The Best of Glastonbury: Top 10 Acts and Some Dirty Muddy Highlights

Glastonbury wouldn’t be Glastonbury if it weren’t for the horrendous weather conditions. The mother of UK festivals saw just under 180,000 dedicated music fans camp out on Worthy Farm in Somerset to watch over 2,200 music, theatre, cabaret, poetry, and art performers spread their magic over 100 stages, despite heavy rain, lightning bolts and mud, mud, mud! Festival organisers were off to a bad start as they were forced to bring the festival to a halt, cutting power to stages and bringing Rudimental’s dance set short, due to lightening striking the Pyramid Stage before 6pm on the opening day. Musically, though, there was no such thing as the calm after the storm.

Some of the weekend highlights included:
An outstanding performance by Dolly Parton, singing some all-time classics (‘Jolene’, ‘9 to 5’, ‘Islands In The Stream’, and ‘I Will Always Love You) to what was the biggest crowd of the weekend. The 68-year-old country singer was so darn good, she was accused of miming… an accusation she rebuked by telling the sun: “My boobs are fake, my hair’s fake, but what’s real is my voice and my heart”. Isn’t she just great?? Parton was presented with a surprise award for having sold over 100 million albums worldwide.

After having been thrashed by critics before even taking the stage on Saturday, Metallica, the first heavy metal band to ever headline Glastonbury, showed the crowd what they were made of. After lead singer James Hetfield howled: “Do you want heavy? Metallica gives you heavy, baby!” the metal giants delivered a thunderous and dynamic two-hour set.

The weekend saw other great performances by Arcade Fire, who brought the party back to life by creating an electric atmosphere hours after the power cut; George Ezra, with his divine and powerful voice; Ed Sheeran, who saw a 195% increase in streams 24 hours after his solo acoustic set; Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela, with their insane finger acrobatics and lively performance, and much, much, more.

Celebrities such as Rita Ora, Bradley Cooper, Nikki Hilton, Stella McCartney and Florence Welsh, amongst others, were spotted taking in the eclectic mix of music, arts and fun over the dirty, muddy weekend.