Glastonbury revellers face large queues for the showers already

Sweaty Glastonbury revellers are facing massive queues for the showers already this morning after the festival kicked-off with a bang last night. 

Around 200,000 festival-goers are set to descend on Worthy Farm to enjoy a weekend at the iconic music event – with thousands enjoying the action yesterday.

And after partying in sweltering temperatures of 30C, hordes of revellers today face a battle to wash themselves down.

Pictures show hundreds of weary music lovers stuck in queues to use the on-site showers, which have been limited by organisers to cut down on water waste.

It comes as Glastonbury’s organiser Emily Eavis was forced to defend the world-famous music spectacle’s line-up amid criticism of there being a lack of rock bands as pop star Dua Lipa prepares to headline Friday’s event.

This year’s event sees headline performances from Dua Lipa, Coldplay and American R&B singer SZA, while country star Shania Twain will play the coveted Legends slot.

‘I think the line-up reflects what’s happening in the music world at the moment – there aren’t a lot of new rock acts to choose from if I’m honest,’ Eavis said.

‘Hopefully that will emerge again, my heyday was 1995 with Pulp and Oasis and Radiohead… and that was great but music changes all the time and right now this is where we’re at.

‘Every year, we’ve been criticised for being too rock, too grime, too hip hop, too pop… it’s just part of our year.

‘Generally it’s not from the public… everybody’s really happy and excited to be here.’

Last night, festivalgoers were pictured inhaling ‘laughing gas’ from balloons on the grass. 

Elsewhere, a small mobile cart saw entrepreneurs flogging little bottles claiming to contain the ‘vegan alternative to cocaine’. 

This morning, dozens of empty nitrous oxide cans were pictured scattered around the festival site, with some left in large piles close to the bins. 

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said that since Wednesday until 10am on Friday, the festival had seen a total of six arrests for drug offences on and off site at Glastonbury.

‘Three of these relate to the same occurrence and these people have also been arrested on suspicion of theft,’ he added.

Over the same period, the force also recorded 39 incidents, which included 11 thefts, five drug offences and two reports of violence.

This year’s festival is taking place in the week before the General Election, which Eavis acknowledged they have ‘never had’.

‘I feel a bit like we’ve stepped out of the election, even though it’s next week,’ she said.

‘We were working on having voter registration booths, but then the day moved.

‘It’s a big one for us, we’ve never had a pre-election festival.’

Glastonbury have also decided it will not be broadcasting the Euro 2024 football tournament, with England set to face Slovakia in the last 16 at 5pm on Sunday.

Eavis said the festival set up a screen to watch fixtures during the World Cup tournament in 1998, but times have changed.

‘We used to have a screen here as no-one had any means of finding out what even the result was because we were so cut off from the outside,’ she said.

‘Now obviously, everyone’s connected and I think you know it’s a music festival.

‘I’m sure if people want to see it enough they can check for results or whatever on their phones.

‘But hopefully I’m encouraging people to put their phones away and and forget about the outside world.’

Dua Lipa is to headline the British festival for the first time when she takes to the stage in Somerset on Friday evening.

The 28-year-old is expected to treat revellers to a selection of her hit songs, including Houdini and Training Season from her third studio album, Radical Optimism, released earlier this year.

The British-Albanian singer, who took home the Brit Award for best pop act in March, said she was inspired by psychedelia, trip-hop, and Britpop styles when creating the new record.

Squeeze will open the Pyramid Stage on Friday at midday, followed by rising star Olivia Dean, K-pop group Seventeen and singer Paul Heaton.

Dean, 25, who won the BBC Introducing Artist Of The Year Award in 2023, performed on the The Lonely Hearts Club stage at the festival last year, but this will be her first time playing on the main stage.

LCD Soundsystem will then take to the stage at 7.45pm, ahead of Dua Lipa’s set.

The American rock band, whose hits include Dance Yrself Clean and All My Friends, last played Glastonbury in 2016 where they performed on the Other Stage.

Thursday festivities included a tribute to the late DJ Annie Nightingale, the first female presenter on BBC Radio 1, who died in January at the age of 83.

The special event took place across two stages at the festival and included a daytime celebration on The Glade stage, featuring King Of The Beats and Paper Dragon, before it moved to the BBC Music Introducing stage for the evening.

