Glastonbury 2024 – live: TV broadcast set to kick off ahead of first headline set

It was the kohl-eyed cultural assassin Super Hans who struck the killer blow. “People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis,” Peep Show’s resident joker infamously told Jez in one 2005 episode of the sitcom. “You can’t trust people.” Granted, he was arguing that Jez’s new pub should be themed as a working laundrette and not serve lager, but this wild illogic acted as judge, jury and saucer-eyed executioner on the perceived credibility of Chris Martin and his three band members who, despite popular misconception, also have names.

In the two decades since, from pub to panel show, Coldplay have become shorthand for dull, mimsy musical Evian: industry bigwig Alan McGee dubbed them “bedwetters”; John Oliver likened their listening experience to “sex with the lights on” (which is better, right?). More than any other band of their era, however, Coldplay make the debate surrounding their so-called “coolness” seem about as pointless and ludicrous as a Tory 2024 manifesto.

Coldplay are no strangers to the Pyramid Stage. After debuting at Glastonbury in the New Bands Tent in 1999, they went on to headline the festival in 2002 and 2005.

Chris Martin declared in a BBC interview back in 2007 that “Glastonbury is bored of us. I don’t think we can even take a harmonica down there for a good 15 years”. However, the band returned to the Pyramid Stage in 2011 and 2016. They are now about to headline for a record-breaking fifth time on Saturday 29 June.

Since forming in London in 1997, the band have racked up seven Grammys, nine Brit Awards and 15 MTV awards. They have more Brit Awards than any other band.

Glastonbury might be known as one of the world’s greenest festivals, thanks to its setting in the picturesque Somerset countryside, but every so often the weather turns foul and those verdant fields are churned up into brown sludge.

As many fans will attest, over the years there have been a number of memorable occasions where guests spent more time trying to pry their wellies out of the mud than they did watching bands perform.

Some take this as a cue to give up and go home, while others decide to lean into it, resulting in some of the more iconic pictures of Glastonbury Festival.

Here are five of the muddiest Glastonbury festivals in memory.

The British-Albanian pop star was announced as one of the festival’s star bookings in March, alongside pop-rock band Coldplay and US R&B artist SZA. Country-pop queen Shania Twain will take on the Legends Slot on Sunday.

Dua Lipa, 28, has a string of top 10 singles under her belt including “New Rules”, “One Kiss” and “Don’t Start Now”.

Here’s everything you need to know about Dua Lipa’s headline performance.

The Grammy and Brit winner has earned widespread acclaim for her two studio albums ‘CTRL’ and ‘SOS’ – yet, based on the confusion sparked when she was announced as a Glastonbury headliner this year, many still don’t know her name. Here’s why you should absolutely dive into her work, writes Kate Solomon

A40-minute blast of pure, undiluted zeitgeist. A gigantic crowd stretching away over hill and vale. A generation’s prejudices and expectations overturned like a flick of dust off the shoulder. A setlist chiselled into quicksilver by Zeus and carried to the stage by a choir of winged roadies. Or maybe just the Dalai Lama, blowing out the candles on a birthday cake.

These are just a few of the reasons why a gig playing out on the hallowed grounds of Worthy Farm might go down in Glastonbury folklore – one of those iconic moments that don’t just make the weekend, but mark out the evolution of pop culture. Glastonbury is where musical history is made and cultural colossi are crowned on a near-annual basis.