Best acts you have seen at the festival

[Smeble]

John fogerty on jazz world in '07

ELO '16, lots of haters on here but where I was down the front there was a great atmosphere and I've wanted to see them for ages, may not have worked for the non fan but for me they were fantastic.

ZZ Top '16 I'd had just enough cider to be 'that'  bloke dancing to a completely different song during La Grange, 

Art Garfunkel '16, poor guy can't sing anymore but I have never experienced a crowd give so much love for an artist as much as that crowd in the acoustic tent last year. Fantastic gig

[Titters]

Not just the best act at the festival, but the best thing I've seen or been part of...

Faithless - 2002 - We Come 1

 

The last 2 minutes of this....

[BluePaul]

Pulp's secret set at The Park in 2011(?) was magnificent.

[Rumblestripe]

In no particular order, some standouts

Neil Young 2009

Chic 2013

Robert Plant 2014

Alison Goldfrapp 2014

Rolling Stones 2013

Michael Kiwanuka (Crow's Nest) 2016

I could go on and on and on...

[SwedgeAntilles]

Honorable mention to these guys who (as I've said many times on here before) saved me on the Sunday last year as I teetered on Comedown Cliff. 

[nikkic]

RTJ into Caribou into Hot Chip 2015 was the best night I've ever had on The Farm. My first headliner on WH in 5 years, with all my mates with one of my favourite bands. Everything fell into place that night. 

Honourable mentions to Chems 15, Cribs and Andy C 07, Jay Z 08 and Lionel 15.

[CajunMoon]

Arcade Fire on other stage in 2007 has always been a stand out set for me

Lionel Richtea - 2015. You knew something great was happening in a way that could only happen at Glastonbury.

The songs of Nick Drake performed by Keith James in 2007 - acoustic tent. To hear the songs live of one of my favourites artists (and interpreted so well) was really special. 

[Hugh Jass]

Muse's headline set in 2004 was one of the best I've ever seen on the Pyramid, it was absolutely brilliant. Shame they completely went to shit not long after.

Blur's return in 2009 was absolutely glorious.

[Anarion]

Only been to the last four, but from those Foals (2013), Tame Impala, Kasabian and Future Islands stand out. Maybe not the best music, but the energy and crowds in the pit were amazing for all of those   

[danegg]

Dolly was a definite moment for me. 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Ray Davies headlining the acoustic tent in 2009. Life affirming stuff.

[OBface]

1 hour ago, nikkic said:

RTJ into Caribou into Hot Chip 2015 was the best night I've ever had on The Farm. My first headliner on WH in 5 years, with all my mates with one of my favourite bands. Everything fell into place that night. 

This tied with LCD closing things off last year for me. Just perfect. 

[Franky]

Go on then I will help you out lol

 

Massive attack 2008, simply wonderful.

[kellly]

Ray Davies for me

[Lauringtonzini]

Stevie Wonder

Blur

XX (JP)

Bumblebee Slim

[Gnomicide]

2 hours ago, RichardWaller said:

Off the top of me head, the standouts from the ones I've been to..

2002 - Roger Waters, Doves, Queens of The Stoneage

2003 - REM, Manic Street Preachers, Love with Arthur Lee

2004 - Paul McCartney, Spiritualized, The Magic Band

2010 - Scissor Sisters, Lightning Seeds, Ray Davies

2013 - Smashing Pumpkins, The XX, Portishead

2014 - Manic Street Preachers, Massive Attack, Dolly Parton

2016 - Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott, ZZ Top

Inspired by this, I'm going for one from each of the years I've been.

2010 - The Hold Steady. I've seen them better, they were on too early, crowd wasn't huge but I still absolutely loved it. Runners up, Slash & Ray Davies. 

2011 - Coldplay. Didn't expect it to be them but the atmosphere was electric and it was just before they went shit.

2013 - Ladies and gentlemen... THE ROLLING STONES! Best gig ever, the anticipation, the love, the old men still showing everyone else how it's done. 

2014 - Anti-flag. All going off in Leftfield, the drummer playing in the middle of tge crowd while a circle pit engulfed him. I'd had a blast at Metallica the night before but this had an extra spark.

2015 - Ryan Adams. Great set to end tge festival, a rare treat of a decent Sunday headliner and he delivered on all points.

2016 - ZZ Top just missing out to St. Paul and the Broken Bones. Superb band, stunning vocals and the tunes to match.

[semmtexx]

12 hours ago, grumpyhack said:

We've had lots of negativity about worst acts people have seen so I thought it might be nice to start a positive thread.

I'm too tired to put years to names and you'll remember them if you were there but amongst the tops for me would have to be Leonard Cohen a\nd Joan Baez.  Also the Ray Davies Choral Kinks, The Who and, always a must when they were there, Biggles Wartime Band (RIP Jolly Jock).  A couple of non-music standouts were Feeding The Fish (an amazing dance and light show in the Circus and/or Cabaret Tent) and Bill Ferguson, a comedy juggler in the outside Circus Field.

