Glastonbury 2024: Celebrity cameos, secret sets and a 10-week-old star – the festival highlights from a brilliant year

Published

1 year ago

June 30, 2024

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Glastonbury 2024 has come to an end, with US singer-songwriter SZA closing the show on the Pyramid Stage following a spectacular weekend of celebrity cameos, fireworks and crowd-surfing.

And music, of course.

Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Little Simz, Shania Twain, Janelle Monae and Cyndi Lauper were among the big names performing, and that was just on the main stage – which is one of more than 100 across Glastonbury‘s massive Worthy Farm site in Somerset.

It has been a record-breaking year. With SZA’s nature-inspired set on Sunday following Lipa’s on Friday, this year’s event is the first ever to feature two female headliners. And Coldplay have now headlined five times, more than any other act.

Let’s relive the highlights of another weekend that showed exactly why this is the greatest festival in the world, from the main events to the bits you might have missed.

Michael J Fox on stage, Tom Cruise backstage

Some sniffy corners of the internet had been sceptical about Coldplay’s return to headline Glastonbury for a record-breaking fifth time, but on Saturday night Chris Martin and co proved exactly why they are perfect for this slot.

Their celebrity fans certainly seem to think so. On stage, after appearances from other artists including Little Simz, they were joined by none other than Hollywood legend Michael J Fox playing guitar for the tearjerker Fix You.

Behind the scenes, Tom Cruise was among those watching stage-side, while Martin’s partner Dakota Johnson also appeared to be seen on camera.

Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis was also watching, and received a dedication ditty from the Coldplay frontman, who told him: “We just want to thank you, as humans go you’re the best of all sorts. You’re a musical charmer, you’re the world’s greatest farmer. Whoever got knighted wearing shorts? Thank you Michael, we love you.”

The following day, Fox shared pictures from the festival on Instagram. “Oh yeah in case you were wondering… it was f****** mind blowing. There is a time for every band and a band for every time. This is Coldplay’s time.”

Dua Lipa joins the crowd

During her headline performance on the Friday night, Dua Lipa explained to fans how she “manifested” the experience, saying she had “written this moment down… wished for it… worked so hard in the hopes that maybe one day I’ll get to do it”.

More than this, her wish was specifically to headline on a Friday, “because then I knew I could party for the next two days in the best place on Earth”.

Well, we can confirm that for the Saturday at least, the star did get to enjoy the festival as a punter (albeit one with access to a proper bed and a shower, probably). We spotted her walking through the crowd at the Other Stage ahead of The Streets’ evening slot, and later backstage in the hospitality area, with her actor boyfriend Callum Turner.

Other celebrity appearances

Ever since the days of Kate Moss in her micro shorts and wellies in the mid-2000s, Glastonbury has been synonymous with celebrity spotting.

This year was no exception, with former headliner Stormzy, Maya Jama, Alexa Chung, Paul Mescal, Sienna Miller, Cara Delevingne, Leo Woodall and Anya Taylor-Joy among the stars seen around the site.

Noel Gallagher and Dave Grohl (a surprise performer at least year’s event) were also reportedly spotted watching LCD Soundsystem stage-side, and Gallagher was later pictured with Belfast rap trio Kneecap, while Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett went to see Paloma Faith.

Russell Crowe was also on site – as a performer, not a guest – with his band Indoor Garden Party, while Idris Elba gave a speech on the West Holts stage to speak about knife crime and discuss his campaign, Don’t Stop Your Future.

Secret (and not-so secret) sets

“It’s Happening! See you 6pm at Woodsies @glastonbury.”

It was supposed to be hush hush, but with bookies and secret Glastonbury sources putting their money on Kasabian being the big surprise act in the days beforehand, the Leicester band decided to spill the beans a few hours ahead of the show.

Their message on X was all the confirmation needed to bring thousands to the Woodsies Stage – so many, in fact, the area was closed off almost an hour ahead of the group’s start time as a mass of people tried to gain access in sweltering sunshine.

Kasabian headlined the festival back in 2014, so the tent was in capable hands. Theirs was the biggest secret set slot – and featured crowd-surfing from frontman Sergio Pizzorno – but there were numerous others happening across the site.

Plus, lots of star cameos, such as Mel C and Tilda Swinton joining Orbital, Sam Smith making an appearance with Disclosure, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor teaming up with Peggy Gou.

Mike Skinner for PM?

Another set featuring some energetic crowd-surfing, The Streets slot on the Other Stage was one of the highlights of the weekend.

Mike Skinner was in and out of the crowd during a performance that embodied the spirit of Glastonbury, featuring hits including Blinded By The Lights, Weak Become Heroes, Fit But You Know It, Dry Your Eyes and more.

One fan at the front sharing messages on his phone managed to get them picked up by the cameras. “Mike Skinner for PM,” read one, getting a huge cheer.

Is it too late for next week, do you think?

Glastonbury’s youngest fan?

As DJ Annie Mac opened the Other Stage with a dance set on Friday morning, there was one fan in the crowd who stole the show.

