Prince Harry and King Charles were at Glastonbury (sort of)

Jul 1, 2024 - 06:52

King Charles and Queen Camilla (sort of) at Glastonbury

Glastonbury is about more than the music, as Adam Bloodworth reports

It’s not only about the advertised musicians: acts at Glastonbury are defined almost as much by who they bring on as by their own sets, and this year a huge range of surprise acts kept audiences sated.

Rock outfit Kasabian were the biggest surprise addition to the line-up. The Shoot the Runner hitmen played a mid-afternoon set in Woodsies on Saturday, formerly the John Peel stage, a precursor to Mike Skinner, another British artist from the same 2000s era.

Coldplay brought Back to the Future actor Michael J Fox on stage in what was surely one of the least predictable surprise guests the festival has ever seen. Front man Chris Martin said: “The main reason that we’re in a band is watching Back To The Future, so thank you to our hero forever.” Laura Mvula and Little Simz also guested with Martin’s band.

DJ Fred Again, Damon Albarn and Kevin Parker of Tame Impala also played surprise sets, and spotted in the crowds across the weekend were Stormzy, Paul Mescal, Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Louis Tomlinson and Gillian Anderson.

Glastonbury 2024: theatre and circus fields welcome King Charles and Prince Harry (sort of)

Prince Harry reuniting with King Charles wasn’t the only incredible surprise in the Theatre & Circus fields – easily the festival’s most eccentric area. There were Everest climbers, flocks of sheep, princesses in portable snow globes and the Moaning Lisa, a walking portrait who just couldn’t cheer up.

Everest climbers in the heat at Glastonbury

Music is only one part of the Glastonbury festival experience – the ‘performing arts’ element takes place in the Theatre & Circus fields through William’s Green and down towards the South-East Corner. It has soul: some of the clowns and comperes running the stages have been here since the festival began and they tell stories about the early days when Michael Eavis first set the festival up.

There are outdoor circus stages for shorter, 20-minute-long performances, and indoor theatrical areas to sit down and take in a whole hour-long show. There are pyrotechnics, aerial displays, comedy, cabaret, and performers representing just about every corner of the bonkers world of theatre and circus.

These fields were set up by Bella Churchill, granddaughter of Winston Churchill, who left her high society life behind to help Michael Eavis turn his farm into a fantasia in the early 1970s. Churchill passed away in 2007 but her widower Haggis McLeod still runs the theatre fields, programming acts that have performed here for decades as well as up-and-coming names. (One teenage juggler performing at midday on Saturday was joking about how he’d still been partying at 6am.)

One quibble overhead from punters is that the site felt packed. The queue to get into pop star Charlie XCX’s show on the Levels stage looked double the size of the venue capacity, and there were reports of people fainting at the Sugababes crowd at the West Holts stage, which was closed for overcrowding. Nightlife stages in general were often at capacity, making it difficult to find somewhere to dance.

There are a few challenges when it comes to stage sizes and artist scheduling for the festival to ponder on for next year, but overall, it was another incredible experience at Worthy Farm.