 

Nice idea @grumpyhack

Only been going since 2011 but some highlights. 

Chic West Holts! What a disco dance off!

Lionel: just because!

Coldplay: lasers and wrist band lights - looked amazing! Fun tunes too! 

Beatbox collective: Somewhere in the naughty corner. Well, late night, happy as, cracking set. So much fun. 

New York bass band: opening tunes for me last year. Great laugh. 

London Community Gospel Choir in the acoustic tent.  Not for religious overtones or anything but such uplifting tunes with people who really looked to be loving every moment. 

Plus everything else really! Love the Farm! 

Edited April 17, 2017 by semmtexx

[Quark]

Always love these threads (good and bad) because of the different thoughts on what constitutes a great or terrible act. The technical delivery, the set list, the crowd, a personal reason...all can elevate an act to legendary status in your own mind. 

In 2009 at my first Glastonbury I got to watch the Specials; danced my nuts off to Gangsters, Rat Race, Monkey Man and Too Much Too Young before the absolute beauty of Ghost Town as the sun was going down. Blur was my first experience of a festival closer, and I can't listen to Tender without a shiver going up my spine to this day.

Levellers in 2010 closing out the Glade remains at the peak of gigs I've been to. London Community Gospel Choir on the Acoustic after I realised that watching the football with my mates was the worst way to spend an afternoon was just the perfect set at the right time. Felt genuinely rejuvenated afterwards.

Rolling Stones in 2013 just felt like something special was happening.

Lionel in 2015; aside from the tunes his crowd interaction was phenomenal.

And from 2016, James. After the delayed start, the brexit vote, a shitty journey on Thursday and the pissing bloody r**n, hearing one of the bands I listened to a lot during troubled teenage years belt out Sometimes and Tomorrow just hit me in exactly the right place.

Glorious memories one and all

 

[Earthwindandfire2205]

2009- The Specials, Madness,Bruce

2010-Stevie, Muse, Faithless

2011- Elbow, Chemical Brothers

2013- Chic, The Stones

2014- Dolly

2015- Florence, Lionel, The Who

2016- Squeeze, ELO, Coldplay 

[The life of Pablo]

5 minutes ago, Earthwindandfire2205 said:

2015- Florence, Lionel, The Who

 

This 

[stuartbert two hats]

Because every time this comes up, I just say "Battles 2008", for a change I'm also going to go with the yearly format

1997 - Primal Scream

1998 - Blur

1999 - Bjorn Again

2000 - David Bowie

2004 - Orbital

2005 - Brian Wilson

2007 - Africa Express

2008 - Battles

2009 - Lancashire Hot Pots

2010 - Gorillaz

2014 - John Grant

2016 - Underworld

To be honest, I don't remember 1999 that well!

[popcornmaster]

By no means my favourite band on record but I think Blur was my favourite gig, they smashed their set. Stevie Wonder was special special too. 

Portishead were beautiful.

Phoenix >  The National > Hot Chip (If I remember that correctly) was pretty special in 2010. 

Elbow & Massive Attack in 08

I'm jealous of everyone who saw LCD Soundsystem, I wasn't really into them at the time (nor at the site) but I'm really getting into them and I can't see them being back anytime soon. 

Funny seeing so many people say Caribou into Hot Chip. I had such high hopes for it but it did next to nothing for me. Shame as I know that Hot Chip can smash a gig. 

[crocodiles]

Last year was my one and only visit so far so limited choice .

James as love them and got to be first live band I saw at glastonbury.  Must admit struggled to hold it together thinking I can't believe I'm here.

Aurora loved her performance and energy 

Tame impala perfect sunset music great vibe 

Coldplay not a massive fan but was an experience I will never ever forget . Crowd lights sounds flares everything worked 

[fatyeti24]

 Orbital in 1994 made quite the, ahem, Impact on me. 

Underworld in 1999.

Hot Chip in 2015.

LCD last year. 

Honestly though I do struggle to remember unless my memory is jogged!

[garc1a]

Best acts... Many of them relate to a whole experience, who was there, my age, weather and other factors...

Some would be:

Bowie 2000, best gig ive ever been at.. Highly unlikely ever to be matched.

Prodigy 94ish.. Jilted generation time.

Ozomatli late 90s

Moby on the nme stage in the 90s

Johnny cash! Okay so there are probably a ton of bands with more complex guitars etc, cash is just a legend.

Zion train.. Stage unknown, in the 90s at some point. I was in the right place for my condition at the time 

Nods also go to steve earle, beautiful south, manu chao, jimmy cliff, toots, pulp, tako laco and the numerous wee bands that i never find out who it was!

In recent years, most of the bands on west holts. Every year the soumd from that stage blows me away. Definately the best sound of any of the main stages.