Over seven months after tickets were hastily snapped up, Glastonbury 2024 is finally here. Following Wednesday, when Glasto-goers battled a heatwave and bore witness to a drone show and fireworks, and Thursday’s warm-up, the fest finally properly got going on Friday with huge shows on the main stages and a headlining set by global pop superstar Dua Lipa.
Time Out is on the ground this year at Glasto, and among other things (including headliner previews and guides to this year’s full schedule, secret sets and how to watch online), we’re also reporting back with daily reviews and round-ups. Here’s the lowdown on Friday’s best sets, with Ed Cunningham and Rosie Hewitson.
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Dua Lipa on the Pyramid Stage: slick, spectacular pop music
When Dua Lipa last played Glastonbury, Worthy Farm could barely handle her. Mere weeks after the release of her debut album back in 2017, Dua wasn’t yet the all-conquering pop titan she is today – but she still packed out the John Peel Stage (now Woodsies) to its tent-pole rafters. Seven years later, on Glasto’s biggest stage, Lipa is as safe a bet as headliners get: one of the planet’s biggest stars with a truckload of hits.
How did Dua Lipa fare on the Pyramid this year? As expected, the performance was exceptionally slick, with no note missed, a dazzling display of dancers and vast, impressive production. As she powered through her many, many hits from ‘New Rules’ to ‘Houdini’, Dua threw out any notion that this might be a routine set with stuff like a bassy outro to ‘One Kiss’, a gentle tease into ‘Levitating’. She brought on Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker (who produced a bunch of tracks off Lipa’s 2024 album Radical Optimism) for a cover of ‘The Less I Know the Better’. It was all a spectacle – and a thoroughly entertaining one, at that. Ed
LCD Soundsystem on the Pyramid Stage: crowd-pleasing dance-punk classics
LCD Soundsystem’s first Pyramid Stage slot (following Glasto sets on John Peel in 2005 and the Other Stage in 2016) cemented them as dependable purveyors of a goddamn good time. From slow and teasing opener ‘Oh Baby’ and first belter ‘I Can Change’ it was clear James Murphy and co’s disco-punk would land every tune, getting a crowd of any size moving and singing. A sprawling rendition of early smash ‘Tribulations’ and a defiant ‘Losing My Edge’ sealed the deal, while few closers have quite the might fitting for the Pyramid as a raucous ‘All My Friends’. Dependable, triumphant. Ed
PJ Harvey (and Marina Abramović) on the Pyramid Stage: powerful protest music
Ethereal songstress PJ Harvey’s set started 15 minutes later than scheduled as the Pyramid Stage played host to a surprise appearance from art world icon Marina Abramović. In front of a crowd filled with Palestine flags, the pioneering performance artist spoke of hunger, protest, war and violence, declaring that ‘the world is in a really shitty place’ before leading onlookers in a seven-minute silence, during which she slowly raised her arms to reveal a white dress designed in the shape of a peace symbol. It was a fitting introduction for PJ Harvey, a musician whose work has often tackled the subject of war. ‘The Glorious Land’ and ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ – both songs from Let England Shake, her Mercury Prize-winning 2011 album protesting against the Iraq war – were particularly resonant in a powerful, if slightly subdued, set. Rosie
The Sugababes at West Holts: dangerously overcrowded, but filled with hits
Nostalgic pop icons The Sugababes shut down Glastonbury’s Avalon field when they last appeared at the festival two years ago, in one of the first gigs the original trio of Mutya, Keisha and Siobhán had done since reuniting just before the pandemic. The noughties hit makers have since launched a heroic comeback that has seen them release their first singles in over a decade and perform at the most RSVP’d set in Boiler Room’s history. So it’s difficult to understand why programmers put the resurgent trio on a stage as small as West Holts, a bizarre decision that led to similar levels of overcrowding as 2022, and another shut down. They once again seemed pleasantly surprised by the turnout, with Keisha commenting that the band was backstage ‘asking our management if there was anyone was out there.’ But of course there was, because they serve up banger after banger; ‘Freak Like Me’, ‘Red Dress’, ‘Hole in the Head’, ‘Overload’, ‘Push The Button’, a cover of the Sweet Female Attitude hit ‘Flowers’ and ‘Round Round’, ending with ‘About You Now’. It was impossible not to have fun, despite the crush. Rosie
Confidence Man on The Other Stage: the party of the year
Camp, mischievous and out for a good time; it’s hard to think of a band more suited to a Friday afternoon at Glastonbury than Confidence Man. The Aussie foursome’s recent hits with DJ Seinfeld and Daniel Avery have no doubt increased their exposure in the UK, but even if you didn’t know their party-ready bangers it would be hard not to come away from their Pyramid Stage set feeling like it was, indeed, the party of the year. Singers Janet Planet and Sugar Bones had no fewer than three costume changes over the course of one of the funnest hours of the festival so far, in a set that also encompassed their signature synchronised dance moves (like children at a wedding, yet also deeply chic), some barmy graphics of pigeons on a light up dance floor, and a mad spiky silver inflatable DJ booth. Rosie
Noname at West Holts: urgent and graceful hip-hop
On record, Noname’s flow appears effortless, the Chicago rapper playfully tumbling through bars as poetic as they are politically radical. Taking to West Holts mid-afternoon, just as the day’s first heat was breaking through, she brought new bouncing energy to those tunes. Backed by a live band, Noname hopped between tracks from both 2016’s breakout mixtape Telefone and last year’s Sundial (plus ‘Rainforest’, her slick J Cole diss from 2021) for an hour of eloquent, lavish and joyous hip-hop. Ed
Sofia Kourtesis at West Holts: lush, warming house music
Those lucky enough to stagger out of camp in time for Sofia Kourtesis’ opening West Holts set were rewarded with music so embracing it tempered the morning’s chilly winds. The Berlin-based Peruvian DJ and producer released one of Time Out’s albums of 2023 with Madres, and plenty of that record’s favourites (‘Si Te Portas Bonito’ and ‘Habla Con Ella’, among others) featured here, plus a few new ones – all fluid, grooved, Latin-tinged dance music with a dose of intimate melancholy. Ed
After Hours: Charli XCX at Levels
Brat summer has arrived. From the sheer number of ‘brat green’ outfits sported about the festival on Friday – not to mention several flags riffing on the album’s extremely memeable cover – it was pretty obvious that Charli XCX’s Partygirl club night would be the most popular choice on Friday evening. Perhaps the enormous success of the hyper-pop icon’s sixth album caught programmers off-guard, because her set was scheduled for the 7,000-capacity Levels rather than the much larger IICON or Arcadia, and queues stretched all the way to the other side of Silver Hayes a good half hour before it started. The lucky few who managed to get in were treated to appearances from recent collaborator Robyn and Romy – both of whom hot-footed it over from Jamie xx’s headline set at the nearby Woodsies – plus fiance George Daniel, Shygirl and PC music producer Easyfun for a zeitgeist-defining, joyous, transcendent ode to rave culture. Rosie
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