(Pilton) Awaited by fans all in glitter and color for a historic concert, Elton John bids farewell to the British public on Sunday evening on the stage of the legendary Glastonbury Festival, in the south-west of England, in which he participates for the first time.
The 76-year-old star, who will end her world farewell tour in Stockholm on July 8, will sing at the end of this 51e edition in front of tens of thousands of festival-goers on the Pyramid Stage, Glastonbury’s most important stage. He succeeds Paul McCartney, who ignited the scene last year by covering Beatles classics.
“I arrived at 7 a.m.” for “this very special day in the history of Glastonbury,” Ben Monk told AFP, behind a barrier facing the stage. “Why would we miss this! ? “, he adds, specially dressed in homage to the” great man “.
“There is no one like him! », Underlines Justine Clayton, who got married to the sound of Your Song. “It is poignant for us. And it’s the same for a lot of people, it brings back a lot of memories for all the generations he played in front of, “she said.
“We are already out of full Elton John glasses,” says Judy Berger, who offers huge models with yellow or pink lenses, or even “big ones completely crazy in fur”.
PHOTO OLI SCARFF, AGENCY FRANCE-PRESSE
A festival-goer and his Elton John hat
Four surprise guests are announced. Speculation is rife, among the names circulating, Harry Styles, Billy Joel, Ed Sheeran or Britney Spears, or even Dua Lipa.
“It’s the first time I’ve been asked” to play at Glastonbury, Elton John said at the end of May in an interview with the BBC. “It comes at the right time, I believe in fate and it’s the most magnificent way to finish in England,” he said.
Sunday’s show promises to be different from what audiences saw during Elton John’s tour, who deployed extravagant costumes and spectacular visual effects to accompany his tracks Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man Or Your Song.
This concert “is very special,” her husband David Furnish told British channel Sky News this week, with a different “setlist”.
Omnipresent Dave Grohl
Elton John, moved by a “healthy” nervousness before this show according to David Furnish, had already made it known that he would start with a song that he has not played for 10 years. But if Elton John says goodbye to the scene, he plans to work on a new album in the fall.
The farewell tour of the singer who sold 300 million records worldwide, called Farewell Yellow Brick Road and originally scheduled to run for three years, kicked off in 2018 with over 300 dates scheduled.
But she has been disrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic, hip surgery in 2021 and testing positive for COVID-19 last year.
Before Elton John, Blondie, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, rapper Lil Nas X or Sophie Ellis-Bextor play Sunday on the Pyramid Stage.
Sunday evening’s surprises are far from the only ones from this Glastonbury vintage.
Friday, the Foo Fighters, for the first time in 25 years at the festival, tumbled for a surprise concert, where a mysterious group, the “Churnups”, was announced.
Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl has also been invited to join Guns N’Roses on stage — in their first appearance at the festival — for a Paradise City revisited, as well as the Pretenders.
Among the other headliners, Lana Del Rey encountered technical problems which led her to launch an a capella to the public, while the Arctic Monkeys, Lewis Capaldi – faced with voice problems, Amadou & Mariam, or even Rick Astley and his unmissable Never Gonna Give You Up which made him a star in 1987.
Glastonbury welcomes more than 200,000 festival-goers who arrive with tents and backpacks. At the beginning of November, tickets sold out in just over an hour for the 2023 edition, despite a price that is close to 575 Canadian dollars.