Your front-row pass to who the performers will be watching at Glastonbury

The Guardian

7 hours ago

Hello from Worthy Farm, home to Glastonbury festival! As is tradition, this newsletter is coming to you from a sparsely apportioned cabin behind the festival's legendary Pyramid stage, which this weekend will feature headline sets from The 1975, Neil Young and Olivia Rodrigo.
The festival proper is kicking off right about now, though really it has been whirring away for two days already. The official opening was on Wednesday night: a circus spectacular on the Pyramid stage featuring jugglers, drummers, fire-flinging dancers and a bloke doing handstands on a fairy-light-strewn bike suspended above the audience. The extravaganza came courtesy of the talented folk from Glastonbury's theatre and circus fields, who were tasked with opening the festival for the first time since the early 90s.
(Incidentally, the Theatre and Circus Fields have a pretty remarkable origin story: in 1971 Winston Churchill's granddaughter Arabella was being relentlessly hounded by the paparazzi in London, having created a bit of a stink by daring to speak out against the Vietnam war. She legged it to Somerset, and there helped one of her father Randolph's former employees, Andrew Kerr, and some farmer named Michael Eavis, launch a certain summer festival. Churchill would devise the Theatre and Circus fields a decade later and handled their running until her death in 2007. You'd imagine she would have been thrilled to see her charges back doing their daredevil stuff on the Pyramid.)
The theatre and circus folk will be doing their thing all weekend, part of the more than 3,000-strong army of performers at this year's festival. As ever the Guardian is your one-stop shop for coverage of the biggest and best of those performances. All manner of goodies have already been published: an interview with the band Keir Starmer wants banned from the festival, Kneecap; music editor Ben Beaumont-Thomas's tips for the best acts to see this year; Glasto returnees, including Billy Bragg and Kate Nash, recalling their festival debuts; and, most importantly of all for those of you at home, an exhaustive viewing guide.
Then, all weekend we'll have news, reviews, galleries, features and of course the big Glastonbury liveblog, which runs from lunchtime to after midnight today, tomorrow and Sunday. That will be topped off on Monday by a special Glastonbury edition of the Guardian's G2 newspaper supplement, with a full exhaustive review of the festival.
Drink it all in because next year Glastonbury takes a year off, to allow the farm to recover from hundreds of thousands of people stomping all over it. I'm dreading it already, but let's worry about that later and make the most of this year first. To help maximise your enjoyment of the festival, whether on site or at home, we've asked some of this year's performers to share the one act they're most excited to see this year …
Tom Odell | Eternally boyish indie pop singer songwriter
'I'm such a huge fan of CMAT – Ciara is an incredible artist and such a fun person to be around. She supported me last year in Amsterdam at the Ziggo Dome, and we all ended up getting incredibly drunk in the backstage bar afterwards. I'm so happy to see her absolutely smashing it right now, and I can't wait to watch her perform on the Pyramid Stage!'
Tom Odell plays Woodsies 9pm, Saturday
Lambrini Girls | Sardonic, sweary Brighton punk trio
'I'm really looking forward to see Turnstile take the Other Stage [4:30 PM Sunday]. They're undeniably one of the most hyped bands right now, and it's for good reason. Their live shows are beautifully orchestrated chaos. I really respect their willingness to evolve. They've pushed the boundaries of hardcore, embracing pop and indie influences without losing their edge. It's ruffled some feathers because a lot of hardcore fans want to gatekeep hardcore – and that is what I love most about it. Punk was never meant to be exclusive, Turnstile are making it accessible for everyone!'Lambrini Girls play Left Field, 7.50pm Saturday
Sign up to The Guide
Get our weekly pop culture email, free in your inbox every Friday
after newsletter promotion
Billie Marten | Soulful jazz folk, straight from Yorkshire
'There are oodles of treats to watch this weekend; Four Tet, Father John Misty, Amyl and the Sniffers, Nilüfer Yanya, Jalen Ngonda … but it's all about Beth Gibbons for me. What a hero! I grew up listening to her aching vocals on the Portishead records, and then her solo work. Mysteries is a masterpiece in writing, structure and production. Having never seen her live, only through the shiny barrier of YouTube and TV, I am totally ready for one hell of an arresting performance. Long reign Beth!' Billie plays the Acoustic Stage, 5pm today.
Ros Atkins | BBC analysis editor and rave master
'My head's spinning from the array of DJs I'd like to see. But one time I won't be listening to them is 3.15 on Saturday afternoon. Instead, I'll be at the Greenpeace stage. Last year, I was a guest on Huw Stephens' Roundtable on BBC 6 Music and one of the songs we reviewed was Antarctica by Divorce. It stopped me in my tracks and I've been a fan ever since. There's a brilliant creativity and range to their songwriting and sound; I also find their tracks really affecting – in a good way! I've not seen Divorce live and plan to put that right. Emotions may run high.'Ros played the Stonebridge bar on Thursday. You can listen to The Festival is Here, his Glastonbury-themed collaboration with Crissy Criss, here
If you want to read the complete version of this newsletter please subscribe to receive The Guide in your inbox every Friday