Elsewhere, and just days after the birth of his fourth child, Joe Wicks led a fitness session and set his sights on taking his workouts to the Pyramid Stage.

He said he had initially planned to take his wife Rosie with him to the festival, but said they made a last-minute change after the birth of his son Dusty.

On Friday, Wicks will take to the Park Stage at 10am, to put more festival-goers through their paces, where he is hoping for crowds of up to three or four thousand.

The stage had been set to see Groove Armada on Thursday night before the electronic music duo were moved to other DJ slots due to the size of expected crowds.

Announcing the news on X, the festival’s official account said: ‘Instead, we encourage you to take in their sets at the larger capacity Glade on Sunday at 8.30pm and B2B with Eats Everything at Levels on Saturday at 6pm. Thank you for your understanding.’

The festival also includes art installations and attractions and this year revellers have been treated to Carhenge, a series of 24 mutated vintage car sculptures, and Arcadia’s fire-belching dragonfly installation, which had previously taken the form of a spider.

Glastonbury festivalgoers will face cooler conditions for the action, as forecasters said Britain’s recent hot spell is now coming to an end with windy weather on the way and unsettled conditions for the next few days.

Music fans at Glastonbury enjoying Friday’s line-up could be met with the ‘occasional light shower’ but the day will mainly be ‘dry and bright’, according to a Met Office spokeswoman.

Nicola Maxey said: ‘Although there is a chance of an occasional light shower today at Glastonbury, it will be a mainly dry and bright day with sunny spells, and the chance of some late evening sunshine for festival goers.

‘Tomorrow will mostly be another dry and bright day, a little warmer than Friday, but becoming cloudier through the evening with the chance of some light drizzle later one.

‘The drizzle should clear as we go through Sunday morning, making way for another dry day with plenty of sunshine.

‘Whilst a weather front could bring some rainfall to the festival site for a period on Monday, Tuesday is looking like another dry day.

‘Temperatures are expected to reach high teens to low 20s Celsius over the coming days.’

Glastonbury revellers are expected enjoy weather across the weekend that is ‘mostly dry with plenty of sunny spells’ and temperatures about average for June, which will be at 18C (64F) today before rising to 19C (66F) tomorrow and 21C (70F) on Sunday.

It follows the UK’s first heatwave of the year that saw a 2024 high of 30.3C (86.5F) on Wednesday and a four-day heat health alert that expired yesterday afternoon.

Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said: ‘After the spell of warmth earlier this week, the UK forecast is pivoting rapidly to cooler and more unsettled conditions.

‘This change is being driven by an unseasonably deep area of low pressure to the west of Scotland, this is bringing strong winds and rain to northern parts of the UK, including Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.

‘A cold front from this system is dragging cooler air eastwards across the rest of the UK. This is bringing temperatures down to much nearer average values.

‘The UK outlook for the next few days is for periods of unsettled conditions to be interspersed with brighter spells.’

The incoming unsettled weather follows a period of sustained high temperatures.

Wednesday was the hottest day of the year so far, the Met Office said, with a high of 30.3C (86.5F) recorded at Heathrow Airport.

The previous hottest day of the year was Tuesday, with the mercury topping out at 30C (86F) in Chertsey in Surrey.

Met Office meteorologist Kathryn Chalk said the last time 30C was recorded in the UK before this week was on September 10 last year – nearly 300 days ago. 

The UK high yesterday was 25.5C (77.9F) at Heathrow. 

The NHS said the number of people seeking heat advice on its website ‘skyrocketed’ after a yellow heat health alert covering most of the country came into force on Monday. This warning expired at 5pm yesterday.

London’s ability to deal with future extreme heatwaves was put to the test yesterday as the capital’s key agencies came together to plan how to support residents and minimise disruption.

‘Operation Helios’ explored an extreme heat scenario of five days of heat that scientists warn could affect Londoners by 2027.

Meanwhile Glastonbury comes amid planned industrial action by junior doctors, as NHS Somerset offered tips on how to ‘stay well’ during periods of hot weather to help ‘ease pressure on health and care’.

‘We know that services will be under pressure this week,’ Dr Bernie Marden, chief medical officer for NHS Somerset, said.

‘With Glastonbury Festival also taking place this week and expected warm weather, we are sharing a few reminders about simple steps people can take to look after themselves, and stay healthy and well.’