The Glastonbury Festival 2019

After being buried deep in Westminster and the Brexit Bubble, it was a refreshing change of pace to head back to the Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts for its 49th year.

My assignment at Glastonbury was to cover the festival from an editorial point-of-view, with features being a priority. Having said that, nothing was going to keep me away from some of the performances and acts appearing over the weekend.

I've been to Glastonbury many times since my first in 1995, where I had the pleasure of appearing as a performer, although it's safe to say it wasn't quite a main stage slot! In the years since, I've returned as a musician two further times, visited as a paying punter for a handful of years and covered it as a photographer for The Times, Agence France-Presse and now Getty Images.

Working at Glastonbury is a restless challenge as there is always something to shoot, twenty four hours a day. Time spent in the sleeping bag is time wasted as there are performers to shoot during daylight hours, beautiful sunsets in the evening, incredible nightlife in Block9, Shangri La, the Unfairground and The Common, and peaceful scenes as the sun rises over the new day. With that in mind, exhaustion, hallucinations and mild insanity always creep in by the final day.

When I first looked at the line-up of acts for this year, I'll admit that I wasn't too excited but one of the many joys of Glastonbury is in discovering fresh acts and opening your ears to new genres. Acts such as Stormzy, Billie Eilish and Miley Cyrus were obviously going to be worth seeing but I had two highlights this year, the first of which was Idles on The Park stage. Having heard them played a lot on BBC 6Music, I'd dismissed them as just another punk band but after seeing and hearing singer Joe Talbot and guitarist Mark Bowen perform, I was made to re-evaluate. The furiously aggressive music hides the bang-on attitude of vocalist Talbot's views on life, something that he shares between songs, encouraging women to join the mosh pit forming in front of the stage, and making an emotional tribute to his wife for all of her hard work, sacrifices and efforts she has made in giving birth to their child. Meanwhile guitarist Mark Bowen spends his time leaping around the stage and crowd in his underwear, before smacking his guitar against the backs of photographers in the pit. A magical experience.

My other favourite performer of the weekend was Janelle Monae. I already owned one of her tracks but hadn't explored the music further so I was totally blown away by her stage show. It's almost as though someone has created the perfect musician for our times that ticks all of the boxes; an incredibly talented young woman with the right messages of diversity and support, taking the feel and vibe from Prince, James Brown and Michael Jackson and putting her own stamp on it. During her headline set on the West Holts stage on Sunday evening, she went through multiple costume changes, invited members of the audience onstage for a dance-off, slipped a snippet of the climax of Purple Rain into a song and finally ended her set with a move that left everyone slack-jawed. She quieted the audience down, and stripped to her underwear before climbing from the stage, over the barriers and into the thousands of fans. Travelling deeper and deeper into the crush, she eventually disappeared from view, leaving the cameras just able to see excited fans all looking towards their feet. Eventually, she was rushed back to the stage through a corridor made by the fans, where she re-appeared covered in the legendary Glastonbury dirt and dust, having covered herself while on the ground. Seeing an artist go from glamorous costume changes and well-rehearsed sparkle to this finale made it a very special thing to witness.

Aside from the music, there are always so many photographs to be found that it's hard to stop. As the weekend develops, each area changes as it becomes "worn in" with displays, venues and meeting areas showing signs of life, use and festival love. The clothes in the crowd become less clean and stories start to be seen in the faces you pass during your walks.

Thanks to both the news and entertainment desks at Getty Images for taking me out of the politics scene for a few days of festival action, to Sarah Neve and the rest of the press team for providing great access, guidance and entertainment, to the helpful area teams for granting production passes and platform access for the best views, and thanks to all those faces in the crowd who allowed me to capture their moments of Glastonbury magic.