Glastonbury 2025 highlights: JADE, Scissor Sisters, Olivia and more delight the girls and the gays

Following the announcement of Primavera Sound 2025’s notorious Powerpuff Girls headliners (Sabrina Carpenter, Charli xcx and Chappell Roan), many were quick to claim the Barcelona festival might taken the crown for the queerest destination on the European festival circuit. However, as always, Glastonbury has proved once again that it should never be counted out, delivering five days of sweaty queer hedonism in nightlife spots like Scissors and the NYC Downlow, whilst platforming our favourite main pop girls on the festival’s larger stages.

With the pinnacle of festival season just behind us, and the agonising prospect of the festival’s periodic fallow year ahead, we’ve taken a moment to reflect on Glastonbury 2025’s gayest moments.

Scissor Sisters at the Woodsies

During their initial run as a band, the Scissor Sisters cemented themselves as bona fide Glastonbury legends, conquering the Pyramid stage during their debut year in 2004, and returning once again in 2010 with none other than Miss Kylie Minogue in tow who joined them on stage for a performance of ‘Any Which Way’. With that in mind, we knew their return to the festival as one of the final stops on their hugely successful reunion tour was not to be missed.

Taking place in the slightly more intimate setting of the Woodies tent, the band drew a crowd so enormous the entire area had to be closed before Jake Shears, Baby Daddy and Del Marquis had even step foot on stage. Once on stage, those lucky enough to get within proximity of the tent were treated to an electric and relentlessly joyous celebration of queer freedom and rebellion. Hits like ‘Laura’, ‘Comfortably Numb’, ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancing’ and ‘Let’s Have A Kiki’ sounded as fresh today as when they were first released, whilst deep cuts like ‘Tits On The Radio’ and ‘Music Is The Victim’ brought the charmingly age diverse crowd back to the heady early days.

The group were flanked by a number of top tier guests including Sir Ian McKellan who emerged to deliver his iconic ‘Invisible Light’ monologue and Jessie Ware who appeared to sing ‘Take Your Mama’. The pièce de résistance of the set came when Gossip frontwoman Beth Ditto took to the stage for the encore of ‘Filthy/Gorgeous’, sending the crowd into pure ectstacy. The fact that this performance took place on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots only added to the poignancy of watching these flamboyant anarchists rule the stage, sounding as radical and groundbreaking in the year 2025 as they were in 2004.

JADE makes her Glastonbury debut

Also on the Woodsies stage, earlier on Saturday, JADE continued to establish herself as an unmissable live act following on from her showstealing performance at Mighty Hoopla earlier in June. Following an introduction by Ncuti Gatwa, the former Little Mix star rose from the stage in an understated look of green combats, her signature green parka and a custom Off-White t-shirt that simply said ‘GLASTO’ in block lettering. From the top of a staircase she rattled through gay favourites like ‘IT Girl’ and ‘Fantasy’, stopping throughout the set to banter with the crowd, reminding us that her winning personality and effortless likeability is almost as much of an asset as her vocal prowess and songwriting chops.

A slightly extended medley of Little Mix hits like ‘Wasabi’, ‘Shout Out To My Ex’, ‘Sweet Melody’ and ‘Woman Like Me’ put a smile on everyone’s faces, whilst her club-ready cover of the Queen of Pop Madonna’s ‘Frozen’ was a testament to her impeccable taste. The show’s climax came in the form of her debut single ‘Angel of My Dreams’, a truly bonkers, balls to the wall smash that evokes the same frenetic and self referentional energy of Gwen Stefani’s ‘What You Waiting For?’. It’s a shame this performance came before the artist has managed to release her still-upcoming debut album as her 45 minute set ought to have been the ultimate showcase for her mission statement. What we got however, only left music afficianados salivating for what is yet to come from this truly exciting pop star.

