Marking its 50th anniversary and returning after a two-year Covid-induced hiatus, Glastonbury 2022 served up one of the most memorable outings in the illustrious festival’s history, with headliners Billie Eilish, Sir Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar, each delivering show-stopping performances that will live long in the memory.
With Glastonbury goers deprived the wonders of Worthy Farm for the past two years, the excitement at being back virtually guaranteed that – barring a ’97 style washout – this year would be something of a standout edition. However, irrespective of the anniversary festivities and the unbridled jubilation felt on account of its return, 2022 truly felt like a special year for Glastonbury.
As always, the vast Worthy Farm site offers treasures far beyond the line-ups gracing its main stages, but this year’s Pyramid Stage headliners poignantly encompassed everything that makes Glastonbury a festival unlike any other.
Setting the record for youngest ever Glastonbury headliner, 20-year-old US pop icon Billie Eilish brought Friday night to a close with a set brimming with youthful exuberance, pyrotechnics and a fearlessness that was something to behold. There’s an effortlessness to Eilish’s performance, as she bounces around the stage looking like she’s having the time of her life, while never once appearing anything other than entirely at home on one of the world’s biggest and most iconic platforms.
Her confidence and enthusiasm are utterly infectious. From minute-one she holds the crowd comfortably in the palm of her hand and doesn’t let go until the lights go down. At no point is there a sense that she is overawed or overcome by the occasion, and if her career continues on its current trajectory, one feels that this may not be the last time we see her name gracing the Pyramid Stage’s top spot.
How better then, to follow-up one of pop’s brightest young stars with one of its longest-reigning legends. Topping the bill on Saturday night is Paul McCartney, who in turn becomes Glastonbury’s oldest ever headliner at the age of 80. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine another octogenarian being able to hold the stage with McCartney’s boyish enthusiasm, rattling off an almost three-hour long set as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Only in his voice does his vintage occasionally reveal itself, such as on The Beatles classic Blackbird, where his weathered vocals almost add to what is already one of the set’s most moving moments.
Over the course of 36 songs he offers up a fairly eclectic mix of Beatles, Wings and solo material, roaring straight out of the blocks with a blistering rendition of Can’t Buy Me Love. What follows is a set that is unlikely to be matched in another 80 years of Glastonbury. From The Beatles catalogue we get, to name a few, Got To Get You Into My Life, Getting Better, Love Me Do, Lady Madonna, Helter Skelter, Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite, Something (played on a ukulele given to him by the late George Harrison), and the predictable yet ever-rousing airings of Let It Be and Hey Jude, cueing the singalong to end all singalongs.
It's not all about The Beatles though, with Wings classics like Junior’s Farm, Letting Go, Let ‘Em In, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five and a firework-filled Live And Let Die all received rapturously by the enormous crowd.
Over two hours into the set, and McCartney still has a few surprises up his sleeve that render even the most seasoned Glastonbury attendees lost for words. First up, is the introduction of none other than Dave Grohl. The Foo Fighters and Nirvana legend, making his first major public appearance since the death of his bandmate Taylor Hawkins earlier this year, breaks straight into thundering versions of I Saw Her Standing There and Band On The Run. Though beaming with excitement at the occasion, there is a detectable air of emotion in Grohl's demeanour that makes his guest spot all the more powerful.
Before the crowd have had a chance to catch their breath, he then welcomes to the stage his “friend from the East Coast”, Bruce Springsteen. The response at seeing such an array of legends – all Glastonbury headliners – sharing the stage together is a mixture of shock and euphoria. After a quick exchange between Macca and The Boss, they launch into a raucous version of Springsteen’s classic Glory Days and then straight into The Beatles’ I Wanna Be Your Man.
If that wasn’t enough, Worthy Farm is treated to a performance of I’ve Got A Feeling, complete with video footage of John Lennon singing his parts in duet with McCartney, before a spectacular medley of The Beatles Abbey Road album closing tracks (Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End).
By the time McCartney, his band, Grohl and Springsteen embrace and give their final bow to the crowd, there are more than a few tears amongst the audience and a sense that what has been witnessed is something that will go down in not just Glastonbury history, but music history in general as a truly iconic moment.
Needless to say, it’s an impossible act to follow. But what does ensue at the same time on Sunday night is another performance that is likely to be looked back on as one of the most original and visionary sets in recent times. Revered as one of the most celebrated and talented rappers of his generation, Kenrick Lamar’s Sunday night Pyramid Stage show sees him perform a career-spanning set that is jaw-dropping not only in its intensity but also the elements of musical theatre that frame it. A troupe of tightly choreographed dancers perform elaborate routines around him, while white lights flood the stage and lyrics and video footage sporadically appear behind him. It is performance art of the highest order.
Donning a bejewelled crown of thorns, Lamar’s presence is magnetic throughout, even when simply looking out into the ocean of people before him, the audience is never anything less than transfixed. During his finale, a rendition of Saviour from his latest album Mr Morale And The Big Steppers, the crown of thorns drips blood down his face and onto the white shirt he is wearing, making for a fittingly stark closing image, before repeating the line over and with escalating aggression, “The judged you, they judged Christ, godspeed for women’s rights”. It brings both a staggering set and an iconic Glastonbury 2022 to a profound and spine tingling close.
Whatever is in-store for Glastonbury 2023, it’s going to take something special to compete with this