Glastonbury 2024: There's a place for everyone on Worthy Farm

If sartorial bias is anything to go by, Shania Twain’s easy country anthems, Charli XCX’s pacey hyperpop and The Last Dinner Party’s intellectual indie rock divided and conquered at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Novelty cowboy hats and touches of Charli’s signature lime green encircled the main stages and one of the many vintage clothing stores on site had a rack entirely dedicated to The Last Dinner Party’s notorious baroque neo-gothic style.

Huge audiences drawn by Sugababes and Avril Lavigne, leading to additional crowd-control measures being put in place, demonstrated an insatiable appetite for pop nostalgia.

However it was electronic music, traditionally relegated to smaller stages and later time slots, which truly reigned supreme at Worthy Farm this year. Orbital invited Tilda Swinton on stage for part of their mobbed performance, Justice’s electrifying set collectively gave everyone an unprecedented second wind on the final night and smaller venues in the Silver Hayes area, such as The Levels and Lonely Hearts Club, were teeming right up until the first buses began hauling exhausted partygoers home on Monday morning. 

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Jazz music, having gained exponential populist appeal in this country over the past decade, is well catered to by various specialist festivals, most notably Love Supreme and We Out Here. The former leans towards crowd-pleasing headline bookings from the worlds of soul and disco, like Chaka Khan and Dionne Warwick, with more traditional jazz, acts like Billy Cobham, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Christian McBride reserved for tents and smaller stages.

The latter tends to cater to a hipper crowd, tapping into the ‘new wave’ of jazz made popular in part by the festival’s curator, prolific DJ and label boss Gilles Peterson, along with electronic acts whose music is somewhat jazz affiliated. This year’s stellar We Out Here lineup includes Ebo Taylor, Andre 3000 and Floating Points. 

Given these options, Glastonbury may not be the first choice for committed jazz lovers, but certain corners of Worthy Farm provide apt sustenance. The Glasto Latino area offers Latin jazz performances as well as salsa dancing and carnival processions. Traditionally, the West Holts stage is the true home of jazz at Glastonbury, describing itself as a ‘rhythm hub’ with past line-ups featuring Roy Ayers, Kamasi Washington, Brazilian superstar Marcos Valle and even Jeff Goldblum playing the smoky jazz club raconteur.

Ezra Collective’s feel-good performance last year captivated both those present and viewers watching at home on BBC iPlayer, with drummer Femi Koleoso marching through the crowd expounding self-love with the conviction of a preacher leading a diverse and somewhat inebriated congregation. This year that traditional jazz sound was more elusive – I managed to catch spiritual jazz musician and founder of Gondwana Records Matthew Halsall after he opened West Holts, and he shared his excitement at playing, and attending, the festival for the first time.

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“It is really beautiful that a festival like Glastonbury finds space for such a wide range of extraordinary music at what is essentially a rock and pop festival,” he told me. “And it offers a really wonderful opportunity for people to discover new music. To be one of the few jazz artists on the bill is an honour and I’m very grateful for the opportunity.”

Corinne Bailey Rae, a jazz festival favourite, also played the West Holts stage, managing to seamlessly incorporate her older tunes into her Black Rainbows material, despite the stark contrast between her sweet, summery back catalogue and her confrontational, riot grrrl-influenced new sound. Austin’s psychedelic Black Pumas, Rising R&B star Jalen Ngonda and 1970s disco and electronica icon Asha Puthli added a range of sonic texture to the listings and Jordan Rakei was resplendent in the Sunday evening sunshine.

The New Zealand multi-instrumentalist took turns sitting at his piano and standing at the front of the stage, leading a captivated audience through a smooth, laid-back set of sweet melodies, lilting grooves and hip-hop tinged singalong numbers, one of the highlights being his flawless, ethereal cover of Donald Byrd’s Wind Parade.

A highlight for me, however, was at the Woodsies Bar stage where a band I’ve had my eye on for a while, Ari Tsugi, performed a secret set on Sunday afternoon. Their blend of psychedelic jazz, fusion and spoken word –as heard on their excellent album Simultaneity, released last week on Rebecca Vasmant’s label, Rebecca’s Records – drew me away from the headliners and towards their intimate performance. Other attendees were thrilled to stumble across their set too, a testament to the true spirit of one of the largest festivals in the world.  Enter with an open mind and you won’t be disappointed.

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