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

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.

Full review:

For anyone who’s not been following the travesty unfolding in the US:

Wondering how the weather’s looking for this evening and tomorrow? Here’s the latest forecast:

If anyone managed to turn pandemic lemons into pandemic lemonade, it was Arlo Parks. The London-born artist shot to fame at double speed thanks to her soothing, lo-fi indie-pop, which provided comfort to a nation in lockdown.

Whether she was articulating the weight of a friend’s depression in “Black Dog” or providing hopeful solace in “Hurt”, Parks was not just the musical star of 2020, but its saviour. Here at Glastonbury among the showers, the Mercury Prize-winning artist beams from the Park Stage with such confidence that you’re almost convinced it was named after her.

As the soggy crowd bobs to the vulnerable “Blueish”, the catharsis of listening at home isn’t just matched, but superseded. “Music has been that healing space for me” the 21-year-old tells us, as the delicate pangs of “Black Dog” begin. Parks, who released her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams last year, glides effortlessly through the set. The crowd – who’ve waited for a moment like this since 2019 – revel in her diaphonous vocals. A moment of pure sunshine. ★★★★☆

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.

Here are some fantastic photos of Glastonbury through the years:

Per The Guardian, Idles frontman Joe Talbot introduced the band’s song “Mother” with the following:

“They just reversed the laws back to the Middle Ages in America, where they’re just deciding whether it should be illegal to have an abortion or not.

“Long love the open minded. Long live my mother and long live every single one of you.”

Glastonbury has seen a “huge drop in crime numbers” this year but the festival has historically been a “very safe place”, police have said.

As of Friday morning, Avon and Somerset Police had recorded approximately 85% less crime so far this year compared with the last festival in 2019.

Eleven offences had been recorded since the gates opened early on Wednesday morning, ending a three-year hiatus for the Somerset festival.

Superintendent Oliver Cosgrove, silver commander for Glastonbury, told the PA news agency: “The police operation here is to support Glastonbury Festival to provide a safe environment for people to come.

“It is a very safe festival generally and although we have seen a huge drop in crime numbers this year, that is not from a huge place previously.

“Generally, the festival is a very safe place to come and Glastonbury Festival has employed a lot of stewards and has got a really sound security plan with a lot of high visibility stewards - and we support that plan to try and reduce crime as much as we can.”

Superintendent Cosgrove suggested a fall in the number of attendees bringing cash to the festival had played a role in the drop in crime numbers.

He added: “Certainly at the festival a long time ago, people would store huge amounts of money in their tents because they didn’t want to carry it around with them for fear of losing it, so then thieves would find the opportunity while people were watching the big acts on the main stage to go around the tents and just cut them open and steal the money.

“These days it is a more cashless society a vast majority of venues here can take cards.

Press Association

The wait is over. After a three-year hiatus, the legendary music festival is back and bigger than ever.

Every Glastonbury weekend, the transformation of Worthy Farm from a West Country dairy farm into the glorious festival site never fails to wow. Bars within bars, areas within areas, and festivals within festivals offer ticket holders a Russian doll of silliness and surrealism. The centre of which you’ll probably never reach – at least not without a comprehensive plan.

Planning is probably the least sexy part of festival-going, but you’ve paid the money and waited the years, so it’s time to milk Glastonbury for every absurd activity and secret spot it has to offer. From where to get the perfect pint to the woodland oasis awaiting tired, hungover bodies, here’s our pick of highlights for this year’s Glastonbury.

We’re inching ever closer to Billie Eilish’s history-making headline set on the Pyramid Stage. For anyone watching from home, here’s how to tune in:

“It’s super surreal, but I’m having the s****iest time,” says Phoebe Bridgers during her set on the John Peel Stage. “Any Americans here?”

A few wave.

“Yeah... who wants to say ‘F*** the Supreme Court?’ One, two... F*** THE SUPREME COURT,” Bridgers shouts, to bellows of agreement from her audience.

“All these irrelevant old motherf***ers trying to tell us what to do with our fucking bodies. F*** it.”