Glastonbury live: Saturday’s action begins ahead of Coldplay, Little Simz and more

Follow along with the action at Worthy Farm with reviews, photos and more as artists including Femi Kuti, Jamie Webster and 47Soul open the day’s stages00.30, Levels Currently, the only place you can get hold of official Charli xcx merch is at one of her shows or Partygirl DJ sets. That might seem a counterintuitive move given the massive success of her new album Brat, but I think it’s possibly one of the savviest things any pop star has done in recent memory: fans have filled the vacuum with homemade merch, from lime green caps with a printout of the word “brat” safety-pinned on, to handpainted hi-vis vests, non-PG corruptions of the Taylor Swift friendship bracelet craze and even earrings with tiny dangling lurid plastic bags on them. The effect – and evidently loving effort gone into all this – makes the phenomenon seem even more legit, and it’s the DIY chartreuse faithful who are propping up the front row of Charli’s much-anticipated Glastonbury DJ set at the enclosed Levels space.As with most of the festival’s flashpoints, it’s wildly over-subscribed to the point of almost being anxiety-inducing; such is the fear about losing one’s spot that there’s a lot of peeing in cups going on. Charli barely needs to ask “who’s having a Brat summer” as she takes to the decks at 12.30 and plays 365, the song’s narcotic lyrics very much summing up the activity in the front few rows. Continue reading...