Glastonbury 2024: SZA seemingly responds after headline set attracts surprisingly small crowd
While it was a historic moment for SZA, her headline slot at Glastonbury Festival on June 30th might not be remembered for all of the right reasons.
Making her festival debut by topping the Pyramid Stage’s bill on Sunday night, SZA’s audience was considerably smaller than the weekend’s previous headliners, Dua Lipa and Coldplay, respectively. Furthermore, the day had seen a large portion of Worthy Farm revellers rush to catch country-pop icon Shania Twain perform the legends slot on the same stage at 3:45pm and the ‘pop-punk Queen’ Avril Lavigne at 6pm on the Other Stage. The mass for the latter were animated throughout, despite the football being on and energy levels at their lowest, with it being the last day in Pilton.
SZA’s widespread success and influence could not stop her audience from lacking in numbers when stacked up against the other most prominent names performing on the festival’s biggest stages. On a much quieter night when many had already braved the trek home, with The National and Justice on at the same time and attracting healthy crowds, on the ground, hers was evidently much smaller than it might have been at festivals in the US or for instance, her own shows, like at London’s BST Hyde Park on June 29th. The latter has a 65k capacity, albeit the show wasn’t sold out but still attracted a healthy attendance, considerably higher than that at Worthy Farm.
Bringing this blow into focus, Coldplay’s historic headline set the previous night saw over 100,000 fans flock to watch a career-spanning and divisive set. It said a lot about the grim reality of Glastonbury for some American acts, and a tough British crowd who never fail to amaze with where they choose to plant their flag. Famously, Coldplay are one of the most polarising bands of all time, despite their success. This was something frontman Chris Martin fully affirmed within just several songs on the Pyramid Stage.
It wasn’t just the crowd size for SZA. She arrived on stage 20 minutes late for the audience, who despite their small numbers eagerly awaited her arrival, and were vociferous about it. In a Herculean test for the American icon, she also suffered technical difficulties with her mic for the first half an hour, with fans reporting that it sounded muddy, something heard loud and clear on the ground by our reporters. Eventually, though, this situation was rectified.
People’s hearts broke for SZA, and in a show of her infallible grit, she continued to push on, delivering a set brimming with staples, complete with the colourful nautical stage production she had taken around the world recently. Irrespective of her mic issues at the onset, her natural voice was excellent, with her regaling her dedicated fans with the likes of the Kendrick Lamar collaboration ‘All the Stars’, ‘F2F’ and even a snippet of the late Prince’s ‘Kiss’ before jumping into the Doja Cat collaboration, ‘Kiss Me More’.
In what surely would have alleviated some of the disappointment, SZA’s crowd might have been the smallest for a headliner at the weekend, but they were certainly dedicated, singing back every word. “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.
“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,” she said before thanking her band and completing her set.
Now, it seems that SZA has responded to what occurred on Sunday evening with an apparently pointed post on X at 12:01 AM on July 1st, less than an hour after her set finished: “The bravery required to be alive in public is remarkable. S/o everybody doing that shit.”
Yet, she did then post a small collection of photographs a few hours later, thanking fans and the festival, captioned: “THANK YOU GLASTONBURY.”
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