Peace and Love was in the air last weekend at Worthy Farm, where the Eavis family hosted the 51st Glastonbury Festival, headlined by Arctic Monkeys, Guns N' Roses and Elton John. What a joy it was for the SIREN team to be immersed into the UK's largest music festival and feel the community spirit once more of one's fellow bucket hat adorners. In the weeks leading up to the event we had collectively scrolled the distance of the site's 8.5 mile perimeter many times over looking for some hope that the forecasts were wrong and that the rain was in fact not coming. Our prospects looked bleak. Within minutes of the gates opening on the Wednesday morning the sky began to saturate our loosely buttoned floral shirts, our butterfly face paint slowly smudging into a psychedelic Gene Simmons. But then, a break in the clouds; the sun shining through, as if God was outreaching his arm for a wristband to be gently placed around it and then choked and clamped down on by a man from Corby working the gates. He stuck around until Monday morning, and boy oh boy, was it hot!
It wasn’t just the sun that was bringing the heat; all the artists we saw brought an energy that wind turbines and solar panels could only dream of having. From start to end it felt like we were living in a dreamland with one perfect performance after another. The mysterious Churn Ups lived up to the hype as it was revealed to be the Foo Fighters on the Friday and it was simply banger after banger after banger. They really set the tone and cemented the smiles on everyone’s faces. The days progressed into nights, and with that, the lights around each stage really transported you into a different dimension as it became party time. We went from seeing some of the best up and coming DJs soundtrack our night in Shangri-La, all the way down to the big names blessing the flames of Arcadia. Chemical Brothers, Chloé Robinson and Floating Points were major highlights to name a few.
Ultimately, if we were to talk about every highlight from the weekend, this article would challenge a dissertation on word count - so whether you were there and are adjusting back to the rhythms of everyday life or if you were watching from home and want a peak into what they didn't show on iPlayer - then check out our playlist below: