Beyond the Pyramid: Glastonbury 2025’s Quiet Triumphs

With Glastonbury 2025 over, the music fades as the mud-splattered memories head home. The event took place from 25th–29th June at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Glastonbury, and marked the final edition before a fallow year. The next festival is scheduled for 2027.

Major Headliners and Pyramid Stage Highlights

Headliners on the Pyramid Stage included Olivia Rodrigo, Neil Young, and The 1975, with other big-hitters like Rod Stewart, Kaiser Chiefs, and Lewis Capaldi also drawing crowds. However, the festival’s most thrilling moments (in my opinion) emerged from its more intimate stages—Woodsies, West Holts, Park Stage, and Left Field.

Lola Young made her Glastonbury debut on the Woodsies stage on 27th June and was met with a packed tent as she opened with ‘Good Books’ from her debut album This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway. She delivered a tearfully stirring rendition of ‘You Noticed’, closing with her breakout song ‘Messy’. Her set was characterised by warmth, shoulder-top dancing, and the surreal presence of a giant blow-up doll bearing her face.

Breakout Performances and Intimate Moments

On Saturday, Ezra Collective – fresh from their performance at Brockwell Park – transformed West Holts into an animated, genre-defying celebration. Their set wove together Afrobeat, jazz, grime, and dub in a rapturous, extended performance (granted extra time following Deftones’ cancellation due to illness). The band’s boundless energy had the crowd dancing from the first note to the last.

Black Country, New Road returned to Woodsies on the festival’s final evening, performing the entirety of their newest album Forever Howlong. The 11-track set moved between quiet tension and euphoric instrumental release, showcasing the band’s eclectic instrumentation—guitars, saxophones, recorders, violins—and cementing their post-Isaac Wood evolution. The band was among several acts who used their set to express solidarity with Palestine, aligning themselves with calls for justice and human rights amidst the ongoing conflict.

Lucy Dacus took to the Park Stage on 26th June, also marking her Glastonbury debut. She brought a gentler, more intimate energy to the weekend, performing atop a large rug and a plush chaise lounge. Her coy, contemplative lyricism, and understated but sincere stage presence, made for a soft indie rock set that enveloped the crowd. She played several fan favorites, finishing with the heart-wrenching ‘Night Shift’, leaving many visibly moved.

As Worthy Farm empties and anticipation builds for 2027, Glastonbury 2025 will be remembered not only for its towering headliners but for the artists who made the smaller stages feel vast, personal, and unforgettable.