Phoebe Bridgers – John Peel
★★★★★
At the John Peel Stage, Phoebe Bridgers puts on one of the performances of the day. In what is her first Glastonbury, her songs adroitly switch between sardonic and sad, that honeyed voice filling the tent like a heat-haze. From the second she breaks into the breathtaking “Motion Sickness”, about Ryan Adams, she has the audience completely rapt.
“Who wants to say f*** the Supreme Court?” she says, in response to the news in the US today. “F*** America. Irrelevant old motherf***ers.”
The overbidding sentiment is one of joy, though: there are lovely renditions of “Scott Street”, in which she goes down to the crowd and hands the mic to someone in the front row. Later, Arlo Parks joins her onstage for a two-song denouement: “Graceland Too” and “I Know the End”. To have emerged from it dry-eyed was just about inconceivable. PS
Arlo Parks – Park Stage
★★★★☆
If anyone managed to turn pandemic lemons into pandemic lemonade, it was Arlo Parks. The London-born artist shot to fame at double speed thanks to her soothing, lo-fi indie-pop, which provided comfort to a nation in lockdown.
Whether she was articulating the weight of a friend’s depression in “Black Dog” or providing hopeful solace in “Hurt”, Parks was not just the musical star of 2020, but its saviour. Here at Glastonbury among the showers, the Mercury Prize-winning artist beams from the Park Stage with such confidence that you’re almost convinced it was named after her.
As the soggy crowd bobs to the vulnerable “Blueish”, the catharsis of listening at home isn’t just matched, but superseded. “Music has been that healing space for me” the 21-year-old tells us, as the delicate pangs of “Black Dog” begin. Parks, who released her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams last year, glides effortlessly through the set. The crowd – who’ve waited for a moment like this since 2019 – revel in her diaphonous vocals. A moment of pure sunshine. MG
Sigrid – Other Stage
★★★★★
The John Peel tent is packed so tight it feels like a pressure cooker about to explode – and the roar that goes up for Sigrid this afternoon is surely among the biggest on Friday.
By any standards, this is a wild reception – even the usually unflappable Norwegian seems a little caught off guard. “Ooooh god,” she says excitedly as “Strangers” lights up the spot and gets the crowd singing along for maybe the fifth time. “Bad Life” and “Mirror” close the set. Next year she’s going to need a bigger stage.
