Glastonbury 2025: Saturday with Kneecap, Charli xcx, secret act Patchwork and more – follow it live!

The Guardian

18 hours ago

Update:
Date: 2025-06-28T16:35:21.000Z
Title: Deftones
Content: There's a stacked bill on offer at Worthy Farm. We'll be bringing reviews, news, pictures and more throughout the day, with Skepta replacing and Neil Young headlining the Pyramid
Gwilym Mumford and previously,
Elle Hunt
Sat 28 Jun 2025 18.31 CEST
First published on Sat 28 Jun 2025 13.00 CEST
6.29pm CEST
18:29
A few of us in the cabin are more than a little gutted that have had to cancel their set this evening due to illness. They haven't played here since the late 1990s and would have been the perfect palate cleanser pre-Charli XCX. are due to play a day festival tomorrow in Crystal Palace, with Weezer incidentally. Hopefully for those who have tickets, they'll be fit and firing by then.
6.22pm CEST
18:22
Kneecap's set is over now, and the previously packed West Holts is starting to empty. Before the band left the stage they remarked on the sheer unlikeliness of their situation: 'Us three have no right to be on this stage in front of this many people, rapping in a language most people at home don't even speak,' before closing with 'fuck Keir Starmer'. You can probably expect to see that line on the front of a lot of newspapers tomorrow.
Updated
at 6.31pm CEST
6.19pm CEST
18:19
Gwilym Mumford
Weezer last played here in 1995, right as their vocalist and songwriter Rivers Cuomo was rejecting the buoyant power pop of their self-titled debut (the Blue album), considering quitting music altogether and ultimately readying Pinkerton, a squalling, self-loathing collection of songs that proved to be commercially suicidal at the time but later became regarded as their best album and a key set text in the nascent emo boom.
What came next was bizarre: Weezer became a party band. There were jock anthems like Beverly Hills, music videos with the Muppets, Weezer cruises to Mexico and the Bahamas, a Lil Wayne collaboration, a song called I Want Your Sex. Much of it was pretty terrible (Weezer fans will still shudder at mention of the album Raditude) but you had to admire the sheer radical nature of the transformation.
Returning to Glastonbury 30 years on, there's still a bit of the old Rivers here - shy and mumbly, a little uncertain with in his onstage banter - but otherwise Weezer are a slick proposition. They rattle through a well oiled festival friendly set featuring a lot of Blue, a smattering of Pinkerton (even a Pinkerton b-side, You Gave Your Love To Me Softly) and a few of the newer party hits (Beverly Hills goes down a treat, it must be said). Everything you'd want and expect from a Weezer gig was here: the atypically muscular Hash Pipe, the endless summer Blue Album jams Holiday and Surf Wax America, Pinkerton standouts Why Bother and the Good Life.
A crowd that at first seems a tiny bit lukewarm soon warms up, with a surprisingly young contingent at its centre, singing along to every word and doing the =w= symbol with their hands. The arrival of the big hitters helps of course: Island in the Sun; Say it Ain't So, probably the catchiest song ever written about a child's relationship with their alcoholic father; Sweater Song; Buddy Holly, with its capacity to make a whole field ooo-eee-ooo in something close to unison. A big old party in Pilton from the consumate party band. Don't wait another 30 years for the next one, lads
6.15pm CEST
18:15
Elle Hunt
I'm now handing over the blog to my colleague and fellow Weezer super-fan Gwilym Mumford (he's seen them 10+ times, including twice on a cruise!). We've got 'Patchwork', Charli xcx and Neil Young still to come – I myself will be filing reviews from TV on the Radio, Father John Misty and Doechii.
Thanks for following along and please do enjoy the coverage – or the festival! – to come.
Updated
at 6.23pm CEST
6.11pm CEST
18:11
Robyn Vinter
Kneecap have begun a politically charged set at Glastonbury, leading the crowds in chants of 'Fuck Keir Starmer!'
The Irish rap act took to the stage for their controversial set at 4pm on Saturday, which had been criticised by the UK prime minister as not 'appropriate'.
It came after band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, known as Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offence for holding a Hezbollah flag at a London gig last November.
'We understand colonialism and we understand how important it is to support each other internationally,' said Liam, on the band's support for the people of Gaza, who have faced an onslaught of Israeli bombs, bullets and a famine caused by the blockage of aid.
A sea of at least 200 Palestine flags made it difficult for cameras to get a clear shot of the stage from inside the crowd. 'The BBC editor is going to have some job,' he joked, referring to the flags. The public broadcaster had earlier confirmed they wouldn't be broadcasting the set live.
Meanwhile users of the Glastonbury app had received a push notification almost an hour before the band were due to perform saying the West Holts stage was closed. However, spectators were still reaching the stage 20 minutes before the start of the set.
The show opened with clips of news and various television discussion shows from politicians and commentators saying they should be banned and that they'd been 'avoiding justice for far too long'.
There were boos from the crowd at the appearance of Sharon Osborne calling them a 'pathetic band'.
