Police look into ‘death to the IDF' chants at Glastonbury
There are many things to consider when preparing for Glastonbury: sort out your travel arrangements, wear in the new walking boots, make sure to pack the tent poles and take plenty of suncream.
For some, however, the most important thing not to forget is their flag. They are a practical solution to finding friends when you have lost each other among the 200,000-strong crowd, 100 stages and 23 campsites on the 1,000 acres of Worthy Farm. They can also be used to make a statement about Palestine.
• Glastonbury 2025: follow live
Vivienne Booth, 48, a nursery teacher, was flying a Palestine flag she had been given in the Green Futures field, an educational hub at the festival, as she prepared to watch the rappers Kneecap. She said: 'We're trying to get the BBC to show as many [of them] as possible. Starmer needs to be a Labour Party politician rather than a Conservative leader and then maybe we'd be getting somewhere.'
Last week, the prime minister declared that it would not be appropriate for Kneecap to perform at the festival after its band member, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, 27, was charged with a terrorist offence after allegedly displaying a flag in support of the proscribed organisation Hezbollah at a London gig.
Bob Vylan, the English punk duo on before the Irish outfit, led the crowd in chants of 'death to the IDF'. It prompted Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, to contact Tim Davie, the BBC's director-general, and demand 'an urgent explanation about what due diligence it carried out ahead of the Bob Vylan performance', a government spokesperson said. 'We strongly condemn the threatening comments made by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury,' they added.
During Kneecap's own set, which was not broadcast by the BBC, the trio led the crowd in several chants of 'f*** Keir Starmer' and 'free Palestine'.
Police confirmed they were looking into 'comments made by acts on the West Holts stage'. The Avon and Somerset force said: 'Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.'
Sharren Haskel, Israel's deputy foreign minister, told The Mail on Sunday: 'I condemn the BBC for continuing to live-stream anti-Israel hate speech from Glastonbury.
'What do you think the BBC would have done had a performer been shouting anti-Muslim or far-right hate speech? They would have pulled the feed. But because the target is Israel — let's be honest, because it's Jews — it's tolerated, even broadcast.'
A BBC spokesperson said: 'Some of the comments made during Bob Vylan's set were deeply offensive. During this live-stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language.
'We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.'
Some in the festival's crowd had seized the opportunity to turn conflict into cash, selling Palestinian flags for £10.
In 2010, after some complaints about flags obstructing the stage, festival organisers consulted fans over whether there should be a ban on them altogether.
'Our gut feeling here at festival HQ is that they shouldn't be banned as we think they add to the magic,' a festival spokeswoman said at the time. A total of 55 per cent out of 13,178 voters from 71 countries eventually voted to keep the flags.
Many prefer the personal to the political. The choice of what to put on her flag was obvious for Joanna Stefanova, 28, a civil servant who lives in London, who was yesterday carrying a six-metre-tall aluminium flag to keep her group of six friends together. 'I got the picture printed of my two beautiful pussy cats, Justin and Jasper, because I miss them while I'm here,' she said.
Among the bucket hats and beer cans, there were thousands of flags flapping in the wind, which sport everything from supermarket logos to pictures of the actress Gillian Anderson. The flag poles can be bought from Amazon for £27 and weigh about 700g. Some people attach the poles to their backpacks, but most opt to carry them in their hands so they can extend and lower them with ease.
Toby Smith, 23, from Cambridge, resembled an ambassador for a budget supermarket. 'I promise I'm not affiliated with Lidl,' he laughed. 'I started collecting the Lidl merch in 2021 when they first released it … I've been messaging them on Instagram trying to get them to give me a flag. Although they responded initially, they went quiet, but they've released bandanas and so my mum sewed them together to make the flag.'
Martha Kent, 27, carried a pink flag featuring 'her favourite lesbian icons', including Anderson, who is regarded as an LGBTQ+ advocate for her comments in support of the community, and the footballer Leah Williamson.
