After a couple of days of preamble, Glastonbury’s music properly began – and while the defining performance on Friday was a sensational show from Stormzy, there was plenty more to savour.
Jorja Smith beguiled the audience at West Holts stage with her blend of neo-soul and UK garage. “As the sun sets,” wrote Guardian critic Michael Cragg, “you can’t deny her this early career-defining moment.”
Jorja Smith on West Holts
Guardian photographer David Levene captures Jorja Smith as she steps up to a ‘career-defining’ performance
Over on the Park stage, Idles detoxified masculinity with punk that was both snotty and sensitive – nurses and the crowd’s mums were among those venerated by frontman Joe Talbot.
The Vaccines meanwhile opened up the Other Stage, and it was all too much for one Glastonbury-goer.
IICON is a brand new Glastonbury stage for 2019 – set in the east side of the site, but seemingly designed to send people west. Playing from its disembodied head was a dizzying barrage of techno, bass and electronic noise from some of the world’s most cutting-edge artists.
In the crowd meanwhile, body glitter – hopefully biodegradable! – remains the accessory of choice.
Milk and two sugars?
Sheryl Crow generated some of the biggest singalongs of the day for the likes of If It Makes You Happy – and even had her two young sons working as guitar technicians. As Michael Cragg noted: “By the time the classic Everyday Is a Winding Road kicks in, she’s back in the crowd’s palm, posing for photos and even sharing a kiss with a sunburnt punter.”
Aside from walking about eight miles a day, yoga is the exercise of choice at Glastonbury – and Power Ballad Yoga adds an extra impetus for all those outstretched arms.
George Ezra’s buoyant, boyish music simply wouldn’t make sense in Glastonbury’s classic drizzle. But luckily for him – perhaps because of him? – the crowd was indeed firmly “underneath the hot sun” for his set. As the Guardian’s Laura Snapes said: “In this miserable day and age, only a churl would resist Ezra’s sunbeam blast of charisma.”
Bastille played a blinder, leaning into their set like headliners and making one of the clearest political statements of the day: singer Dan Smith draping himself in an EU flag.
And there’s still two more days to go! Follow all the action live on the Guardian when the bands get back on stage around lunchtime.
