Elton John to Close Out Glastonbury With Final UK Performance
On Sunday, Elton John was scheduled to wrap up Britain’s illustrious Glastonbury Festival, bringing an end to the yearly extravaganza with what has been dubbed as his final UK performance.
With a global farewell tour, the 76-year-old pop singer is wrapping off a sparkling stage career. He performed his final shows in the United States in May and will play his final show in Stockholm on July 8.
The musician has stated that he “couldn’t be more excited” to make his debut at Britain’s most renowned music festival, Glastonbury, which has been held on a farm in southwest England for fifty years.
Fans are anxiously anticipating the identities of the four unnamed “collaborators” who will join him on the main Pyramid Stage on Sunday night.
“Elton’s a legend,” PhD student Giles Briscoe, 26, told AFP as he entered the stage hours earlier while donning a copy of the baseball uniform that John famously donned during his 1975 performances at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
It is a huge occasion that he will play on a stage this size at such a pivotal time in his career.
Ben Monk, a 30-year-old theatre producer, had been claiming a space in front of the stage since early in the day and referred to it as a “very special day in Glastonbury history.”
He asked AFP, “Why would we miss it?”
A Diverse Ethos
The four distinct guests would appear on stage, according to John’s husband David Furnish, who also promised that the event will be different from the worldwide icon’s sets on his lengthy Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in recent years.
“This one is really unique. The day is not simply another workday, Furnish told Sky News.
Elton John will begin work on a new studio album later this year, he added, adding that he will continue to make music once the tour concludes next month.
John’s final performance in the UK brings to a close days of high-profile appearances at Glastonbury in front of more than 200,000 spectators, including veteran US rockers Guns N’Roses, who made their debut at the venerable festival in the coveted Saturday night headline slot.
They sang hit songs including “Knockin On Heaven’s Door,” “Sweet Child O Mine,” and “November Rain” during a concert that lasted longer than two hours as they blasted through their entire discography.
Frontman Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, whose band performed a supposedly secret set on Friday, joined them onstage to assist in a special performance of “Paradise City”.
This year’s lineup also featured post-punk legend Blondie, UK indie giants Arctic Monkeys, singer Lizzo, rapper Lil Nas X, and “rickroller” Rick Astley, underscoring Glastonbury’s varied philosophy.
No mud
The festival was first put on by dairy farmer Michael Eavis in 1970, the day after Jimi Hendrix passed away; attendees paid £1 each for admission and received free milk from the farm. Acts like Marc Bolan and Al Stewart were among the performers.
It was occasionally staged in the 1970s, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that it really started to develop into the cult event it is today.
Even while it may pull the largest bands from every genre and generation, Worthy Farm is also recognized for hosting thousands of smaller acts and offbeat events, as well as for its frequently soggy and rainy weather.
This year, it hasn’t been an issue because much of Britain has been scorched by a protracted dry spell.
Despite the price increasing to £335 ($427) this year, more than 100,000 ordinary tickets for the event were sold out in a little more than an hour.
Fans started arriving at the venue on Tuesday, bringing tents, backpacks, and alcohol before the gates opened the next day and the live music started on Friday.
