Glastonbury boss Michael Eavis took to the stage at the festival tonight (Thursday, June 23), playing a heart-warming covers set before Bastille performed a secret show. Check out photos and footage below.
As rumours of Bastille’s secret set at William’s Green spread across the Worthy Farm site, the area grew so busy that festival-goers had to be warned to stop heading to the area. The tent was already packed out with fans spilling out far into the field for Spice Girl legend Mel C’s DJ set, with more people piling in when Eavis’ backing band arrived after.
“We’re the Michael Eavis band,” the guitarist told the crowd, before the singer dedicated an opening cover of The Beatles’ ‘Lady Madonna’ to “the badgers of Bluebell Wood”.
The band played two songs before the festival legend took to the mic, paying tribute to Glastonbury’s 50 years of history and noting the spiritual nature of the site due to it being on ancient leylines. After asking the crowd to hold a sustained middle C (the heart chakra), the band then beckoned “the architect of all of this” Eavis on stage for a run of Elvis covers and a few of his favourite tracks.
“Lovely jubbly,” he told the enraptured crowd, before running through a run of Elvis tracks including ‘Suspicious Minds’, ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love With You’ and ‘Always On My Mind’, as well as Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ and ‘Good Year For The Roses’ by Elvis Costello and The Attractions.
The Glastonbury legend’s performances have become somewhat of a tradition at the festival, having sung at the Avalon Cafe in 2019 and delivering a cover of ‘Somethin Stupid’ with his daughter and Glasto organiser Emily Eavis.
The main line-up of music kicks off tomorrow with performances from the likes of Foals, The Libertines, Sam Fender, St Vincent, IDLES, Blossoms, Sigrid, Phoebe Bridgers and Primal Scream, with a headline set on the Pyramid Stage from Billie Eilish. The music tonight continues with sets from the likes of Nia Archives, I Jordan, Bad Boy Chiller Crew and many more.
Check out the full line-up and performance times here.
Meanwhile, uncertainty hangs over Wolf Alice’s upcoming Pyramid Stage performance after the band revealed that they were stranded in LA after flight cancellations.
The band aren’t the only ones with a question mark over their appearance at Glastonbury Festival this weekend after The Chemical Brothers cancelled their show in Cork tonight due to a positive COVID test in their camp. That show has been rescheduled to 2023.
The latest weather forecast for the Pilton area suggests mild temperatures with light rain expected to fall intermittently from today through to Sunday.
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