In the festival world, there is no higher pinnacle than Glastonbury. Taking place (almost) every summer since 1970, the large-scale festival is the premier camping festival in the U.K., attracting 135,000 people to Pilton, England each year for an epic weekend with massive headliners like Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Kanye West, Metallica, Beyoncé and many more.
This year’s edition, headlined by Muse, Adele, Coldplay, LCD Soundsystem, Tame Impala, and Disclosure, began on Thursday, welcoming droves of music fans to the legendary site as they got comfortable with their surroundings. While exploring this year’s edition of the festival grounds, Consequence of Sound has reported three major additions to this year’s festival, as a way to honor some of the fallen musical heroes that have passed away this year. The famous main stage, The Pyramid Stage, is adorned with a Ziggy Stardust eye surrounded angel wings in honor of David Bowie, who famously headlined the festival in its second year in 1971, and returned for a celebratory headlining set in 2000.
Fans were reported to be celebrating Bowie all over the festival, as a “Rebel Rebel” sing-a-long organically popping up as fans were entering the grounds.
The second addition to this year’s festival is an “Ace of Spades” sculpture on top of The Other Stage, honoring the fallen Mötorhead frontman, Lemmy Kilmster.
Lemmy and co. only played the festival one time, at the 2015 edition, in what would end up being the band’s last performance in the U.K. before the bassist and lead singer’s untimely passing.
Finally, Glastonbury’s “White Whale”, Prince, famously never played the massive musical gathering, so the festival decided to pay tribute to him in the best way possible. The Park Area of Glastonbury’s grounds now has a statue of a hand holding a crown with Prince‘s logo on it, turning the area into Paisley Park for the weekend, and allowing Glasto-goers an opportunity to pay their respects to the Purple One.
We’re so happy to see so many festivals paying tribute to these three legends, after seeing both Governor’s Ball and Bonnaroo pay tribute to these lost legends as well. Glastonbury has done a great job of honoring music of all genres, and to see tributes to such a diverse group of artists is incredible.
Glastonbury will continue paying tribute, as the festival announced that a headlining David Bowie-tribute set will be performed Saturday night on the Pyramid Stage. The festival will bring a full orchestra and conductor Charles Hazlewood to perform Philip Glass‘ 1996 orchestral tribute to Bowie’s album “Heroes”, and the performance will be accompanied by a huge light show.