Wearing stripey pyjamas and ear protectors, perched on top of his dad Tom Kay’s shoulders, 10-week-old Finlay was met with cheers as he appeared on the big screen several times throughout the set, with special effects turning his image turn into a hallucinatory visual.

“Oh my god, this baby, what a little legend,” Mac said to the crowd. She later signed off her performance by thanking “everyone, Glastonbury, and this baby”.

Asked what tips they would give to parents thinking of bringing their young children to a festival, mum Rosie Lewis said: “Do it – you can overthink it and it can put you off. But take more nappies than you think you’ll need and take more vests and outfits than you think you’ll need.”

She’s Still The One

In front of a sea of fans wearing cowboy hats, country star Shania Twain performed a “life-changing” set for the legends slot.

It has become a Sunday afternoon favourite at the festival, with stars including Kylie Minogue, Diana Ross, Dolly Parton and Tom Jones filling it in previous years.

And Twain revealed she had explored the festival site ahead of her debut performance. “This really is a city, it’s a community,” she said.

Political statements

Ahead of the general election, Glastonbury was bound to get political this year.

Damon Albarn was among the artists on stage urging music fans to vote next week, while artists including Charlotte Church made calls to “free Palestine” during their performances.

And an inflatable lifeboat that appeared hoisted into the crowd during Idles’ set on Friday was later confirmed to be the work of artist Banksy.

The small boat was filled with migrant dummies in orange life jackets, and was criticised by James Cleverly, the home secretary, and deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden.

“Festival-goers cosplaying as migrants, and celebrating the actions of people smugglers, while they party is awful,” Mr Cleverly wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Whatever your political views, this isn’t something we should trivialise.”

The boat appeared as Idles were performing Danny Nedelko, a 2018 release which begins with the lyrics: “My blood brother is an immigrant, a beautiful immigrant.” The band were reportedly not aware it had happened until after the set had finished.

The boat also appeared above the crowd during Lil Simz’s set the following day.

England v Slovakia courtesy of a 1D star

Officially, Glastonbury was not showing the Euro 2024 game, which started just at the end of Twain’s set and clashed with acts including Nothing But Thieves, Janelle Monae and Avril Lavigne – but that didn’t stop those England fans who determined to see it.

At one corner of the festival, near to the Silver Hayes area, a crowd gathered around one fan who had set up a flatscreen and a mifi unit to stream the match – who turned out to be One Direction star Louis Tomlinson.

Others were also spotted watching on phones around the site.

It was very almost a low-light, until extra time. Trailing 1-0 for most of the match, England were saved by a Jude Bellingham equaliser in stoppage time, followed quickly by a goal from Harry Kane in extra time.

Final score – 2-1 to England, who now face Switzerland in the quarter-finals.

See you next year?

Fans will be pleased to hear organiser Emily Eavis is already in talks with some acts for 2025.

Speaking to the Glastonbury Free Press, the festival’s resident newspaper, she said: “We’re taking a fallow year in 2026 to give the land a rest, and the festival before a fallow year is always a fun one to plan because you almost have to fit two years into one.

“We’re already in talks with some acts for it. It’s exciting.”

We’ll see you in the scramble for tickets in a few months’ time.

Entertainment

Woman charged with fraud over ‘sale of Oasis tickets’

Published

12 hours ago

November 22, 2025

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Woman charged with fraud over 'sale of Oasis tickets'

A woman has been charged with fraud offences over the alleged sale of Oasis tickets.

Rosie Slater has been charged with 11 counts of fraud by false representation, Staffordshire Police said.

The 32-year-old, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, has been granted unconditional bail and is due to appear in court at North Staffordshire Justice Centre on 11 December.

The charges relate to the alleged sale of Oasis tickets in May.

It comes as ministers confirmed plans to make it illegal for tickets to concerts, theatre, comedy, sport and other live events to be resold for more than their original cost.

Earlier this month, pop stars including Sam Fender, Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Radiohead urged the prime minister in an open letter to stand by his election promise to restrict online ticket touts.

The huge profits made by resellers were put in the spotlight last year when thousands of Oasis fans complained of ticket prices for their reunion tour, with some Wembley Stadium show tickets listed at more than £4,000.

Entertainment

The Stone Roses bassist Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield dies aged 63

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2025

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The Stone Roses bassist Gary 'Mani' Mounfield dies aged 63

The Stone Roses bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield has died at the age of 63, his family has said.

Mani’s brother, Greg, said in a post on Facebook: “It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to announce the sad passing of my brother.”

“RIP RKID,” he added.

Formed in 1983, The Stone Roses were a mainstay of the “Madchester” scene.

Mani joined the band in 1987 and formed part of its classic line-up alongside singer Ian Brown, guitarist John Squire and drummer Alan ‘Reni’ Wren. He remained with the group until their split in 1996.

Mani’s death comes two years after that of his wife, Imelda Mounfield, who was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in November 2020. The couple welcomed twin boys in 2012.

The Stone Roses frontman Brown shared a tribute online, writing: “REST IN PEACE MANi X.”

