Glastonbury 2024: SZA arrives late and attracts a micro crowd for headline set
For her headline performance at Glastonbury Festival, SZA arrived on the stage 20 minutes late to an eager but much smaller crowd than expected. It was a shame for the American artist on her debut in Pilton.
The R&B star was the final act to perform on the Pyramid Stage on June 30th. However, in a day that has seen massive audiences flock to Shania Twain for her legends slot at 3:45pm on the same stage and later, pop-punk icon Avril Lavigne at 6pm on the Other Stage, it fell short in this department.
Performing classic hits such as set-closer ‘Sk8er Boi’, ‘Complicated’ and ‘Girlfriend’, Lavigne’s turnout was one of the most surprising of the weekend, with an enormous mass of attendees watching her in action when England’s Euros game against Slovakia was on simultaneously. That was quite a triumph for the Canadian legend in a country engulfed by tournament fever.
Despite SZA’s immense commercial success and widespread contemporary influence, her audience was vastly lacking in numbers, with it a disappointing turnout for an artist so lauded, particularly as other prominent acts, The National and Justice, performed two wildly distinct sets on the Other Stage and West Holts, respectively, to healthy audiences.
Adding another layer of complexity for SZA, she arrived on stage 20 minutes late, vastly cutting her performance length. This wasn’t all, though, and SZA also suffered technical difficulties. Fans watching at home complained that for the first 30 minutes, her mic sound was distractingly muffled. However, the situation was eventually rectified.
This set was a significant moment for SZA, as was her Glastonbury debut. It makes her story with the festival distinct from that of Friday and Saturday’s headliners, Dua Lipa and Coldplay, who have both worked their way up the stages over the years. It reflected a very harsh reality at the festival that famous American artists sometimes do not get the audiences they are used to in Britain.
In true form, though, despite the odds, SZA defiantly turned up, performing staples such as the 2018 Kendrick Lamar collaboration ‘All The Stars’ and 2022’s classic ‘F2F’, which had her loyal fans echoing every word. She even played a snippet of the late Prince’s ‘Kiss’ before tearing into her Doja Cat collaboration, ‘Kiss Me More’. While the turnout was certainly a letdown, there’s no doubt she has a loyal fanbase who rejoiced at her blend of R&B, pop and hip-hop, with many fans in the audience lapping up every moment.
“You ever just feel so fucking weird, like you’ll never fit in, no matter what you?” SZA pertinently asked the audience later in the set.
Although the audience numbers for Shania Twain and Avril Lavigne trounced SZA’s on Sunday, it’s when comparing them to those who turned out for Dua Lipa and Coldplay that it brings the disappointment into complete focus. For instance, Coldplay’s career-spanning two-hour performance attracted over 100,000 fans.
“Glastonbury, I was so nervous to be here with y’all today, I’m so grateful. You have my deepest love and my deepest respect, I love you always. God bless you, please get home safely; my name is SZA, good night,” SZA said before thanking her band and closing her set.
Glastonbury 2024 has brimmed with memorable moments, including Dua Lipa dueting with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker on 2015’s ‘The Less I Know The Better’. However, the stand-out moment of this year’s edition is undoubtedly Coldplay bringing out retired Hollywood legend Michael J. Fox of Back to the Future and Teen Wolf fame during a rendition of ‘Humankind’. It was an emotional juncture.
Watch Far Out’s footage of SZA’s empty crowd below.
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