Elton John is expected by admirers all in rhinestones and colors for a historic concert and bids farewell to the British audience on Sunday evening on the stage of the legendary Glastonbury Festival in south-west England, in which he is taking part for the first time.
The 76-year-old star, who will conclude his worldwide farewell tour in Stockholm on July 8, will sing to tens of thousands of festival-goers on the famous Pyramid Stage to close out this 51st edition. He succeeds Paul McCartney, who caused a stir on the scene last year covering Beatles classics.
“I arrived at 7am for ‘this very special day in the history of Glastonbury’,” Ben Monk tells AFP from behind a barrier opposite the stage. “Why should we miss this!?” he adds, specially dressed in homage to the “great man”.
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“There’s no one like him!” emphasizes Justine Clayton, who has married the sound of “Your Song”. “It’s touching for us. And for a lot of people it’s the same, it brings back a lot of memories of all the generations he played before,” she said.
“We already don’t have complete Elton John glasses anymore,” says Judy Berger, who offers giant models with rhinestones, yellow or pink glasses or even “large models with completely crazy fur”.
Four surprise guests are announced. Speculations are rife, among the names that are floating around are Harry Styles, Billy Joel, Ed Sheeran or Britney Spears or even Dua Lipa.
AFP
“It’s the first time I’ve been asked” to play at Glastonbury, Elton John said in an interview with the BBC in late May. “It’s timely, I believe in fate and it’s the greatest finish in England,” he said.
Sunday’s show promises to be different than what the audience saw during Elton John’s tour, who accompanied his titles “Tiny Dancer”, “Rocket Man” or “Your Song” with extravagant costumes and spectacular visual effects.
This concert “is very special,” her husband David Furnish told UK broadcaster Sky News this week, with a different “set list.”
Omnipresent Dave Grohl
Elton John, who according to David Furnish was moved by a “healthy” nervousness ahead of this show, had already announced he would be starting with a song he hadn’t played in 10 years. But when Elton John says goodbye to the scene, he wants to work on a new album in the fall.
The farewell tour of the 300-million-selling singer entitled “Farewell Yellow Brick Road”, which was originally planned for three years, kicked off in 2018 with more than 300 dates.
But she has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, hip surgery in 2021 and a positive Covid test last year.
Before Elton John, Blondie, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, rapper Lil Nas X or Sophie Ellis-Bextor play on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday.
Sunday night’s surprises are far from the only ones of this Glastonbury vintage.
On Friday, the Foo Fighters stumbled upon the festival for the first time in 25 years for a surprise concert announcing a mystery group, the “Churnups”.
Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl has also been invited to take the stage with Guns N’ Roses – in their first appearance at the festival – for a reimagined “Paradise City” as well as with the Pretenders.
Among the other headliners, Lana Del Rey had technical problems that prompted her to release an a cappella album to the public, while the Arctic Monkeys, Amadou & Mariam or, again, Rick Astley and his unmissable “Never Gonna Give You Up” , which made him a… star in 1987.
On Saturday night, in front of a benevolent crowd absorbing his songs, Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, who suffers from Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, sometimes lost his voice and appeared to be battling tics. He apologized and announced he would be taking another break due to health issues.
Glastonbury welcomes more than 200,000 festival-goers who come with tents and backpacks.
At the beginning of November, tickets for the 2023 edition sold out in just over an hour, although the price was almost 400 euros.