At Glastonbury Competition’s Apocalypse Museum, an artwork set up slash testomony to the world’s present woes, photos of Gaza’s destruction are broadcast on TV units, whereas an unlimited signal transforms the Shell oil brand into the phrase “hell”. Over on the Pyramid Stage, in the meantime, Matty Healy of The 1975 uses his set to proclaim the worth of retaining politically schtum. “You’ll be able to exit into the world and there’s a great deal of politics in every single place,” he stated. “We don’t want extra politics. We want extra love and friendship.” Within the crowd, the second is met by gentle whoops. Many appear to wince.
That is the unusual paradox of Glastonbury Festival, the place anger, protest and political motion sit geographically parallel to gak, hedonism and the attract of doing and pondering completely nothing. After which there’s Kneecap, an Irish hip-hop trio who’ve come to exemplify this very split (or is it a contradiction?), their presence at this 12 months’s Glastonbury – within the face of mounting criticism from throughout the political spectrum – an surprising referendum on the pageant’s soul. That they haven’t been banned from performing is proof that there’s nonetheless life on this outdated woman but.
Kneecap have been arguably popularised in 2024, once they performed themselves in an acclaimed semi-accurate biopic (by which Michael Fassbender performed considered one of their dads, a former republican paramilitary). However many extra may have possible solely heard of them in the previous couple of months, now that they’re – to cite The Occasions – “essentially the most controversial band within the UK because the Intercourse Pistols”. And with that they bring to Glastonbury a degree of anti-establishment rage that has at all times underpinned the pageant, however which lately has performed extra of a cameo function on the subject of the precise lineup of acts.
Kneecap are, no matter the place you stand on that aforementioned controversy, the right Glastonbury band: a trio of males who spit bars about substance use and partying, in addition to colonialism, sectarian violence and the scourge of political apathy. They rap in Irish as a type of reclamation in opposition to the English, one thing that has beforehand put them within the crosshairs of Kemi Badenoch, who in 2024 blocked them from receiving a government-funded music grant as a consequence of their politics (this was later discovered to be illegal, and the band donated the ensuing cash to charity.)
Kneecap’s music stays anarchic and free-wheeling, filled with chugging techno, wit and rage. In current months their consideration has turned to the Israel and Palestine warfare, the band enjoying in entrance of screens studying “F*** Israel” and “Israel is committing genocide in opposition to the Palestinian folks” throughout their April Coachella set (on social media, Sharon Osbourne, OF ALL PEOPLE, referred to as for them to be banned from America). They’ve additionally argued that the current destructive headlines they’ve generated, and their ongoing authorized battles, are politically motivated theatre. This consists of the resurfacing of previous live performance movies by which the band are seen saying “the one good Tory is a useless Tory” and “kill your MP”. (In an interview printed Friday, the band stated these have been jokes, some provocative, if-you-know-you-know stage riffing reasonably than a literal name to homicide.) “14,000 infants are about to die of hunger in Gaza, with meals despatched by the world sitting on the opposite facet of a wall, and as soon as once more the British institution is targeted on us,” the band wrote in an announcement in June.
Regardless of requires the band to be dropped from Glastonbury, pageant organiser Emily Eavis has continued to support Kneecap’s presence right here, whereas her father Michael responded to the query of whether or not Glastonbury nonetheless stands for one thing with blunt candour this week: “Oh heaven’s above, sure, after all it does. And I believe the people who come listed here are into all these issues. Folks that don’t agree with the politics of the occasion can go someplace else.”
And that feels traditionally in step with a pageant that, even with the ever-evolving significance of economic assist for the occasion, has at all times embodied leftist politics and leftist causes, from its long-time assist for the Marketing campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, in addition to environmental and social causes, to the everlasting presence of Billy Bragg, who every 12 months can be someplace speaking right here. After which there are the performers – the anti-Healys, I suppose – who’ve used their units to make political statements. Blur condemned the Brexit outcome mid-performance in 2016. Stormzy bought his Pyramid crowd to chant “F*** Boris” in 2019. In 2022, Billie Eilish and Phoebe Bridgers have been among the many US acts who used their units to specific dismay on the then-fresh overturning of America’s constitutional proper to abortion. And the occasion famously had Jeremy Corbyn introduce Run the Jewels in 2017, however not earlier than prepared the Pyramid Stage crowd right into a socialist battle-cry.
Not possible to not discover this 12 months, too, are the “Free Palestine” flags being waved by means of crowds this 12 months, together with the keffiyehs slung on necks and the watermelon pins and clutch luggage. An set up by the activist collective Led by Donkeys, unveiled on website this week, imagines the likes of Keir Starmer, Elon Musk and JK Rowling being blasted off the planet and straight to Mars. In his Q&A on the website’s Pilton Palais cinema on Thursday, Andrew Garfield railed in opposition to “soulless oligarchs who don’t give a f*** about us”. Right here, the boogeymen are cut-and-dry, if by no means fairly the main focus.
On the Apocalypse Museum, festivalgoers emerge shellshocked, whereas others keep away from it fully. “It’s clearly miserable, however I’m glad it’s right here,” says Izzy, a council employee from Leicester, who was on her strategy to see the campy Irish belter CMAT when she and her accomplice ventured contained in the museum. “It must be right here.” Others keep away from it fully. “Nah, not for me,” remarks one particular person scuttling by.
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Jack, a pupil from Leeds, is one other museum attendee and is worked up for Kneecap’s set. “They’re what Glastonbury is all about,“ he tells me. “It’s about talking reality to energy, it’s about giving a f***.”
And the prevailing temper, noticeable even to the least right-on varieties right here, is hope. Introducing a secret set by Lorde on Friday morning, an aged man who appears uncannily like Gandalf walks onto stage in a Free Palestine T-shirt, and tells the gathered crowd that that is his forty second Glastonbury. “There’s a lot s*** occurring on the earth, so let’s make this a peaceable occasion,” he urges the gang. “And hopefully that peace will unfold to the world.” Everybody round me whoops and cheers in settlement. Marijuana wafts by means of the air. Then the dancing begins.
