This is an edition of the newsletter Pulling Weeds With Chris Black, in which the columnist weighs in on hot topics in culture. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Thursday.
A few weeks ago I was in London, having dinner at 5 Hertford Street in Mayfair with a few friends, when the subject of Glastonbury came up. For the uninitiated, Glastonbury is a music festival that has been operational for over fifty years (the first headliner was T. Rex, back when they were still going by “Tyrannosaurus Rex”; they stepped in when the Kinks cancelled.) It takes place on Worthy Farm, which is a three-hour drive from London. The dinner conversation turned to what substances everyone at the table planned to procure for the five-day marathon. It was an impressive laundry list of everything you could imagine. Even as a former professional drug user, I clocked the commitment to partying that my companions had clearly made. We didn’t even talk about the music.
Festival culture is not something I enjoy participating in. I maintain that a huge outdoor event where you’re fighting crowds and weather isn’t the best setting to see a band or pop star of any sort, and when it comes to crowds and weather, Glastonbury—the inspiration for the big outdoor festivals that have proliferated in the States over the last few decades—is more extreme than most. It lasts for five days, even VIPs don’t have luxurious sleeping arrangements, and British summer weather is notoriously unpredictable. Against all odds, I still really want to go someday. Maybe it’s because I grew up seeing pictures of Kate Moss and The Libertines’ Pete Doherty (in his prime) strolling through the mud with beer cups in hand, Alexa Chung in her muddy Hunter boots and Barbour jacket, and of course Sienna Miller at her boho best with a short dress and Uggs.
Coachella is the closest thing we have to an American Glasto, but the looks aren’t as cool (its lasting style legacy is probably the flower crown, which seems to have finally and mercifully died off) and the history isn’t there. Glastonbury has always been a must, but this year seemed like every British citizen I know was making the trek. I saw and heard about it all weekend. Casey Lewis reposted a great TikTok series where people with names like “Hattie” were shown on day one and again on day five. Let’s just say their pupils looked tired.
The big news out of this year’s festival was obviously the artists who used the Glastonbury stage to make statements in support of Palestine. The UK punk duo Bob Vylan led the crowd in a “Death to the I.D.F.” chant and went from unknown to infamous in the space of a few minutes. The Irish rap trio Kneecap also spoke out during their set; the BBC opted not to air that performance live, so a fan known as “Helen from Wales” held up her phone for an hour and streamed the whole thing on TikTok.
