US pop star Beyonce takes the main stage at Glastonbury on Sunday as the closing act, hoping to repeat husband Jay-Z’s success in 2008 and help a huge crowd banish thoughts of mud and the long trip home.
Around 180,000 people crammed on to Worthy Farm in picturesque southwest England for three days of music and fun at one of the world’s biggest music festivals. The abiding memory for many this year will be the mud. Heavy rain on Friday and before turned the 900 acre site into a giant bog, but it failed to dampen the mood among music lovers who came to see hundreds of acts across dozens of stages.
“We managed to survive in the most adverse conditions,” said festival founder Michael Eavis. “We are survivors, after 41 years,” he told reporters. The sunshine broke out on Sunday and bikinis replaced raincoats as the festival geared up for its Sunday night climax.
Jay-Z headlined in 2008, causing controversy among some of British rock’s biggest names who said hip-hop had no place at the revered event. But the performer silenced his critics and rap is now a major part of the Glastonbury schedule.
Fans speculated that Jay-Z might join Beyonce on stage and that she may also reunite with members of her former band Destiny’s Child. Eavis was briefly distracted by questions about the death of a senior member of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party, who was found in a luxury accommodation area on Sunday.
He did not name the deceased, but British media said he was Christopher Shale, chairman of West Oxfordshire Conservative Association. Initial reports gave the cause of death as a heart attack, but Eavis said he understood it was suicide.