Olivia Rodrigo closes the Pyramid Stage

Watching a 22 year old Olivia Rodrigo cavort around the Pyramid Stage on Sunday night was truly a sight to behold. The second youngest headliner in the festival’s history, only behind Billie Eilish who played the stage in 2022, Rodrigo displayed the such authority on stage you would swear it was the performance of a star twice her age. The Disney alum looked right at home as she sent the crowd ballistic with her polished collection of pop rock anthems including ‘bad idea, right?’, ‘vampire’, and ‘brutal’.

Rodrigo’s music has always traded on a certain sort of teen angst, but watching her switch between shredding a guitar and writhing around in little more than an ivory corset and fishnet stockings left you with no doubt that this star was all grown up. Across a ninety minute set, the star intermittently channelled the startingly sexuality of a young Christina Aguilera, the wrath of Courtney Love and the all American charm of Britney Spears. Always a scholar of pop, she surprised the audience with a very special guest in the form The Cure frontman Robert Smith who joined her for renditions of ‘Friday I’m In Love’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’, proving any naysayers who doubted her ability to meet the needs of the gargantuan Pyramid Stage crowd wrong.

The singer’s own instant classics like ‘déja vu’, ‘driver’s license’ and ‘good 4 u’ sounded just as timeless as Smith’s 80s classics, uniting the audience in sing alongs so cathartic that it left anyone lucky enough to attend this prodigy’s set with no doubt that booking Rodrigo for such a slot was, in fact, a very good idea, right?

Other highlights

• Lorde makes a surprise early morning appearance: To celebrate the release of her fourth album Virgin, Lorde woke the festival up on Friday morning for a secret set at 11.30am. Emerging at the Woodsies tent, the New Zealand singer performed the entire album, start to finish, delighting fans with what sounds like it might be her best work to date and a welcome return to the moody bangers of Melodrama. Whilst recent hit ‘What Was That’ was certainly a crowd pleasing moment, she was also kind enough to top it all off with renditions of two stone cold classics – ‘Ribs’ and ‘Green Light’ which brought emotions to a high and reminded us that no one can do what she does.

• Charli xcx sets the torch to her brat flag: What is the left to say about Charli and her seemingly never-ending brat summer that hasn’t already been said at this point? After rousing headline slots at both Primavera Sound and London’s inaugural LIDO Festival, the party girl headlined the Other Stage on Saturday night, drawing an impressive crowd which reportedly left Pyramid Stage headliner Neil Young with a rather sparse audience. Whilst Charli always delivers on both hits and energy, some were left disappointed at the lack of special guests, particularly given the fact her ‘Girl (so confusing)’ collaborator Lorde was on the premises. The set’s most notable moment (save for a Gracie Abrams cameo as the night’s ‘Apple’ dancer) came at the set’s conclusion which saw the star set fire to her iconic brat flag, suggesting that brat summer might finally have come to close?

• Doechii conquers the West Holts stage: It’s hard to believe it’s been just a few short months since Doechii was took home her first GRAMMY Award for Best Rap Album and wowed audiences with an showstopping performance. In her Glastonbury debut, the rapper du jour continued to carve a name for herself as one of the strongest live rappers in the game, spitting bars and dancing her ass off in equal measure, dripping in Vivienne Westwood to a mammoth crowd including Harry Styles.

• The NYC Downlow brought the house down and the stars out in full force: Living up to it’s reputation as one of the world’s best night clubs, the NYC Downlow remained an absolute highlight of the festival for queer and straight party girls alike. A combination of sets from the likes of Bashkka, Luke Solomen, Horse Meat Disco and Grace Sands and the club’s unmistakable energy attracted typically long queues from the thousands of festival goers desperate for a peak through the club’s famed meat curtains. It also brought out the créme de la créme of the celebrity world with everyone from Charli xcx and George Daniel, Rita Ora and Taika Waititi, Harry Styles, Lily Allen, Cara Delevigne, Olivia Dean, Anya Taylor Joy, Lorde, Terrence O’Connor and James Norton all stopping over the course of the weekend, where they partied with the masses.