With approximately 100,000 people onsite, the Thursday at Glastonbury proved an exciting yet tragic day. Early on, news broke of the death of a 67-year old woman, supposedly having passed from natural causes. Later on, another man found himself in a critical condition for unknown reasons. This, however, didn’t take away from the fact that the day was full of surprises. With the music properly starting Friday, the Thursday is a chance for visitors to get adjusted to the massive festival site, and to explore the various non-musical activities on display.
The day started off with sun shining all around, before the weather took a turn for the worse around lunchtime, when the horizons opened and didn’t close for quite some time. It clearly left a lot of revelers (some only just arriving onsite) mud-drenched and soaked from head to toe. Luckily, Glastonbury has tons of indoor areas, making for a great shelter for some.
Over the course of the day, as the rain gradually disappeared, rumours starting circling online regarding secret sets which are set to take place throughout the weekend. The first of these was regarding the Other Stage ‘special guests’ on Friday morning, later confirmed to being Kaiser Chiefs (who also headline the John Peel Stage in the evening). This was followed by the sudden emergence of rumours regarding the two secret sets in the William’s Green tent later that day. Just as the rumours had predicted, the first band to take to the stage was four-piece The 1975, followed by fellow quartet Metronomy.
The 1975, who opened their set with The City, played around 45 minutes in a set which saw vocalist Matt Healy dive into the crowd, only to be punched by a young boy (who got booed by the large crowd as he was being dragged away). This saw the frontman frustrated, as the band closed their set with the hits Girls, Robbers, Chocolate and rampant set closer, Sex. Although starting off slightly slow and not hitting the mark as such, the band still managed to pick this up with the final 4 songs in the set.
Metronomy took to the stage 30 minutes after The 1975, playing an hour long set to an even busier tent. Where The 1975 failed (particularly in their weaker opening selection of songs), the Joe Mount-fronted four-piece completely blew them out of the water. Early set highlight Love Letters, as well as hits such as The Look and Everything Goes My Way, saw the crowd jumping like manics and chanting along to everything possible. Closing with a funk-laden rendition of The Bay, Metronomy showed the crowd exactly how to pull off a fantastic set. As the band finished up, the tent slowly cleared as people made their way to nightlife areas onsite. It was then that rumours spread of a Skrillex set in The Rabbit Hole, as well as rumours of a secret Mumford & Sons set on Saturday.
Today (Friday), the first proper day of Glastonbury commences with a headline set from Arcade Fire on the Pyramid Stage, as well as performances from Elbow, Chvrches, Blondie, MIA, Temples and Jungle. All Things Loud will be bringing you full coverage of Glastonbury this weekend, with a Jurassic 5 interview also on the schedule this evening. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for the latest onsite pictures (@allthingsloud), as well as via our Facebook page for more info on what’s happening and any other developments.
