When Sunday at Glastonbury Festival rolls around, there’s that bittersweet sense of impending closure on the horizon. We all do our very best to make sure we squeeze every last ounce of pleasure out of Michael Eavis‘ Worthy Farm while making sure we don’t overdo it (like the night before) or else suffer the fate of hungover journeys home. And so it was with that feeling that I arose in my tent on a hill, flipped through my battered guide and set forth first for a return to the Thali Café for a repeat Indian-themed breakfast and a wonder around the tradecraft at the Green Crafts field before making my way to the first band of the day.
First up for me was sipping a lovely barista coffee accompanied by a great slice of cake at The Cake Hole, just outside the Acoustic Stage while listening to the fabulous Calum Beattie, the Scottish singer-songwriter who will be brining his songcraft to London’s Hyde Park in support of The Killers‘ BST show in July.
Another slow saunter to the wonderful Field Of Avalon, via Rag’n’Bone Man‘s packed to the brim Other Stage set, landed me in front of the gorgeous stripped-back solo sound of American singer-songwriter Lissie, the 34-year-old lighting the chilled out crowd alight with her wondrous voice, all the more powerful accompanied with just an acoustic guitar.
And while the not so secret news of Las Vegans The Killers taking up the TBA slot on the John Peel Stage had folks from across the festival site making haste towards it’s north west corner, I stayed put at the Avalon Stage for undoubtedly one of my highlights of the festival, catching Hollywood A-lister Kiefer Sutherland bring his self-penned Country tunes to Glastonbury along with a full band to accompany his gritty vocals. “This isn’t just a British institution, it’s a worldwide institution. This is one of the great festivals of the world, so to have been asked to play here is a little frightening, but also one of the greatest honours of my life” the 24 actor said, beaming at the packed Avalon crowd.
I made my way to the Pyramid Stage next to catch the trailing cuts from Bee Gees legend Barry Gibb‘s set before wondering over to the Other Stage for some Californian sunshine courtesy of the sisters Haim, the trio bringing their sass, flair and bounce-along tunes both from debut album Days Are Gone and forthcoming sophomore release Something To Tell You, even managing to convince the massive crowd to crouch down!
Kicking off their sun-soaked set with new album cut Want You Back, the brightly dressed Alana and Danielle on guitars and darker-outfitted sister Este on bass continued with hits from Days Are Gone. “Are we ready to party or what?” Danielle asked of the late afternoon crowd before kicking off If I Could Change Your Mind. “I love you Glastonbury!” screamed Alana during 2012 single Don’t Save Me. “This is our third Glastonbury, it feels good to be home” Alana cheered at the crowd before sister Este staked her claim at bringing the sunshine to Worthy Farm. New single Right Now closed out the sisters’ set with a massive three-way drumming battle.
And as I left the sun-drenched Other Stage, taking aim for Scots rockers Biffy Clyro‘s Pyramid Stage set, I packed away my camera to take in the final hours of Glastonbury 2017 with my own eyes and ears, taking a break from Ed Sheeran‘s Pyramid Stage-closing set to stroll around the quieter festival site, to have one last meal at the The Bhangra Bus, grab one last drink and one last poke around before the impending final night’s sleep at Worthy Farm.
Photography & Words by Kalpesh Patel at Glastonbury Festival 2017
Kalpesh has more music photography up on his flickr stream here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/somethingforkate
https://rockshotmagazine.com/26019/vision-its-haim-time/
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