this country until she released the Elton John collaboration Who Believes In Angels this April.
Despite her early afternoon slot, she won the crowd over with a gorgeous cover of Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees, and prompted a few tears with the acoustic ballad You Without Me, which depicts her daughter’s rocky teenage years.
By the end of the set, she was on the receiving end of a supportive chant of “olé, olé, olé”.
“It’s official,” Carlile beamed. “I have now played the greatest festival on earth… And it only took me to 44 years old to do it.”
Jade drew a huge crowd to the Woodsies stage, displaying her 17 years of pop experience with a slick, high concept set full of pop bangers; including a thrilling medley of songs from her old band, Little Mix.
And Raye got one of the day’s biggest audiences at the Pyramid Stage. Backed by a miniature orchestra, she put a jazzy spin on hits like You Don’t Know Me, Oscar Winning Tears and her award-winning psychodrama Escapism.
The singer played the same stage just two years ago, near the bottom of the bill, before her career enjoyed a remarkable turnaround that culminated in a record haul of six Brit Awards.
“When I came out here I was so nervous,” said the singer, who’d earlier admitted her voice was “a bit croaky”.
“Now I feel so up home at here and I don’t want to leave.”
Raye inherited her audience from a “secret” set by Pulp, who’d been billed as Patchwork, fooling no-one.
The band were there to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their career-making headline performance in 1995, when they were booked at the last minute to replace The Stone Roses.
“We only had 10 days notice,” said frontman Jarvis Cocker, “so consequently we were the most nervous we’ve ever been.
“But today I feel very relaxed.”
Haim were the special guests on The Park stage, drawing a humungous crowd for their rhythmic take on classic rock. Highlights included set opener The Wire (a song they wrote in 2008!), the sleazy groove of Gasoline and the party-jam R&B of Relationships.
The day had a share of controversy, courtesy of rap trio Kneecap and punk-rap band Bob Vylan, after their performances on the West Holts Stage.
Police say they are assessing videos of comments made by both acts, who criticised the UK government and Israel’s actions in Gaza during consecutive, politically-charged sets.
There was drama on The Other Stage – the festival’s second-biggest arena – after Deftones had to pull out due to illness.
A quick ring around the site fixed the gap in the schedule, with UK rap supremo Skepta putting on an impromptu performance.
“No crew, no production but I am ready to shut Glastonbury down,” he posted on social media, ahead of the show. “Victory lap time.”
He was preceded by Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective, whose life-affirming jazz and Afrobeat grooves got a helping hand from special guests including Loyle Carner and Sasha Keable.
Led by drummer Femi Koleoso, they brought a carnival atmosphere to the field, with the audience making space for each other to sway, shake and generally flail their limbs as the sun set over Worthy Farm.
“You practice your whole life for just one second that might feel like that,” beamed Koleoso as he came off stage.
“Sometimes we’re in these really negative bubbles where it’s like, we all hate each other, we’re all divided. But sometimes you just need to go to Glastonbury and see that that’s a myth.
“Love for one another and respect for each other and our neighbours, it does exist, and it’s a special thing to be the soundtrack to that.”
The festival continues on Sunday with performances from Rod Stewart, Chic, Wolf Alice, Joy Crookes and Pyramid Stage headliner Olivia Rodrigo.
