Pretty much what I saw. Although doesn’t include some DJ sets and also doesn’t include random things I walked past but didn’t stop to watch (like En Vogue and Ezra Collective).

Pretty much what I saw. Although doesn’t include some DJ sets and also doesn’t include random things I walked past but didn’t stop to watch (like En Vogue and Ezra Collective).
This was my ridiculously impossible list of all the acts I wanted to see. Impossible because a lot of it clashed with each other, let alone before I added in what other people wanted to go and see.
Next up is a playlist of what I actually saw.
We had no intention of going this year since it was our 20th (!!!) wedding anniversary so we were going to go back to Siena at the start of June. But the elder daughter and her boyfriend wanted to go so we said we’d help out trying to get tickets for them and so when we actually managed to get through we of course ended up putting all five of us in.
As ever there was far too much I wanted to see. I’ll stick up a Spotify playlist of what I wanted to see, but here’s what I ended up seeing. I decided I would prioritise getting to stages I’d not been to before over artists I wanted to see. This was a fantastic idea and also somewhat helped with making decisions over clashes. And as luck would have it, it meant I had checked off most of the stages (Greenpeace, Glade, Strummerville, Croissant Neuf, Acoustic, Left Field) by the end of Friday. Artist-wise my must sees were Heartworms and then something Scottish (ended up being Corto.Alto) as I felt bad in 2023 for missing all the Scottish acts.
* - Original must sees, based on stages
^ - Didn’t see the whole set. Sunday night we had a whirlwind tour on the way back to the tent
My top three (not necessarily in any particular order) based on emotions (almost crying; definitely welled up):
Other notable mentions: Joshua Idehen (amazing) and Heartworms (obviously, although we annoyingly ended up next to people who decided to meetup and talk all the way through it, which put a bit of a dampener on it).
I really noticed crowd “issues” this time round. Already mentioned Heartworms, but for Shed 7 I missed most of it because I went to the bar and then couldn’t get back into the tent due to “crowd crust” on the edges. People sat in friggin’ chairs! If I hadn’t have had a drink in each hand and a backpack on I would have just pushed through as A had gone in and there was plenty of room. On a related note, the crowd can really make or break an act: With Wolf Alice, the crowd where we were felt really flat; I thought it was just people getting an early spot for Prodigy, but when Wolf Alice finished everyone left. Weird; I don’t get the point in going and not enjoying yourself? I didn’t mind too much as we’ll never beat when we saw Wolf Alice at Barrowlands.
I, of course, missed a load of stuff I wanted to see. I do have regrets (Marie Davidson, Biig Piig, Two Shell, Lens, John Glacier, Doeechi, Divorce, Lambrini Girls, etc…). Such is Glastonbury. My “prioritise stages” plan was causing issues with the family by the end of Friday (I am perfectly happy to go off on my own and see stuff, others… less so) so Saturday and Sunday I mostly went along with what others wanted to do, but this worked out ok - you have to be a bit flexible at Glastonbury - as I would have skipped Pulp for something else and yet that ended up in my top three. As per last time, though, I think the best way to experience Glastonbury is as a single person who thinks the line-up is crap.
Because I was at Glastonbury I feel like my opinion is a hundred times more valid than all those “outraged” people who were not. But because I don’t trust the law I’ll add minimal comment and mostly let the screenshots speak for themselves.
Presented with minimal comment because the law is obviously not there to protect the innocent, just the rich and powerful. This gets more correct every day.
Disclaimer: If you are reading this on or after the 2025-07-05 then I do not support or condone the actions of Palestine Action.
Disclaimer: If you are reading this at any time, I do not support or condone the actions of the UK Government.
Screenshot from The Guardian on 2025-07-02
A fair few of these overran from March or earlier and then the whole list just got ridiculously long.
There is probably even more than this list. I think next time round, since I seem to be doing this quarterly, I just need to pick the highlights and not try to list everything. The problem with intentionally trying to listen to new and different music is that it can become a chore when most of it doesn’t end up exciting you that much. But I suppose overall this is better than just listening to old and familiar stuff (I wouldn’t have discovered Carla Aakre otherwise). Also, sometimes, it takes a good few listens to an album for songs to click or standout - case in point, I nearly overlooked (overlistened?) Samia’s Dare which is superb - and I just don’t really have the time for that anymore.
Stuff I just didn’t have enough time to get to (or didn’t have enough time to listen to enough times to have even the briefest of opinions):
"That time always ends a second before you're ready."
Similar to the previous quote, I hope this proves true.
Last one from this book. Three books to go.
"But then she wakes, and sees the pink and orange dawn against the clouds, or hears the lament of a lone fiddle, the music and the melody, and remembers there is such beauty in the world."
I think I feel the same, but I’m not so old and tired yet.
"Heat hangs like a low roof over Paris."
I just liked this as an opening paragraph to one of the chapters.
"March is such a fickle month. It is the seam between winter and spring - though seam suggests an even hem, and March is more like a rough line of stitches sewn by an unsteady hand, swinging wildly between January gusts and June greens."
I loved this book. I didn’t actually realise it counts as Young Adult which probably explains the short chapters and easy to read prose, but none of that detracts from an absolutely cracking storyline.
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