The band urged people to come out to support Ó hAnnaidh at his next court date at Westminster Magistrates Court, for his 'trumped-up terrorism charge'. 'It's not the first time there's been a miscarriage of justice for an Irish person in the British criminal justice system,' said Mo Chara.
Ó hAnnaidh then thanked the Eavis family
for 'holding strong' in the face of criticism of staging the band.
Numerous times, the trio chanted 'Fuck Keir Starmer!', with the crowd passionately shouting back. Rod Stewart – playing the Pyramid stage tomorrow – also came under fire, having suggested in an interview that
the public should give Nigel Farage 'a chance'.
Describing him as 'Rod the Prod', Ó hAnnaidh said: 'I mean, the man's older than Israel.'
6.02pm CEST
18:02
Kneecap's set at West Holts is now underway. My colleagues tell me that the sky is thick with Palestinian flags and those reading 'Free Mo Chara', referring to the performance persona of Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh.
When the trio take the stage, they lead the vast audience in a chant of the same, before addressing the terrorism changes: 'Mo Chara in court on a trumped up terrorism charge – not the first time there was a miscarriage of justice for an Irish person in the British justice system.'
They ask fans to attend the August court hearing, then say, variously: 'Fuck Daily Mail,' 'thanks to the Eavis family' and 'fuck Keir Starmer'. The prime minister of course earlier said that Kneecap's performance at Glastonbury was not 'appropriate'.
The crowd is here for it – my colleague Shaad D'Souza reports that the field is so full, the speakers are struggling to deliver. Móglaí Bap, one member of the trio, says it's the biggest audience they've ever played to, and comments on the Glastonbury app earlier declaring the stage closed – 'because it was so full of Fenian bastards'.
From here on in, it seems, the commentary just keeps on coming – with a chant of 'Free Palestine', an expression of solidarity with Palestine Action (recently, controversially declared a terrorist organisation), and a repeat of 'fuck Keir Starmer – you're just a shit Jeremy Corbyn'.
The latest is that they've been joined by stage London rapper-singer Jelani Blackman.
5.33pm CEST
17:33
Jason Okundaye
Ah, The Script: a band that music critics – sneering and pretentious as we are – love to hate. The Irish soft-rock band, led by frontman Danny O'Donoghue, found breakout success with the release of The Man Who Can't Be Moved (I admit I like this song); previously O'Donoghue worked as a producer in Los Angeles, behind songs for acts like TLC and Boyz II Men. Had O'Donoghue remained behind-the-scenes, perhaps he'd be better regarded.
Perhaps I am being harsh and, as is often the case with critics, there is a mismatch in my lack of enthusiasm and that of the Pyramid stage audience. After all, The Script are commercial giants, but they are just so bland and boring – poor derivatives of Coldplay and Snow Patrol (not that those bands are without their detractors).
O'Donoghue swaggers on, in some kind of baggy ombre blazer, and sings Superheroes, 'cause he's stronger than you know'. Lots of the crowd ooh and clap to moments that don't feel entirely earned. O'Donoghue introduces Inside Out , which came out last year, and tries to ride off the hook 'I'm just trying to get inside out' – but it just never really takes off.
Even when that international smash The Man Who Can't Be Moved comes on, his singing is so clunky and out of sync with the audience attempting to sing along. So much of The Script's discography feels like AI slop before there was AI. The band is so earnest, you often feel as though you're being manipulated into a response. At one point, O'Donoghue honours former lead guitarist Mark Sheehan, who died two years ago, yet his rap delivery is so hackneyed and poor that a moment of silence might have been a better homage.
From there, the set all just descends into awkwardness: O'Donoghue frequently loses his voice and mumbles out lyrics that he seems to have forgotten. He says he's going to do something that he's been told is 'gonna go horribly bad', which is to walk into the crowd while singing Nothing – but no one in the crowd knows the words, so they're just kind of voicelessly filming him pace around.
There are high points: Breakeven really takes off with the crowd, as does Hall of Fame. But the set is so overstuffed with cliches and platitudes that you feel smothered. 'I'm dedicating this to anybody who's going through a hard time right now' – thanks Danny, I am.
5.23pm CEST
17:23
John-Paul Nicholas
It has been confirmed that Sacramento alt-metal band have pulled out of their Other stage set this evening due to illness in the band. Grime MC Skepta has stepped in as a replacement, saying: 'Let's go!!! No crew, no production but am ready to shut Glastonbury down.'
Updated
at 5.28pm CEST
5.08pm CEST
17:08
Aside from Kneecap, the other set anticipation is mounting for is the mysterious 'Patchwork', scheduled to play the Pyramid stage at 6.15pm. The identity of the artist has, for a long time, been widely rumoured to be Pulp and now @secretglasto – the Twitter account in-the-know – is just … tweeting it out.
Let's see if they're right!
Of course for all of you that haven't worked it out, Patchwork is in fact Pulp! Go and see some Glastonbury royalty on the Pyramid stage at 18:15
4.40pm CEST
16:40
In case there was any doubt that Kneecap's set is gearing up to be the energetic high point of the day, the West Holts stage was closed off to punters a good 45 minutes before they were due to play. From our correspondents on the ground, I understand that fans have been setting up well into the previous set. We'll be reporting live.
Updated
at 5.04pm CEST