Glastonbury 2025 highlights and best performances

Glastonbury 2025 has officially wrapped up, with countless festivalgoers currently nursing sore heads, tired feet, and lost voices. 

One of the biggest festivals in the world and with around 4,000 performances, a lot went down on Worthy Farm these past few days. But whether you were there yourself, joined in from the comfort of your sofa, or just need to know what happened so you don’t embarrass yourself in front of your friends when they’re chatting about it, we’ve got you covered with our Glastonbury 2025 highlights. 

Punk, country-pop, Palestine, controversy, dance routines, more special guests than you can count, secret sets, and more, here’s your Glastonbury 2025 round-up. 

 

The 1975 were tame but polished headliners 

Their only performance of the year and their first since March 2024, The 1975 hit the Pyramid Stage for their headline slot on Friday. With huge screens, a treadmill for frontman Matty to dance on, and the back half of a car used to perform ‘Somebody Else’, their set was quite the visual feast, exemplified by their often upbeat pop.

 

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Olivia Rodrigo headlined at just 22 years old

Image: hear and there / Facebook.com 

Sunday saw ex-Disney star, now pop princess Olivia Rodrigo dominating the Pyramid Stage. The ‘drivers license’ singer gave us what many consider to be one of Glastonbury 2025’s best performances. 

The young pop star also brought out her "personal hero", Robert Smith (of The Cure), for a tune or two, performing The Cure’s ‘Friday I'm in Love’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’ together. Before her set, she was seen enjoying Pulp performing ‘Common People’, sitting atop her boyfriend’s shoulders. 

 

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Fatboy Slim performed his 100th Glasto set 

Image: Fatboy Slim / Instagram.com 

Legendary big beat DJ Fatboy performed his 100th set at Glasto. Not his 100th set ever, but his 100th set at Glastonbury. This year, he did six sets across the weekend, including a surprise set B2B with his son Woody Cook. 

 

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The Prodigy dedicated their set to Keith 

Frontman and founder of The Prodigy, Keith Flint, sadly died in 2019. The band have continued, though, and used their set on the closing night to dedicate it all to Keith, performing a special edition of ultimate banger ‘Firestarter’, remixed with Flint’s voice. The crowd gave all their energy from start to finish. (The Prodigy will head on tour with Carl Cox next year). 

 

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Franz Ferdinand ft. Peter Capaldi

'00s indie rock heroes Franz Ferdinand were joined by fellow Scotsman Peter Capaldi to perform their festival belter ‘Take Me Out’. It was mint, and the crowd loved every minute. 

 

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Scissor Sisters (and their guests) gave us pure queer joy 

Pop legends Scissor Sisters, blasting through a set of bangers, were joined by Sir Ian McKellen for ‘Invisible Light’, Beth Ditto for  ‘Filthy/Gorgeous’, and Jessie Ware for ‘Music Is the Victim’ and ‘Take Your Mama’. The crowd chanted "Oh, Ian McKellen" when he left the stage - he had to fight off tears. Their set was pure queer joy.

 

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Liam Gallagher doesn’t like the Pyramid stage 

After being asked what “jamboree” means, he elaborated: "It’s a load of divs dressed in tie-dye clothes banging clogs and blowing up balloons".

 

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Skepta’s festival ‘Shutdown’

Image: Skepta / Instagram./com

Alt-metal band Deftones had to pull out of their Saturday performance very last minute due to illness. Legendary Boy Better Know grime MC Skepta filled in, again, very last minute. On social media, he posted, “Let’s go!!! No crew, no production but am ready to shut Glastonbury down. Victory lap time.” And, even without all the frills, he absolutely nailed it. The crowd lapped it all up, and it was a real riot.

 

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Bob Vylan's set

Probably the main thing most media is focusing on right now: Kneecap and Bob Vylan. Punk duo Bob Vylan, performing on West Holts right before Kneecap, led pro-Palestine chants before jumping into another more radical chant. The BBC removed their performance from iPlayer. The police are currently investigating their set to see if any offences were committed. 

