This year's Glastonbury festival site seemed to be as awash with wild speculation as ever. Sunday's headliner Elton John would supposedly be performing with special guest Britney Spears. Others were convinced he would bring on Harry Styles. Most lurid of all, there were those who insisted that the show was going to be enlivened by the appearance of a hologram of the late George Michael.
Nevertheless, what was supposed to be the weekend's biggest surprise turned out to be its worst-kept secret. Stories that the mysterious band appearing on Friday afternoon's Pyramid stage bill as the Churnups were Blur or Pulp died out: everyone seemed to know it was Foo Fighters, playing more or less the same slot at the festival as they did 25 years ago, on their Glastonbury debut. Still, the audience gamely played along.
Glastonbury is famously eclectic, its sheer scale and plethora of stages enabling it to be all things to all people: this is an event at which you can kickstart your Saturday morning by watching Rick Astley performing AC/DC covers while playing the drums, the Unthanks essaying trad arr folk, New York alt-disco trio Say She She followed by veteran Congolese soukous musician Kanda Bongo Man, or indeed by taking in postminimalist composer Max Richter accompanied by a string quartet and Tilda Swinton.
This story is from the June 30, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the June 30, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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