Glastonbury Festival Saturday 27th June 2015

Saturday 27th June 2015

On Saturday afternoon, George Ezra played the Pyramid Stage for the first time. Ezra has a timeless voice which appeals and attracts to an audience of many generations and his Glastonbury audience was no exception to this. His songs are easy to listen to and made the set seem totally seamless whilst also being relaxing. The set was complemented by the dazzling sunshine. Ezra played songs from his debut album “Wanted on Voyage”- which he informed the audience that it was written about a trip around Europe- as well as various song covers including Bob Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country” (which Ezra told the audience that he wished he had written himself) and Macy Gray’s “I Try”. Ezra is an artist who belongs at festivals like Glastonbury (George Ezra played as part of BBC Introducing at Glastonbury) as his music perfectly reflects the mood of the festival itself and drew on a wide range of audience of all ages. Ezra played hits such as “Budapest” and “Cassy ‘O” which made the audience sing with him as the crowd recognized the songs. George Ezra is an artist who is surely going to be around for a long time and I look forward to seeing his future musical endeavours as his Glastonbury set promised a bright musical future.

In preparation for their Sunday Pyramid Stage show, Palma Violets played the William’s Green Stage early Saturday evening. The Lambeth band played an energetic show which saw the audience jumping and singing- and even moshing! The band’s set up was simplistic and the instruments were sound checked by the band which proved that the band weren’t phased by fame. The band played an exhausting set which radiated energy and made the audience buzz. At the end of the set, Chilli Jesson (the bass player) encouraged the audience, and also their own guests, to join them up on stage- much to the security guard’s dismay. It was a spectacular show to witness as it was seen by only a few hundred people, in contrast to the thousands who came out to see the Lambeth band’s set on the Other Stage the following day. The set was entertaining and showcased many tracks from their new album “Danger in the Club”.

Glastonbury Festival’s controversial Saturday headliner Kanye West originally sparked uproar and disgust among the many festival goers and even caused online petitions (one of which reached over 100,000 signatures) to occur and saw death threats for Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis. But Kanye showed Glastonbury’s diversity as well as showcased what makes Glastonbury set out and different from every other festival. Its diversity means that you can enjoy artists including the likes of Florence and the Machine and the Vaccines but also artists like Kanye West- and I personally think we should embrace this culture. The set included many well known songs from Kanye’s collection such as “Gold Digger”, “All Day”, “Ni**as in Paris” and “FourFiveSeconds” as well as controversial covers of songs such as Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) which made the audience sing along. Kanye’s set promised memorable Glastonbury moments as well as key moments of the decade which would be talked about for many years to come and made many people question what Kanye could do and whether Kanye was festival headliner worthy- Kanye had already hailed himself as “the greatest living rockstar on the planet”. The audience, who mostly loved Kanye’s songs or were interested in what he would do to either show himself up or just wanted to see the audience reaction, were waiting for what Kanye would do to make his headline set stand out from the rest. Early on in the set, during “Black Skinhead” (the set’s fourth song), Kanye was interrupted by a comedian, later found out to be Lee Nelson, as he ran onto the stage. Kanye demanded the song be restarted and the set continued. West dedicated a song to his wife Kim Kardashian as well which made the audience wonder whether or not Kim K would make an appearance. But the main focal point of the set was Kanye’s disappearance from the stage during “Touch the Sky” in which the audience were left in darkness for about 5 minutes muttering to one another as to what he was doing and why Kanye had shown himself up but no one was expecting Kanye to appear on a cherry picker above the huge crowd in which he demanded the audience to jump. It was difficult to see where the 100,000+ people were who signed the online petition because the Worthy Farm audience seemed to love the performance. Kanye’s set got the people of Glastonbury Festival talking and I’m sure that people will continue to talk about it for a long time and, after all, Kanye is the name on everyone’s lips. He’s popular, current and controversial- everyone’s talking about him and he loves it.