 

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Kneecap’s triumph 

 

We won’t bore you with the backstory; we’re probably all pretty familiar with it by this point. After Kier Starmer said the Irish rap trio shouldn’t perform at the festival, there were plenty of chants during Kneecap’s set to voice their disagreement with his opinion, as well as pro-Palestine chants. At least 200 Palestinian flags were waving around throughout their set. Like with Bob Vylan, the police are also investigating Kneecap’s set. 

The BBC didn’t livestream the set, so one Welsh woman - ‘Helen from Wales’, whom many are hailing a “hero” - held up her phone for the entire set and livestreamed it herself on TikTok. She got around 2 million views. The band have promised her free gig tickets for life. 

 

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More on Palestine

Kneecap and Bob Vylan weren’t the only acts to highlight Palestine in their sets. Aussie punk band Amyl and The Sniffers gave a fantastic performance and shouted about Palestine during their set (as well as colonialism, Indigenous rights and AI), and Nadine Shah read an open letter in support of Palestine Action, an activist group that is currently in the process of being proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the government. Other acts to have spoken on or shown support for Palestine include CMAT, Inhaler, The Libertines, and Rizzle Kicks.

 

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Alanis Morissette made her Glasto debut, ft. loads of spoons 

Finally making her Glastonbury debut, Alanis Morissette hit the stage to be greeted by thousands of people ready to sing every lyric back at her. During ‘Ironic’, a massive ‘90s pop/alt-rock hit, she sings “It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife”. It wasn’t quite 10,000, but a fair few attendees brought some spoons for that one lyric.

 

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Did Charli xcx burn down the Brat era? 

Image: Charli xcx / X.com 

One of the best albums of 2024 and an absolutely monumental piece of pop culture, no one could get enough of Brat. So when Charli hit the stage and the Brat backdrop set alight, it was a pretty huge moment as it could have symbolised the end of the era. The video screens displayed a message:  "I think you have all proven to me that Brat is forever, and honestly, I don't know who I am if it's over." So who knows? Maybe it’s over, or maybe it can never truly be over because Brat is a feeling, not just an album. 

The "Apple dance" that went viral on TikTok (using Charli's song 'Apple') has become a big part of her performances, with one person put on camera to do the dance. This time, it was pop star Gracie Abrams who filled up the big screens for it.

 

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Secret sets from Pulp, Lorde, Lewis Capaldi, and HAIM

Glastonbury secret sets are a tradition. A few happen every year. This year, we got Pulp (billed as ‘Patchwork’), Lorde, who played her new album in full just a few hours after it was released; Haim; and Lewis Capaldi, who returned after a hiatus brought on by his struggle to perform ‘Someone You Loved’ at the festival in 2023 due to his Tourette’s symptoms. "Second time's a charm on this one," Capaldi said to the crowd.

 

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Floating Points brought his custom sound system, Sunflower

Electronic artist Floating Points brought his Sunflower Sound System to Worthy Farm. It was billed as the first large-scale live music stage to be insulated with mycelium - a biomaterial formed from the root structure of fungi. Mycelium is being used as a more sustainable option for materials like plastic. The material possesses natural sound-absorbing qualities, which helps with acoustics. For electronic fans, it was definitely one of the Glastonbury 2025 highlights. 

 

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CMAT with that infectious, slightly camp, country-pop

Fusing pop and country sounds, with some camp vibes sprinkled in, CMAT’s set was massively praised. The Irish star came through with lots of infectious energy - a display of endless fun, with choreographed routines with her band. After this, many have her down as a future headliner. 

 

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Find your dream festival now on Skiddle. Spanning multiple genres across the UK and beyond, there's certain to be something for you.

 

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Check out our What's On Guide to discover even more rowdy raves and sweaty gigs taking place over the coming weeks and months. For festivals, lifestyle events and more, head on over to our Things To Do page or be inspired by the event selections on our Inspire Me page.

 

 

  

 

 

Header: Charli xcx / X.com