Coldplay brought out a special guest during their headlining set at the 2024 Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom on Saturday night: Michael J. Fox. The 63-year-old actor joined the band for the song “Fix You.”
“Why we are in a band is because of watching Back to the future‘ frontman Chris Martin told the crowd, referencing Fox’s 1985 film. ‘So thank you forever to our hero and one of the most amazing people on the planet, Mr. Michael J. Fox.’
The Teenage Wolf The star played guitar for Coldplay while on stage and received a huge round of applause from the crowd of 100,000, according to local reports.
Fox, who has Parkinson’s disease, called the experience “fucking mind-blowing” in a social media post on Sunday. The actor previously joined Coldplay for a performance at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in July 2016.
The Glastonbury Festival aims to “encourage and stimulate youth culture from around the world,” according to its website. Take a look at some of the big names who performed this year.
Coldplay
The British band performed on the Pyramid Stage for the fifth time on June 29, a record. Critics were very pleased with the set, in which Martin and his team scored one hit after another, such as ‘Yellow’, ‘The Scientist’, ‘Paradise’ and ‘Viva La Vida’.
Tom Cruise, Gillian Anderson and Simon Pegg
Coldplay attracted a star-studded audience as the Top Gun: Maverick star, Anderson and Pegg were among the celebrity guests in the audience. (Pegg will appear alongside Cruise in the upcoming episode Mission: Impossible 8.)
Cruise has been quite busy with concerts lately. He recently attended one of Taylor Swift’s shows in London as part of her Eras Tour.
Dua Lipa
The 28-year-old singer delivered an energetic performance as the festival’s headliner on night three. She had five outfit changes and opened with a mix of her latest and greatest hits: “Training Season,” “One Kiss,” “Illusion,” “Break My Heart” and “Levitating.”
“Each performance had the breathtaking choreography of an awards show performance, and the pace remained high throughout the evening,” the BBC review said.
Lupa didn’t play her big hit from the Barbie soundtrack, “Dance the Night.” Maybe she’s not over the movie’s Oscars sweets just yet.
Shania Twain
The 58-year-old country icon took her flair abroad. She emphasized “a lot of cowboy hats and leopard print” in the audience, which she called “really, really special.” Reviews of Twain’s performance were mixed.
a scroll on X, formerly Twitter, shows the gap with some praising Twain. Others pointed out sound problems. The BBC’s review said her “throat sounded a little dry and scratchy at times” and stirred up controversy at this year’s festival. However, the journalist said that “as soon as her voice warmed up”, things changed.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Cara Delevingne
The actresses were among those who clearly enjoyed Twain’s performance. Delevingne was accompanied by her friend Minke (real name Leah Mason).
Janelle Monae
Dressed in colourful florals, the singer delivered “a powerful showcase of audio and visual excellence” during her set, according to NME.
Avril Lavigne
The Canadian singer-songwriter made her Glastonbury debut. Judging from some reviews, it was worth the wait as she wowed audiences with early 2000s hits including “Girlfriend,” “Complicated” and “I’m With You.” But many fans were disappointed that she didn’t get a bigger stage for her performance.
SZA
The Grammy winner closed out the festival as Sunday’s headliner. The “Kill Bill” singer is one of the hottest acts in music, but according to the Independent, turnout for her set was “unusually sparse” due to competing acts Justice, James Blake, London Grammar and The National.
Inactive
The controversial rock group made headlines with a politically charged performance, with frontman Joe Talbot leading the crowd in a “f*** the king” song.
During the band’s pro-immigration song “Danny Nedelko,” an inflatable boat appeared and was passed around by the crowd. The prop depicted young refugees in life jackets. Street artist Banksy apparently confirmed that he was behind the stunt. A spokesperson for Idles told the Guardian that the band only found out about it after their set had ended.
Cyndi Lauper
The music legend’s set was plagued with sound problems, according to the BBC, which reported that the audience could barely hear her. “At times it appeared the singer was arguing with members of the production team at the side of the stage,” the outlet reported.
