Glastonbury 2022: Six of the biggest talking points from the Worthy Farm festival

Glastonbury 2022 has finally begun, with the iconic music festival opening its gates after two years of pandemic-related cancellations.

Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar are headlining the weekend, with hundreds of other acts lined up across the festival’s many stages.

Weather experts are providing regular updates on the current forecasts for Worthy Farm (or, more specifically, the nearest village of Pilton) during the five-day event.

You can see below for a rundown of what the weather is forecasted to be throughout the Glastonbury period

Phoebe Bridgers – John Peel

★★★★★

At the John Peel Stage, Phoebe Bridgers puts on one of the performances of the day. In what is her first Glastonbury, her songs adroitly switch between sardonic and sad, that honeyed voice filling the tent like a heat-haze. From the second she breaks into the breathtaking “Motion Sickness”, about Ryan Adams, she has the audience completely rapt.

“Who wants to say f*** the Supreme Court?” she says, in response to the news in the US today. “F*** America. Irrelevant old motherf***ers.”

The overbidding sentiment is one of joy, though: there are lovely renditions of “Scott Street”, in which she goes down to the crowd and hands the mic to someone in the front row. Later, Arlo Parks joins her onstage for a two-song denouement: “Graceland Too” and “I Know the End”. To have emerged from it dry-eyed was just about inconceivable. PS

“Of all the bands spearheading the indie revival, none shapeshift quite like Wolf Alice. Theirs is a palimpsest of styles: some shoegaze here, some garage rock there. Folk, grunge and electronica also fall into the mix.

“Emerging at a time when guitar music was becoming increasingly moribund, they’ve done pretty well to get where they have. Three top-five records (the last of which went to No 1). A Mercury prize. A Brit award. A Grammy nomination. Key to their alchemy is frontwoman Ellie Rowsell, whose flair for storytelling is matched by a voice that can flit from shimmering falsetto to brawling rage.”

Read the full review

Those who aren’t venturing to Worthy Farm for Glastonbury this year can keep up with the action from the comfort of their sofa.

This year’s festival – taking place from Friday 24 June to Sunday 26 June – will see Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar perform as headliners. Diana Ross will perform in the Legends slot.

Viewers in the UK can watch the Glastonbury live stream for free on the BBC.

Glastonbury has finally returned, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

The iconic music festival, which is usually held every year in Worthy Farm, Somerset, has been going for more than half a century.

Here’s a brief look at the origins of one of music’s biggest events...

In 1970, Michael Eavis, a farmer from Somerset, decided to stage a festival to pay off his overdraft.

Called the Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk Festival, the event attracted roughly 1,500 people on Saturday 19 September.

Pete Doherty and Carl Barat are on fine form as they turn in every hit from their back catalogue

As thousands revellers pour through the gates of Worthy Farm for Glastonbury 2022, celebrations are underway for the festival’s belated 50th anniversary celebrations.

Glastonbury turned 50 in 2020, having begun as the Pilton Pop, Folk and Blues Festival in September 1970 with 1,500 people in attendance. Admission cost £1, which included free camping and free milk.

Wet Leg review, Glastonbury 2022: Duo prove it’s indie pop’s turn back at the helm of the zeitgeist

“Me and the boys have never been here before,” Sam Fender admits, and perhaps three or four members of his field-filling Pyramid Stage audience might be surprised. His music isn’t exactly steeped in the psychedelic ciders or 12th-dimensional mindset of this mystic vale. Rather, it’s radio-targeted, entry level guitar rock, The Courteeners with training wheels.

We’d politely call it “playlist indie”, a cheekbone-led phenomenon that has evolved from the glut of post-Oasis anthem rock and the monumental success of stadium folk dullards Mumford & Sons. It’s conquered Reading & Leeds and, judging by Fender’s vast and enthusiastic crowd, he’s the newly crowned prince invading Glastonbury with the stuff.

Unlike most playlist indie rockers – who would like to convince us they’re as punk as the Pistols or as surly as a gaggle of Gallaghers while, crucially, keeping Jo Wiley firmly onside – Fender knows his role as My First Indie Hero. He eases us in with some pounding, driving radio rock in “Will We Talk?” and “Getting Started”, then gradually turns up the dial. “The Borders” spends a pleasant couple of minutes as Tom Petty drivetime pop, before Fender tests the waters with a scratchy new wave guitar solo, a burst of pure rock abrasion quickly Sudocremed with a glossy Eighties saxophone solo from a chap in a bucket hat and Newcastle United shirt.