Fans left fuming after Lana Del Rey’s Glastonbury set dramatically cut short
Lana Del Ray performs at Glastonbury 2023 after being half an hour late for her set. (Getty Images)
Award-winning singer-songwriter and ‘mother’ Lana Del Rey’s set at Glastonbury 2023 ended in a chaotic manner after she was 30 minutes late to the stage.
Glastonbury, Britain’s best-known five-day music festival, is held in Pilton, Somerset, and this year, runs from Wednesday 21 June to Monday 26 June. The 2023 headliners include Elton John, Guns N’ Roses and Arctic Monkeys, the latter dividing opinion with what some dubbed a lacklustre set.
On Saturday (24 June), Del Rey was set to play the Other Stage, but arrived at least half an hour late to her 10:30 slot and had the power cut at midnight, before she’d played arguably her biggest and best-known hit, “Video Games”.
In a white two-piece with a corset-style top underneath a black, belted trench coat, the influential hitmaker performed “A&W” from her latest album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard, “Young and Beautiful”, “Bartender” and “Pretty When You Cry”.
She told the crowd: “I’m so f**king annoyed that we have to rush this set. If they cut power they cut power. Let’s keep this set as it’s supposed to go.”
Del Rey also delivered “Ultraviolence” from her 2014 album of the same name and included the controversial line “he hit me and it felt like a kiss”, despite rumours that she planned to cut it from live performances.
Fans were confused by the delay to Del Rey’s set, apparently due to an issue with her hair taking “so long to do”. One mused: “Is this contrived or is she just rude?”
Others, however, pointed out that Del Rey is an “artist not a courier”.
The Independent reported that Del Rey was “clearly annoyed and upset” at the loss of power with 30 minutes-worth of songs still to perform, going on to lead the crowd in acapella versions of “Video Games” and “Summertime Sadness”.
Glastonbury festival 2023 has been beset with controversy, with co-organiser Emily Eavis apologising for this year’s all-male headline acts, and Del Rey herself taking aim at the decision to put her on the Other Stage, calling the headliners “pale, male and stale”.
The queen herself, Lizzo, reportedly drew a larger crowd earlier on Saturday for her widely-acclaimed set than headliners Guns N’ Roses.
Elsewhere, Japanese-British artist Rina Sawayama took aim at The 1975’s Matty Healy, who is on the same label as Sawayama, over a recent interview where Healy mocked Ice Spice.
The 1975 frontman appeared to ridicule Hawaiian, Inuit and Chinese accents, made derogatory comments about women and encouraged the hosts of the The Adam Friedland Show podcast to do impressions of Japanese people working in concentration camps, before joining in himself.
Glastonbury runs from 21-26 June 2023.
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