Dua Lipa ‘born to do’ Glastonbury – festival organiser Emily Eavis
The singer is headlining the event for the first time on Friday night.
Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis said pop star Dua Lipa was “born” to headline the music festival on Friday.
The 28-year-old British-Albanian singer is expected to treat revellers to a selection of her hit songs, including Houdini and Training Season from her third studio album, Radical Optimism, released earlier this year.
She added: “I’m looking forward to Dua Lipa tonight, you know, I feel like she’s really born to do this.
“She’s a proper festivalgoer, she comes every year and… you can really tell whether someone really gets the festival and loves it.”
This year’s event also sees American R&B singer SZA headlining on Sunday, while country star Shania Twain will play the coveted Legends slot.
Earlier Eavis defended the line-up for the festival amid criticism of there being a lack of rock bands, telling the PA news agency: “I think the line-up reflects what’s happening in the music world at the moment – there aren’t a lot of new rock acts to choose from, if I’m honest.
“Every year, we’ve been criticised for being too rock, too grime, too hip hop, too pop… it’s just part of our year.
“Generally it’s not from the public… everybody’s really happy and excited to be here.”
“I feel a bit like we’ve stepped out of the election, even though it’s next week,” she said.
“We were working on having voter registration booths, but then the day moved.
Glastonbury have also decided it will not be broadcasting the Euro 2024 football tournament, with England set to face Slovakia in the last 16 at 5pm on Sunday.
Eavis said the festival set up a screen to watch fixtures during the World Cup tournament in 1998, but times have changed.
“Now obviously, everyone’s connected and I think, you know, it’s a music festival.
“I’m sure if people want to see it enough they can check for results or whatever on their phones.
“But hopefully I’m encouraging people to put their phones away and and forget about the outside world.”
Music fans at Glastonbury enjoying Friday’s line-up could be met with the “occasional light shower” but the day will mainly be “dry and bright”, according to a Met Office spokeswoman.
Nicola Maxey told PA: “Although there is a chance of an occasional light shower today at Glastonbury, it will be a mainly dry and bright day with sunny spells, and the chance of some late evening sunshine for festival goers.
“The drizzle should clear as we go through Sunday morning, making way for another dry day with plenty of sunshine.
“Whilst a weather front could bring some rainfall to the festival site for a period on Monday, Tuesday is looking like another dry day.”
Temperatures are expected to reach high teens to low 20s Celsius over the festival weekend.
Squeeze will open the Pyramid Stage on Friday at midday, followed by rising star Olivia Dean, K-pop group Seventeen and singer Paul Heaton.
LCD Soundsystem will then take to the stage at 7.45pm, ahead of Dua Lipa’s set.
The American rock band, whose hits include Dance Yrself Clean and All My Friends, last played Glastonbury in 2016 where they performed on the Other Stage.
Thursday’s festivities included a tribute to the late DJ Annie Nightingale, the first female presenter on BBC Radio 1, who died in January at the age of 83.
Elsewhere, and just days after the birth of his fourth child, Joe Wicks led a fitness session and set his sights on taking his workouts to the Pyramid Stage.
He told the PA news agency that he had initially planned to take his wife Rosie with him to the festival, but said they made a last-minute change after the birth of his son Dusty.
Wicks returned to the Park Stage at 10am, to put more festivalgoers through their paces in front of early risers.
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said that since Wednesday until 10am on Friday, the festival had seen a total of six arrests for drug offences on and off site at Glastonbury.
“Three of these relate to the same occurrence and these people have also been arrested on suspicion of theft,” he added.
Over the same period, the force also recorded 39 incidents, which included 11 thefts, five drug offences and two reports of violence.