Oasis singer Liam Gallagher said he was “in total shock and absolutely devastated”, describing the bassist as “my hero”.

“RIP Mani – my heartfelt condolences to his twin boys and all of his family,” wrote the Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder, whose bandmate Rowetta added: “Back with your Imelda, Mani. Going to miss you so much. All my love to the boys, the family & all those who knew & loved him.”

The Charlatans frontman, Tim Burgess, shared a photo of himself with Mani, writing alongside it: “I shared this photo a week or so ago on Mani’s birthday.

“It never failed to bring a smile to my face – and that was exactly the same for the man himself.

“One of the absolute best in every way – such a beautiful friend.”

Echo & the Bunnymen vocalist Ian McCulloch said Mani was someone “who I have always loved and always will love, deeply and forever. Like a brother”.

He continued: “I am in shock to be honest. Please tell me I’m just having a bad, bad dream. My thoughts and feelings and Mani. Love to all of his family from me”.

The “Madchester” bands were known for blending indie with acid house, psychedelia, and pop.

The Stone Roses’ eponymous debut album of 1989 was a huge success, and was named the second greatest album of all time in a “Music of the Millennium” poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian, and Classic FM.

Entertainment

Half of novelists fear AI will replace them entirely, survey finds

Published

3 days ago

November 20, 2025

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Half of novelists fear AI will replace them entirely, survey finds

The novel has survived the industrial revolution, radio, television, and the internet. Now it’s facing artificial intelligence – and novelists are worried.

Half (51%) fear that they will be replaced by AI entirely, according to a new survey, even though for the most part they don’t use the technology themselves.

More immediately, 85% say they think their future income will be negatively impacted by AI, and 39% claim their finances have already taken a hit.

Tracy Chevalier, the bestselling author of Girl With A Pearl Earring and The Glassmaker, shares that concern.

“I worry that a book industry driven mainly by profit will be tempted to use AI more and more to generate books,” she said in response to the survey.

“If it is cheaper to produce novels using AI (no advance or royalties to pay to authors, quicker production, retainment of copyright), publishers will almost inevitably choose to publish them.

“And if they are priced cheaper than ‘human made’ books, readers are likely to buy them, the way we buy machine-made jumpers rather than the more expensive hand-knitted ones.”

Why authors are so worried

The University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy asked 258 published novelists and 74 industry insiders how AI is viewed and used in the world of British fiction.

Alongside existential fears about the wholesale replacement of the novel, many authors reported a loss of income from AI, which they attributed to “competition from AI-generated books and the loss of jobs which provide supplementary streams of income, such as copywriting”.

Some respondents reported finding “rip-off AI-generated imitations” of their own books, as well books “written under their name which they haven’t produced”.

Last year, the Authors Guild warned that “the growing access to AI is driving a new surge of low-quality sham ‘books’ on Amazon”, which has limited the number of publications per day on its Kindle self-publishing platform to combat the influx of AI-generated books.

The median income for a novelist is currently £7,000 and many make ends meet by doing related work, such as audiobook narration, copywriting or ghost-writing.

These tasks, authors feared, were already being supplanted by AI, although little evidence was provided for this claim, which was not possible to verify independently.

Copyright was also a big concern, with 59% of novelists reporting that they knew their work had been used to train AI models.

Of these, 99% said they did not give permission and 100% said they were not remunerated for this use.

Earlier this year, AI firm Anthropic agreed to pay authors $1.5bn (£1.2bn) to settle a lawsuit which claimed the company stole their work.

The judge in the US court case ruled that Anthropic had downloaded more than seven million digital copies of books it “knew had been pirated” and ordered the firm to pay authors compensation.

However, the judge sided with Anthropic over the question of copyright, saying that the AI model was doing something akin to when a human reads a book to inspire new work, rather than simply copying.

Most novelists – 67% – never used it for creative work, although a few said they found it very useful for speeding up drafting or editing.

One case study featured in the report is Lizbeth Crawford, a novelist in multiple genres, including fantasy and romance. She describes working with AI as a writing partner, using it to spot plot holes and trim adjectives.

“Lizbeth used to write about one novel per year, but now she can do three per year, and her target is five,” notes the author of the report, Dr Clementine Collett.

Is there a role for government?

Despite this, the report’s foreword urges the government to slow down the spread of AI by strengthening copyright law to protect authors and other creatives.

The government has proposed making an exception to UK copyright law for “text and data mining”, which might make authors and other copyright holders opt out to stop their work being used to train AI models.

“That approach prioritises access to data for the world’s technology companies at the cost to the UK’s own creative industries,” writes Professor Gina Neff, executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy.

“It is both bad economics and a betrayal of the very cultural assets of British soft power.”

A government spokesperson said: “Throughout this process we have, and always will, put the interests of the UK’s citizens and businesses first.

“We’ve always been clear on the need to work with both the creative industries and AI sector to drive AI innovation and ensure robust protections for creators.

“We are bringing together both British and global companies, alongside voices beyond the AI and creative sectors, to ensure we can capture the broadest possible range of expert views as we consider next steps.”