Entertainment

Glastonbury 2017: The highlights

Headliners Radiohead, Ed Sheeran and the Foo Fighters commanded the Pyramid Stage in a year dominated by politics.
Headliners Radiohead, Ed Sheeran and the Foo Fighters commanded the Pyramid Stage in a year dominated by politics.

Glastonbury’s 2017 edition was the festival’s most politically-charged in recent years.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke took aim at Prime Minister Theresa May while a bevvy of artists paid tribute to the victims of terror and the Grenfell Tower fire.

Here the Press Association selects the year’s highlights.

Radiohead take aim at Theresa May during their headline slot

Glastonbury Festival 2017 – Day 1
Thom Yorke of Radiohead on the Pyramid Stage (Yui Mok/PA)

The Oxfordshire band made a politically-charged return 20 years on from their 1997 show at the Somerset festival, which followed the release of hit album OK Computer.

Frontman Thom Yorke told Prime Minister Theresa May to “shut the door on the way out” and repeatedly recited Mrs May’s “strong and stable” election slogan.

At one point the crowd broke into chanting “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” to the tune of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army.

Jeremy Corbyn speaks from the Pyramid Stage

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Michael Eavis
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Michael Eavis (Yui Mok/PA)

Weeks after Theresa May lost her parliamentary majority in a snap election, Corbyn addressed thousands of fans, many wearing t-shirts bearing his name, at the event’s Pyramid Stage and Left Field Tent.

He urged Theresa May to call another general election as chants of “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” rang out across the site.

He met festival founder Michael Eavis, 83, posed for pictures with staff and enjoyed a vegan lunch at the Greenpeace area.

Liam Gallagher dedicates his show to the victims of terror and the Grenfell Tower fire

Liam Gallagher
Liam Gallagher paid tribute to the victims of terror(Isabel Infantes/PA)

The former Oasis frontman paid tribute to the victims of the Manchester and London terror attacks, as well as the Grenfell Tower fire as he performed on the Other Stage.

He led the crowd in an a capella singalong of the Oasis hit Don’t Look Back In Anger as he rounded off his set on Saturday afternoon.

He told his packed audience: “This next song, last song, is to the people who were killed in the Manchester attacks, in London, and in the Grenfell Tower. So if you know the words, join in.”

Stormzy leads tributes to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire

Stormzy
Stormzy on the Other Stage at Glastonbury (Ben Birchall/PA)

The London grime star took a quiet moment during his adrenaline-charged set to remember those who were killed in the disaster in his home city, and performed the rap he wrote for Simon Cowell’s charity version of Bridge Over Troubled Water.

He unzipped his tracksuit top to reveal a T-shirt emblazoned with a heart-shaped logo reading “Grenfell”.

Two years later he will return to the festival, this time as the first grime artist to headline the Pyramid Stage.

Johnny Depp jokes about assassinating Donald Trump

Glastonbury Festival 2017 Preparations
Johnny Depp at Cineramageddon (Ben Birchall/PA)

The Hollywood actor received a rock star welcome when he made an appearance at Cineramageddon – a drive-in cinema situated on the Somerset site.

He introduced his 2004 film The Libertine along with film director Julien Temple but began talking about religion and President Trump following questions from the 1,500-strong audience.

Depp joked about assassinating the US President, asking: “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?”

The next day he apologised but not before getting up on stage with Kris Kristofferson for a live performance on the main Pyramid Stage.

Tilda Swinton and Brad Pitt delight fans at late-night film screening

Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton attended a film screening (Ian West/PA)

The pair staged a late-night “premiere” for 2017 film Okja, a heartwarming fantasy that follows a little girl in South Korea and her best friend Okja, a species of “superpig” bred for livestock.

Swinton plays characters Lucy and Nancy Mirando in Bong Joon Ho’s highly praised epic, for which Pitt was executive producer.

She jokingly labelled her colleague “Bradolph Pittler” as she introduced him to the stage before a screening of the film to a small audience at the Pilton Palais tent in the early hours of Saturday morning.