During Glastonbury last year, I was under the weather and couldn’t give it as much attention as I wanted, and as it deserves. So for 2025, I was determined to make up for that, especially as next year is a fallow year and there will be no festival to enjoy. I watched as much as I could that the BBC had to offer (there are five stages that are broadcast so not complaining but I do wish they could have spent some time on the Avalon stage, it looked like good things were happening there).

It was brilliant: so much good music, surprise guests, great weather, excellent crowd participation and I wasn’t ill!

Here are my highlights from the festival:

• Pulp were a “surprise” guest, although the rumours had them pegged for quite a while beforehand. Jarvis Cocker was completely adorable, bumbling around and talking too much, but singing the bangers. My favourite moment was his clear excitement at the Red Arrows going over, though, pointing at the skies mid-lyric, like a little kid.

• I loved all of Jade’s set, she’s the first Little Mixer to do Glastonbury and was clearly over-awed, excited and a bit emotional about the whole thing. She did a fantastic mix of dance tunes kicking off with Madonna’s Frozen which was incredible.
• Haim were another bonus guest who also weren’t a surprise but they were so good. With a new album out, they did a good mix of old and new songs, and you can tell their music is crafted to be at its best when performed live. Their set is not available on the iPlayer which is really frustrating because it’s worth a re-watch.
• The Capaldis: Lewis Capaldi returned and sang the song, which was emotional for everybody involved. Meanwhile, Franz Ferdinand brought another Scottish Capaldi on-stage, Peter! He even did a song with them. Great fun.
• Alanis Morrisette performed essentially a greatest hits setlist and it was outrageously good. She seemed to swing from manic spinning energy to calm focus but the tunes don’t age at all.

• The Script are doing an excellent job continuing their career whilst also fully respecting the late great Mark Sheehan. Danny went rogue in the middle though and climbed not just on the fence but right into the crowd and went for a bit of a wander, whilst also singing the entire time. Impressive, if not great for the rest of the band on stage who were left to just keep on keeping on.
• Olivia Rodrigo did an outstanding job as headliner, bringing in the next generation and really getting stuck in with the crowd. My only complaint is that her back catalogue is so new at the moment that there isn’t a great variety of songs to choose from so it all sounded much of a muchness. But great fun and energy from start to finish!
• Shaboozey is so good, and Tipsy is such a classic festival song at this point, you almost can’t have a successful weekend in the fields without it.