Glastonbury 2025 Proved The Festival Is Still Untouchable

Paul L Carter/Merle Cooper

Glastonbury, historically speaking, has a strong claim to the “biggest festival” crown. Glasto has been kicking since way back in the ’70s, before solidifying as an annual event in the ’80s (save for fallow years), with artists like Elvis Costello, The Smiths, and The Cure leading early lineups.

Of course, so much has changed since then. Today’s music industry would be unrecognizable to a time-traveler from Glasto’s early days (although they might be surprised by how much vinyl is still sold). The sorts of music that fans crave have undergone radical shifts; Charli XCX’s set from this year might have a “Victorian child” effect on a festivalgoer from 1982.

But, in another sense, many things remain the same. Heck, even The Cure’s Robert Smith is still involved, via a fest-defining moment when he shared the stage with headliner Olivia Rodrigo. Some of modern music’s most dynamic and exciting artists continue to lead lineups, whether it’s Rodrigo, Charli XCX, The 1975, Turnstile, Wet Leg, Doechii, or Lola Young. There were crowd-pleasing vintage favorites, too, like Rod Stewart, Travis, and Kim Deal of the Pixies and The Breeders. After all these years, it’s also still an event capable of surprising: Lorde opened the weekend with an unannounced daytime performance, during which she played the entirety of her new album Virgin live for the first time.

It’s an event of remarkable breadth as well. Even if you didn’t see a single one of the aforementioned acts, you could still have had a 10-out-of-10, no-notes weekend. This year’s fest had literally thousands of performances on dozens of stages. It’s a bit of a “how many grains of sand are on all the world’s beaches” situation when it comes to how many unique Glastonbury weekends are possible, depending on any given attendee’s musical interests and scheduling priorities.

That makes Glasto futile to sum up in any definitive way, but what can be said is this: The high points were high and the options beyond them were nearly limitless. It was hard to go wrong at Glastonbury this year, and it’s thanks to the mix of quality and quantity that the festival has endured as long and prosperously as it has.