Highlights : All The Buzz From Glastonbury 2016

Mohit Thakkar

8 years ago

From Coldplay’s surprise performance with Barry Gibb to Adele’s hilarious swearing; Here are some of the most epic moments from Glastonbury 2016!

Glastonbury 2016 was an incredible experience with almost 200,000 people attending. These people stood there, after battling the traffic and getting soaked in the pouring rains and trudging through the mud. Albeit, they were more than compensated with performances from acts like Muse, Adele and the epic Sunday closing act by Coldplay. Glastonbury also commemorated Prince, David Bowie and Kilmister and their contribution to the world of music with multiple planned and impromptu tributes which truly charged up the atmosphere as the festival came together as one to mourn their loss.

1. The Coldplay finishing set with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees.

As Coldplay’s nostalgic set neared an end, they surprised the crowd with Michael Eavis, the founder of the festival, appearing on the screen and requesting them to get Barry Gibb on stage out to play an acoustic rendition of To Love Somebody. After a mock “Glastonbury referendum” to decide if Barry should leave the stage or remain to play Stayin’ Alive, the “remains” won. As they played their, supposedly, final song Up & Up, Chris stopped midway saying “We’ve come to the end. Shit!”, and then in a rehearsed dialogue demanded to speak to “someone who’s in charge,” finally getting Michael Eavis himself onstage to ask for a curfew extension and sing My Way.

Courtesy : Facebook/Glastonbury Festival

2. Adele messing up and constantly swearing on stage.

The first time Adele performed at Glastonbury was on a small side stage, sponsored by The Guardian, with an acoustic set. To return and perform on the Pyramid stage is definitely a big thing and she made sure to constantly express her disbelief. With songs peppered in between with “Fucking hell!” and “Shit, I did that wrong. Perfect time to fuck up a song, headlining at Glastonbury,” she swore a total of 33 times. She even joked about how BBC had warned her to watch her potty-mouth on live TV.

3. Muse make their best Glastonbury appearance yet.

The band headlined the festival for the third time, the first being in 2004 and then again in 2010. They performed hits from their entire discography, including songs like The Globalist, Drones and Mercy to a crowd of almost 75,000 people.

4. Tributes to the legends Prince, David Bowie and Lemmy Kilmister.

Glastonbury witnessed countless tributes to the recently deceased greats and it came in all forms. Indie Pop band Blossoms paid their respects to the Purple One by performing Manic Monday by The Bangles, which was written by Prince. Jess Glynne on the other hand sang I Feel For You, a song written by Prince in 1979 but made famous by Chaka Khan in 1984. Ska veterans Madness performed Kooks as a tribute to David Bowie while the Last Shadow Puppets covered Moonage Daydream.

Fatboy Slim‘s tribute was a crowd favourite when he mixed Right Here Right Now with Bowie’s 1999 while Prince got his own DJ set courtesy of Hot Chip whose performance was described as a truly emotional experience. The highlight of course was Philip Glass‘ Heroes Symphony, based on David Bowie’s 1977 album of the same name, by Charles Hazlewood, Army of Generals and members of the British Paraorchestra.

Even the crowd joined in with a rendition of Rebel Rebel led by a fan group calling itself Glastonbowie. Another group of performers from the circus field got on stage to encourage everyone, including the security, to throw some shapes in time to Bowie’s Starman. Someone even made a doll that looked exactly like Bowie!

In addition to these musical tributes Glastonbury had even put up sculptures to commemorate the three artists.

Courtesy : liveforlivemusic.com

5. CHVRCHES

CHVRCHES performed right after The 1975 and managed to keep the energy going. Lauren Mayberry was dressed in all white and military platform boots as she delivered powerful renditions of the indietronica pop anthems such as Empty Threat, Gun and The Mother We Share. Doherty then switched to vocals with Lauren on keys for Carry Me Over. “We’re performing before New Order. One of the most important electronic bands of all time,” said Doherty, and they definitely deserved that slot.

6. The traffic jams.

The traffic jams were a major hassle both before and after the festival. Though there was a warning for people to start from home later, even more people showed up as the gates opened two days before the actual festival. Coupled with the rains, it caused people to be stuck in traffic for as long as 12 hours. It was all worth it in the end of course and was all brushed aside as part of the experience.