Fifty-one years after its original incarnation, the Glastonbury Festival, an early champion of DJs and dance music, as well as hip-hop, on the festival circuit, remains one of the world’s most influential and revered festivals.
Coldplay, Damon Albarn, Haim, Jorja Smith, and DJ Honey Dijon, plus “a number of unannounced surprise performances,” are set for this year’s event, which organizers tout as “the largest greenfield [outdoor] music and performing arts festival in the world and a template for all the festivals that have come after it.”
This year, it couldn’t be easier to get a taste of the preeminent festival without the need to travel to southwest England or immerse yourself with 200,000 fellow festivalgoers traipsing around the usually muddy terrain of the 900-acre Worthy Farm where it all goes down.
“After two Glastonbury cancellations, it brings us great pleasure to announce our first online livestream, which will present live music performances filmed across Worthy Farm at landmarks including the Pyramid, and, for the first time ever, the Stone Circle,” says Emily Eavis, the festival’s co-organizer in a press release.
The resulting five-hour concert promises “a journey through the sacred valley in Somerset,” with a spoken-word narrative “written and delivered by some very special guests” in addition to performances from nearly a dozen musical acts — including Idles, Kano, Michael Kiwanuka, and Wolf Alice.
All performers will be giving their time to support the cause of the festival itself, with proceeds helping to secure its proper return in 2022, as well as its three main charitable partners: Oxfam, Greenpeace, and WaterAid.
The livestream will air in full next weekend across four separate time zones, including Saturday, May 22, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, May 23, at 2 p.m. East Coast time. Tickets are $27.50, or $60 including an official poster. Visit www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk.
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