Others were more obscure. Bernie Carey, 36, held a flag for her nine friends reading 'Dove, veto, more', which she explained was a rough translation into Italian for: 'Where are you, love?'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Neil Young review – ragged glory from a noisemaker who never treads the easy path
Neil Young's second headlining appearance at Glastonbury has a turbulent history, even before you get to his publicly expressed fear that, despite being a Canadian with American citizenship, he won't be allowed back into his adopted homeland because of his criticism of Donald Trump. He announced that he was dropping out of the festival even before the lineup was announced, having picked a slightly baffling fight with the BBC over their coverage of the event, which he described as a 'corporate turnoff'. Two days later, he announced he'd changed his mind, although the wrangling over whether or not the BBC would be allowed to livestream his performance seems to have gone down to the wire: last week they issued a statement saying they wouldn't, but in the event the live stream went ahead. A man who's been conducting his career according to his own baffling internal logic for the best part of 60 years, Young clearly sees no reason to change his approach as he nears 80: not for nothing is his online blog called the Times Contrarian. It lends a certain frisson to his Glastonbury appearance: as longstanding fans will tell you, with a mixture of weariness and fond admiration, you never quite know what he's going to do, although what the floating voters who invariably make up a significant percentage of a Glastonbury audience will think of it is anyone's guess. He takes the stage clad in a tattered plaid shirt, jeans and a Casey Jones hat pulled down over his face: in old age, he increasingly looks less like a rock star than a mechanic from a small American town who distrusts anyone not born within a mile radius of its centre. He dispatches a version of Sugar Mountain on acoustic guitar, before the Chrome Hearts arrive. This is essentially his earlier outfit Promise of the Real augmented by 82-year-old keyboard player Spooner Oldham, a man whose career stretches back to Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett's legendary late 60s albums. They may well be the best backing band Young has assembled since Crazy Horse, their sound simultaneously tumultuous and lumbering and heavily distorted. Cinnamon Girl, from 1969, and 1990's Fuckin' Up alike conclude with lengthy barrages of noise: during the latter, guitarist Micah Nelson creates feedback by throwing this guitar into the air. At their best, they're impossibly thrilling. Young's lengthy guitar solos have an impassioned, almost caustic quality, and the sense of the musicians huddled together at the centre of the stage sparring off each other is really striking. At one point, it seems as if Young is going to start rolling out one venerable classic after another, to general delight: a version of Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) is followed by an acoustic section featuring The Needle and the Damage Done and a lovely, lambent take on Harvest Moon provokes the audience into singing softly along. But simply playing a crowd-pleasing selection of what you might broadly describe as the hits wouldn't be very Neil Young: instead, he throws in Sun Green, a painfully slow, musically unchanging track from his coolly received, ecologically themed early 00s concept album Greendale. It has 18 verses, and lasts so long that you're occasionally gripped by the very real fear they'll still be up on the Pyramid stage playing it long after the festival has ended. Some of the floating voters take this as a cue to see what's happening elsewhere on site. But then he plays Like a Hurricane, accompanied by Nelson playing a keyboard that seems to be suspended from the roof of the stage. An acoustic version of Old Man is warmly received yet makes for a weirdly downbeat end to the set, but an encore of Rockin' in the Free World offers what you might call the full festival experience. The screens keep flashing on to the audience: there are people on their friends' shoulders singing along. A suitably inscrutable onstage presence for most of the night, Young is visibly enjoying himself. He leaves the stage having headlined Glastonbury in a manner entirely in keeping with his longstanding reputation.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Gong baths and a naked sauna: my search for inner peace at Glastonbury
The quest for tranquility in the world's least tranquil place can lead you to unexpected places. On a baking-hot Glastonbury day, I am sitting in a 90C sauna surrounded by 10 naked strangers. My journey began on Friday. While Lorde is playing a crammed secret set at the Woodsies stage, I'm over at Humblewell – a somewhat smaller tent – with 50 people who couldn't care less about the buzz. We lie on mats and parched grass, eyes closed, breathing deeply, legs moving in unison under the orders of the yoga teacher, Dina. A bassy soundtrack distracts from the many sounds outside competing for our attention. If it wasn't for the bucket hats, you wouldn't know you were at Glastonbury. I fold into a child's pose and feel a deep sense of release. Not many people come to Worthy Farm for peace and quiet. It is, after all, a place where 24/7 sensory overload seems inescapable. I have left two noisy children at home, and while I am looking forward to lots of loud music and dancing, I also need some chill time. I would hazard a guess that most attenders crave a bit of tranquility at some point over the weekend, if only between the hours of 4am-7am, when distant thuds and campsite chatter finally cease. Thankfully, there is inner peace to be found. The Retreat Yurt, next door to the yoga class, is packed full of weary people indulging in much-needed meditation. The session facilitator, Dan Peppiatt, gives gentle encouragement and plays a selection of instruments along to a soundscape recorded at the Cornish woodland where he lives off-grid. Occasionally, Arran Burton joins in on a selection of handcarved wooden flutes. I am close to drifting off when someone accidentally elbows me. 'We offer a space for people to stop,' says Peppiatt after the session. 'A lot of them come to have a snooze.' 'We will be back tomorrow,' says MJ Ascenzo, who has come to the festival from Manchester. 