With fans facing the cruel choice between pop queen Charli XCX, rock legend Neil Young, disco scamps Scissor Sisters and Doechii – rap’s hottest new voice.
Charli XCX won the biggest audience, closing down The Other Stage and turning it into a sweat-drenched, laser lit club night.
Young, topping the bill on the Pyramid Stage, also delivered an all-time hits set, with gnarly, ragged versions of hits like Cinnamon Girl and Like A Hurricane.
Doechii, who only played for 45 minutes, still managed to mark herself out as a future headliner; while Scissor Sisters brought out actual Gandalf Sir Ian McKellen to perform Invisible Light.There was a lot to take in, then, thanks to one of the most crammed line-ups in the festival’s history.
Let’s start with Charli XCX.
Using up the festival’s entire smoke machine budget, she was alone on stage all night, but in constant motion – a mesmerising blur of hip-rolls, hair tosses, stomach crunches and knee-drops.
She opened her set with a mash-up of 360 and Von Dutch, two of the the standout track from last summer’s culture-swallowing Brat album, as the record’s logo burst into flames behind her – indicating that she’s slowly coming to terms with leaving it behind.
Despite rumours that she’d bring out a host of special guests, Lorde doesn’t appear to duet on Girl, So Confusing, and Billie Eilish is missing from the number one smash, Guess.
The only famous face we got was Gracie Abrams, who appeared on the big screens to perform the “Apple dance” that went viral on TikTok last year.
