Glastonbury 2025: A guide to the festival beyond the music
You could go to Glastonbury Festival, not see a single band, and still have a great time. There’s no other festival in the world that can boast that. The rest might give you Mr Motivator doing a dance class on a Saturday morning, maybe some yoga on a Sunday and call it a day. But at Glasto, in those sprawling fields, there is always a new path to take to a whole new type of experience.
In my experiences at the festival, two things stand out. One was a Thursday. Before things really and truly kicked off on the Friday, we were doing the classic lap around the site and stumbled across a man dressed as a lobster with a legion of people dressed in red too. I’d learn he was called LEKIDDO, a festival staple, known as the ‘Lord Of The Lobsters’. He sang songs, sure, but that was more theatre than music, more a dance class than anything else.
One was the year after, lost in the haze of the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so who knows when or where it was really. But I sat down in a dark, cold tent and just paused a while, listening to John Cooper Clarke. By the time I left, I felt so refreshed, I never once regretted missing whatever band I was on my way to find.
That’s truly the key to enjoying Glastonbury: you have to let your plans go. Sure, you can make a long list of acts to see and spend the time running from stage to stage. But guaranteed, you’ll have a lot more fun if you break your rules and see what happens. For most of the acts on the lineup, you’ll be able to catch them another time. All the rest of the entertainment the farm offers? That’s truly once a year.
The five best non-musical things to do at Glastonbury:
Speakers Forum
Up in the Green Futures field, across the tracks from the Greenpeace stage, Speakers Forum holds onto the true spirit of Glastonbury or perhaps even more so, the spirit of something like Woodstock, seeing the mostly musical event as a perfect platform for bigger conversations around politics, protest, the environment, health and beyond. Each year, the lineup is incredibly eclectic but always extremely fascinating.
Gathering all kinds of experts in all kinds of fields, highlights for 2025 include talks like ‘Psychedelics and the Politics of Healing: Science, Stigma and the Future of Medicine’, or Owen Jones giving a talk titled ‘Fighting Injustice at Home and Genocide Abroad’. With so much going on in the world currently, it’s easy to simply head off to the field and block it all out. But more so now than ever, we shouldn’t, and Speakers Forum is the perfect space for doing some big thinking and vital learning amidst it all.
Theatre & Circus
I’m sorry, but if your mind is going to be melting on various substances or loosened up by wine that’s spent three days cooking in the sun, why wouldn’t you want to go see someone do some acrobatics or whatever?
There is always something going on in the theatre and circus section of the site. Even if you don’t plan on stopping for anything or dipping into a tent, a simple walk through will probably see you getting swept up in some kind of flash mob or spontaneous performance or you’ll see someone eating some fire and want to stay for more or realise that they literally have Taskmaster, live on stage.
Sure, bands are great, but I’d like to see The 1975 do some of the tricks you’ll find here.
Humblewell
I want to make it clear that I, too, laugh at the Glastonbury run club. I’m sorry, but if you’re that dedicated to getting your 5k in every single weekend with no exceptions, you’re a loser, and someone cooler should’ve been given your ticket.
But I am the number one fan of Humblewell’s morning yoga. There’s a big difference between the two: one is lame, and one is chic and will genuinely help you out during the weekend—I’m taking no comments, questions, or arguments on that statement.
After rolling out of your tent, likely waking up way earlier than you would’ve preferred as the sun comes beaming through or the sticky heat threatens to suffocate you under all the hundreds of warm layers you had to put on to get through the night, the Humblewell morning yoga could save your life. Giving your body a good stretch and starting the morning off with a moment of zen will always be a good idea. Why not follow it up with a soundbath to clear away the hangover demons, then grab a little iced coffee or a smoothie after so you can continue to feel superior to everyone else.
Healing Fields
Once again, it’s easy to get swept up in all the hundreds of thousands of bands playing and forget that it started here. If your weekend doesn’t involve a wander around the healing fields or at least a visit to the old hippie stronghold of the stone circle at least once, you’re genuinely doing it wrong. No, I’ll take that even further: You’re failing to actually honour the festival.
Some of the families up there have been at this festival since the beginning, back when entry was like £1 and the hippie side of it all was the whole point. The opening ceremony up there is one of the most wholesome and moving things you’ll see, and well worth arriving early on the Wednesday for. But even throughout the weekend, it’s such a nice place to stop in and take a beat, get a tarot reading, watch some people get united at a hand-binding ceremony, simply chat to some of the people up there or take a breather and listen to the inevitable gaggle of people gathered around the stone circle sharing stories.
Pilton Palais
I know, I know, it feels wrong. It would feel completely rebellious and forbidden, but honestly, when Glastonbury gets so overwhelming, doesn’t escaping it all for two to three hours to go watch a movie sound really, really nice?
Pilton Palais offers that, but also so much more. The lineup there is just as strong as anywhere else in the festival. Paul Mescal will be there, doing a Q&A before a screening of Aftersun on the Saturday, followed by Jodie Comer introducing her film The End We Start From. Tilda Swinton, Margot Robbie, Ncuti Gatwa and more are all going to be up there chatting before various screenings, so if you need a break, why not do it with the stars?