'It's the perfect start to the day,' she adds, before heading off to find some breakfast. On a nearby hill, a series of brightly coloured hammocks are a shady spot for some respite. I pull myself into one and eye the guy next to me with envy: he has the right idea, sound asleep with an eye mask and noise-cancelling headphones. I try to relax, but every time someone gets off a hammock, it feels as though mine is about to snap. My next stop is the Healing Fields, the OG of Glastonbury wellness. Here you can try tai chi, join a harmonised singing group or sample an array of massages and treatments. I eat some falafel, resist the urge to get a tarot reading and take a moment to pause in the neighbouring peace garden, which at noon is blissfully serene – perhaps less so at midnight, given its proximity to the late-night haven the Stone Circle. In a corner of the Tipi Field, I find people who really are letting go. Lost Horizon, the 'nomadic spa', has been a fixture at the festival for 15 years. Offering a sauna in a yurt and, crucially, a shower afterwards, visitors can buy a single entry, or a pass for the day or weekend (£15/£30/£50). Having a shower on site can involve a long queue, so this is a smart investment. That said, a sauna is a challenge on a hot day. And, alarmingly, this is a clothing-optional area. To one side of the area there is a huge trampoline, where naked adults are jumping. Jenna Brocklehurst from Somerset is running the sauna, and tells me that last night they hosted a ceilidh in the buff. 'It is a sanctuary,' says Clive Phillips from Goa, covering himself up with a sarong. 'An oasis of calm in an often crazy experience.' A partly clothed band provides entertainment for the spa-goers, many of whom are lying in the garden between sessions, making the most of the slightly less frenetic vibe. 'It's not what I expected,' says Carol from Bristol, who likes to try something new each time she attends. 'It is a bit of grass with sweaty people on it.' She recommends trying a laughing yoga class, although she thinks she got Covid from doing it here last year. As I enter the sauna semi-clad, I seriously question my life choices. But then the Green Fields choir circle the yurt, serenading those sweating inside. When I come out, I feel refreshed and renewed – and very grateful for a cold shower. As Alanis sings later: 'I've never felt this healthy before.' I retreat to a gong bath and fall into a deep sleep. It is possible to find peace at Glastonbury – you just have to look in the right places.
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Landlords threaten to walk away from 5G connectivity scheme
Private and public landowners warn they have already lost out on around £200 million each year following significant changes made in 2017. Changes to the Electronic Communications Code meant telecoms firms were no longer required to pay market rent to landlords, with some landowners witnessing a 90% reduction in annual fees. It affects landowners including farmers, but also affects councils, charities and small businesses. In some cases rents originally agreed at around £5,500 per year fell to £3.50 per year, with landowners also stating they feel trapped in the agreement. The UK Government is consulting on changes to the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) Act that could see landowners refuse to allow the equipment on their property and therefore slowing down key connectivity targets. Russell Glendinning, managing director of Cell:cm Chartered Surveyors, a firm representing landowners of telecommunications infrastructure , said the implications would be "chilling". Read more: Mr Glendinning told The Herald on Sunday: "Scotland's digital rollout is being undermined by a failed UK-wide legal framework. "Changes to the 2017 Electronic Communications Code has significantly strained the relationship between landowners and mobile operators. "Many site providers have been drawn into lengthy and complex disputes in an attempt to protect operational requirements at their property against operators' technical and operational needs, often coupled with steeply reduced rents - and in some cases, site owners have even been ordered to repay substantial sums. "This has created a chilling effect on the willingness of both private and public landowners to host infrastructure." Landowners have urged the UK Government to rethink the legislation and listen to industry voices. Read more: The National Farming Union (NFU) and the British Property Federation (BPF) has since written to the government, warning that if action is not taken, landowners will walk away and 5G ambitions will be missed, while Scotland's 'fragile' connectivity will deteriorate further. Underserved parts of Scotland, like the Highlands and Islands and Argyll and Bute are particularly at risk. However, official statistics also revealed that Glasgow is now amongst the UK's worst five cities for fibre coverage. While the city is Scotland's largest urban hub, just 57.8% of premises have access to full fibre broadband. The ongoing row between landowners and telecoms firms has also stalled the UK rollout of 5G, with the UK now ranked 30th out of 39 countries for availability. Legal disputes have also skyrocketed since the 2017 changes, reaching 1,000 compared to just 33 tribunal cases between 1984 and 2017. Landowners can challenge the rent cost once the lease comes up for renewal, however the tribunal stage can be costly and off putting. Mr Glendinning added: 'Understandably, many now view the process as high-risk and low-reward, which has led to real difficulties in securing new sites. That, in turn, has had a catastrophic impact on mobile connectivity – particularly in rural areas and increasingly in urban settings too. 'The PSTI Act doubles down on this framework and there is a serious risk that the dysfunction we've already seen will only escalate. 'In cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh, where the pressures on property and infrastructure are already more acute, the burden placed on landlord is often far greater – and without meaningful reform, it's hard to see how the necessary collaboration can be restored.' A DSIT spokesperson said: 'Our priority is to continue delivering high quality 5G networks across the UK, which is critical to boosting growth and improving public services for the British people.'
