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The big Glastonbury 2025 review: Skepta comes to the rescue, Kneecap bring the controversy and Pulp play one for the ages

From Lewis Capaldi to Lorde to the Britpop icons, this year’s secret sets were anything but secret. But there was plenty more to beguile, from Pink Pantheress to Busta Rhymes to Brandi Carlile

Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Hogan Media/ShutterstockThe surprise hit of Friday night turned out to be rapper Busta Rhymes, whose appearance twentysomething years after his commercial peak drew a huge crowd to the Other stage: clearly word had got out about how ridiculously entertaining he and his hypeman, Spliff Star, are live, up to and including unexpectedly dropping Queen’s We Are the Champions and the Pussycat Dolls’ Don’t Cha (“for all the freaky ladies”) mid-set. Quite a lot of the conversation seemed to have been held by people who had evidently never been within a mile of Glastonbury, but the controversy over their comments about Palestine and Conservative MPs was clearly good for business: long before they appeared, the area around the West Holts stage had to be closed to prevent a crush. He was rewarded with an immense audience and a rapturous reception: making the most of his 30 minutes, he packed the brief set with crowd-pleasing hits – That’s Not Me, It Ain’t Safe – while the closing Victory Lap, a freshly released warp-speed collaboration with producer Fred Again, caused something approaching delirium.

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