There comes a point at Glastonbury 2024 where it becomes easier to give up about a mile away from the stage. Much like Sugababes’ overcrowded set, the grouchy, nostalgic pop-punk queen Avril Lavigne is one of the festival’s must-see acts, yet is shoved on a too-small stage in front of an overwhelming sea of people. Janelle Monae, over on the Pyramid Stage at the exact same time, is the unlucky recipient of poor planning – a genius pop star performing to a barely-there crowd.
It’s not great. In difficult circumstances, crowd-control at Glastonbury do a brilliant job, keeping everyone safe and herding thousands of people in front of the Other Stage and the surrounding areas. Everybody seems to be able to see, and – unlike the Sugababes over at West Holts on Thursday – there are no reports of people being told to back away.
Lavigne herself is overwhelmed. “I can’t believe it’s taken me 22 years to play Glastonbury,” she says. “It’s about time”.
This is a brilliant show, but Glastonbury must learn lessons from a year that has vastly underestimated the appeal of pop nostalgia, and overestimated the interest in many performing over at the Pyramid. That said, there is something incredibly special about being, more or less, a million miles away from the Other Stage and singing in unison with a small country of people in their late twenties and early thirties, to whom Lavigne is something of a god. All of us stuffed at the back of the crowd, near the food ven.
