Glastonbury Festival 2024‘s grand opening with its first-ever opening drone show has now come to an end – watch footage of the show below.
Last night (June 26), Glastonbury held its first-ever drone show, which took place ahead of its regular fireworks display, to open the 2024 festival at Worthy Farm.
The drone show is just one of the few new additions to this year’s festival, as it usually opens with a traditional fireworks display which occurs roughly around 11pm on the opening day of Glastonbury for early arrivals. Fans typically gather around on the legendary hill by the park stage to catch a view of the light show.
For the opening show, Glastonbury enlisted 576 drones – per the BBC – for a stunning display above the festival grounds. The drones first took on the shape of the festival’s old logo, which sees three people with their arms interlinked. It then transformed into a phoenix, before turning into a depiction of the iconic Pyramid Stage, the Glastonbury name and a peace sign among others.
Below, you can check out footage and pictures of the drone show and fireworks display from fans on the hallowed Worthy Farm grounds.
Drone show over Glastonbury Festival @glastonbury pic.twitter.com/VRP3zQr9Rp
— Lisa Morris (@LisaMorris42) June 26, 2024
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Wow! 😍#Glastonbury drone show was incredible! pic.twitter.com/uXEXF3vgtr
— Ross Pollard 📺🎥📻 (@Rosssatron) June 26, 2024
Glastonbury Festival 2024 fireworks and drone show. Think this is the last year the fireworks will be on and the drones will take over.
Posted by Jim Parker on Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Glastonbury Opener 2024 – brilliant drone show and fireworks
Posted by Adrian Riddock on Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Drone Show at Glastonbury Festival
This should be ✨awesome✨576 drones are putting on a show to mark the opening of Glastonbury Festival 2024 – followed by the traditional fireworks 🎆
Posted by BBC Somerset on Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Other new additions being introduced at Glastonbury 2024 include the new Tree Stage at the Woodsies area. The area is described as a “playground for sound” for artists to indulge in an “audio-visual spectacle”, and is set to see figures from the worlds of the arts, folk, science and music with work and events by Jon Hopkins, Merlin Sheldrake, Ana Roxanne and more.
“It’s bringing something really new and refreshing to the area,” area organiser Lilith Piper told NME. “It’s very much trying to integrate this whole space into being a new listening experience, quite literally in the trees… It becomes a late night immersive event when the main stage closes. It’s almost like the main stage is the sun and this is the moon. We have a wonderful range of electronic musicians, leading the way and bringing fresh new sounds and textures to be experienced in the round.”
The gates to Glastonbury 2024 opened yesterday (Wednesday, June 26), ahead of a weekend of music from the likes of headliners Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and SZA, alongside Shania Twain’s legends slot and performances from LCD Soundsystem, PJ Harvey, Little Simz, Burna Boy, Idles, Anne-Marie, Confidence Man, Disclosure, Camila Cabello, The Last Dinner Party, Avril Lavigne, The National, Jessie Ware, Jungle, Justice, Masego, Sugababes and countless more. Check out the full line-up here.
Meanwhile, here are the worst clashes to expect this year, as well as the latest weather forecasts for Glastonbury 2024.
Check back at NME here for the latest news, reviews, interviews, photos, rumours and more from Glastonbury 2024.