Glastonbury 2024: Late-night looks from Shangri-La

“South East Corner full” are the dreaded words that flash up on signs around Glastonbury each year circa 2am, when the headline acts have played, the fireworks fizzled out and the crowds have funnelled into one of the most reliable parts of the 1,500-acre festival site to see out the early hours with a good party. If you managed to make it through the throng, you’ll likely have found yourself blagging your way into the disco-inspired gay club NYC Downlow to catch Cindi Lauper playing ”Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” with the drag queens, beats dripping off with sweat. Or else having a spooky trip alongside the mashed up ravers at Unfairground, an area creepily designed to look like an abandoned theme park and best avoided on hallucinogens. You will have most certainly been surrounded by girls and gays with lime green nails and eye shadow looks in ode to Brat Summer.

Between these two parts of the festival, there’s Shangri-La, an area that has been carving out a reputation as a new queer corner of Glastonbury and as home to some of the festival’s best parties. As I roamed around Shangri-La over the four-day weekend, the sense of something-for-everyone that Glastonbury is famous for hit extra hard, as did the eclecticism of beauty looks. There were girls with your typical festival face gems waiting for a rumoured surprise set from Fred Again at Nowhere Stage. I visited Arrivals, a tent celebrating the best in South Asian music and style, to catch a Pxssy Palace takeover followed by an outrageously good set from London DJ Thempress. On Friday night, I fought with an aggressive bouncer until DJ Manuka Honey kindly helped me slip into Trippin’s secret party at the packed 100-person venue Gorilla Bar, where I permanently damaged my ears dancing to Lagoon Femshaya, Ivicore and Manuka until 9.30am without earplugs (worth it, on all fronts). Here, tooth gems, face tattoos and bold hair dye conquered.

On Saturday, despite the festival taking its toll, we somehow made it back out again, sleep-deprived, with digi camera and recording device in tow, to be uplifted by the euphoric atmosphere at Sistxrhood stage’s London Trans+ Pride takeover, where the Palestinian flag and trans flag were draped over the DJ booth side by side, as well as spotted painted on several cheeks. Here I ran into Romy, who told me she earned the title of the biggest slag at Glastonbury from her friends for playing no less than five sets (#lesbianrenaissance), including guest appearances at Jamie xx, Charli xcx and Jessie Ware, as well as two gigs of her own. Travis Alabanza took to the stage with festival-practical silver beaded braids to talk about trans rights ahead of the UK Election this week, and to remind the crowd “There’s no party without the politics”. PLANNINGTOROCK played a live set while I roamed around asking punters about their Glastonbury beauty looks, musical highlights, and impressions of Glastonbury 2024. 

Soraya, London 

Tell me about your beauty look. 

Soraya: I haven’t showered but I’ve got glitter on. Just a bit of eight-hour cream and glitter. I had sequins but I already lost them on the dance floor.

Your skin looks great.

Soraya: Thanks. I think it’s just sweat from dancing?

You worked with what you had! What was your vibe for the other days?

Soraya: Lots of colour. I usually wear black, white and beige in real life, so thought I’d do colour for Glastonbury. I did my hair for Glastonbury, too. I have my hair curly normally and it was a nightmare here last year having it natural. It looked shit, so I did braids to put it in a bonnet at night and just rip it off in the morning. They’re a bit heavy, and they keep getting caught in people’s backpacks, but I don’t usually have braids so it’s quite good for when I don’t want people I know to recognise me in the morning.

Lenny, Stroud 

Tell me about your beauty look, what’s going on here? 

Lenny: A year ago I came to my first Glasto with my good neurodivergent babies, including my fellow sister who is ginger and it was boiling. She was having a panic attack, overheating, burning, so we went to a shop and bought a parasol to keep out the sun. Because this beautiful delicate ginger was neurodivergent she was like shall we spruce this up a bit, we put some lights inside, put some gorgeous sheets over it, got inside and were like, wow, this is like the VIP tent. The legend was born. You know when you’re at the festival, in a half an hour queue, everyone is stressing you and you’re like ‘I’m sick of this shit’? What do you do? You pop the VIP tent open, and come inside.

What’s that hanging from the VIP tent ceiling?

Lenny: It’s the original B-roll from Spice Girls: The Movie, that’s all I can say.

G, London

Are you having a nice time? What’s your highlight? 

G: I am having a very good time. Wandering around, not being too hectic, seeing new bands. The best thing I’ve seen so far was London Trans+ Pride takeover and 47Soul, a Palestinian band I discovered a few years ago. Everyone should look them up.

Tell me about your shirt. 

G: I made this top myself. Last night, after I went to the trans takeover, I went back to my tent, got my Sharpie and made this. The Palestinian flag I had brought with me… A 25-year-old hipster said ‘put that fucking thing away’ earlier, and it really bugged me out. It’s Glastonbury… that’s not the vibe. On Wednesday when we arrived, there was a peace ceremony for the Middle East. I’ve seen lots of Palestine Flags and I’m grateful.

Wildhorse Jack, Somerset

How many times have you been to Glastonbury? 

Wildhorse Jack: 30 or 40 times. Since 1982. 

Tell me about your look…

Wildhorse Jack: This isn’t an outfit, this is a lifestyle. Maybe not the gold jacket, but the cowboy hat. The boots are from Fargo North Dakota. They’re number 2s, I’ve got six pairs and these are number 2 in terms of preference. My number 1s don’t come to Glastonbury.

How have you seen Glastonbury change over the years? 

Wildhorse Jack: For the better. It was fucking lawless back in the day. In every way. I’m not talking about people who didn’t fill in tax returns, just crazy. There was a travellers’ field and when I first started coming here you’d spend all the time in the car park there, that’s where the party was. Glastonbury then was very druggy, very hippy. A lot of acid and Es. It’s safer now. My kids are here with me, they’re 26 and 27, and I wouldn’t want it to be like it was then.

Do you look around and think it’s gone commercial?

Wildhorse Jack: Well, McDonalds ain’t here yet.

Fiontán, London 

What brings you to Glastonbury? 

Fiontán: I’m gogo dancing in costume and prancing around at Sweet Charity. And working the bar. Not serving pints, more like chopping fruit for cocktails in the back, greeting customers.

What was the best thing you’ve seen this weekend? 

Fiontán: Peggy Gou’s DJ set was pure ecstatic joy with some magic from Sophie Ellis Bexter singing ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ with a gold tasselled dress, plus the Dune-inspired set by Isabel Munoz-Newsome’s band The Crease at Sweet Charity. Marina Abramović’s seven minutes of silence before PJ Harvey was quite special but unfortunately the crowd was pretty small.

Tell us about your style and beauty looks? 

Fiontán: My look by day has been more ‘grunge druid’. A lot of stuff like this hat, from Hurtence, and some stuff I bought at Fantastic Toiles. By night, it’s been more ‘punk regency’. I didn’t always have time to change between performing and working the bar, so there’s been some accidental crossover.