Lorde kicks off Glastonbury with early surprise set

Pop star Lorde has launched the 2025 Glastonbury Festival with a surprise pre-lunchtime set to a packed crowd on the Woodsies stage.

There was an almighty roar as she took to the stage, washed in strobe lights, and launched into her recent single Hammer.

Just before her set, Glastonbury announced it had closed the Woodsies field due to overcrowding – after rumours about her appearance spread around the site.

The New Zealander, whose hits include Royals, Green Light and Solar Power, previously played on the main Pyramid Stage in 2022.

Her secret set coincided with the release of her highly-anticipated fourth album, Virgin, which came out at midnight.

“Moooorning!” drawled the star, addressing the audience for the first time. “This is sick.”

She promised to play her new album “front to back”, saying the recording process “took a lot” out of her.

“I didn’t know if I’d make another record to be honest. but I’m back [and] completely free.”

She sank to her knees and writhed on the stage during raw but liberating ballad Man of the Year, and pulled her white T-shirt over her head for a celebratory chorus of the single What Was That.

Fans were receptive to the unfamiliar material, even though Lorde had broken Glastonbury’s golden rule: Play the hits, dummy.

But she wrapped up her set with two of her biggest songs, Ribs and Green Light, stripping down to a bikini top as laser lights shot above the audience.

The temperature inside the tent, already oppressively hot, ratcheted up another couple of degrees as fans jumped up and down, hollering the call-and-response chorus of Green Light.

The festival’s first full day of music will also see performances from CMAT, Lola Young, Alanis Morissette, Loyle Carner, Busta Rhymes, PinkPantheress, Wet Leg and Biffy Clyro. Indie band The 1975 will top the bill.

There will be another “surprise” guest on the Pyramid Stage at 16:55 BST, with Lewis Capaldi heavily rumoured to be making his comeback two years after an emotional performance during which he struggled to finish his set.

The Scottish singer released his new single Survive at midnight.

Lorde’s appearance was the culmination of a promotional campaign for her album, which has featured a series of impromptu fan gatherings and pop-ups – including a guerilla video shoot in New York’s Washington Square Park that attracted the attention of anti-terror police.

The record itself is revelatory in its candour. Lorde sings sensitively about eating disorders, body dysmorphia, the end of a long-term relationship and her shifting gender identity.

“Going into this album, I had the sense that something very raw and close to the bone was wanting to come out of me,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this week.

“I basically felt uncomfortable the whole time.

“When you’re pushing yourself to the bone, or [pushing] to only tell the truth… the only way I can think to describe it is that it makes you feel very alive.”

In a separate interview on Stephen Colbert’s US chat show, the 28-year-old also revealed she had practised MDMA therapy to overcome the stage fright that had plagued her “since I was five [years old] doing community theatre”.

The controlled use of MDMA, also commonly known as ecstasy or molly, has been advocated by some experts in psychedelics, as a way of tackling post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions in a therapeutic setting.

It is currently legal in Australia, and permitted in limited cases in Canada and Switzerland.

Lorde said the six-hour experience was particularly peaceful. “You lay on a bed, you’ve got an eye mask on… there’s some talking,” she told Colbert, adding that the effects were instant.

“I tried everything for my stage fright. I did this therapy and woke up the next morning like, ‘Oh, it’s over. I know it’s over’.”

Lorde’s fans are now hoping she’ll stick around for Charli XCX’s set on Saturday night, to duet on their headline-making collaboration Girl, So Confusing.

On Friday, The 1975’s first Glastonbury headline performance kicks off at 22:15 on the Pyramid Stage.

The band, fronted by Matty Healy, have reportedly spent four times their festival fee on a “specially designed set” for the show.

Tickets for the festival sold out in just 40 minutes last November, before the line-up had even been announced.

The BBC will provide full coverage across the weekend, with live and on-demand sets available on television, radio, BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer.

One exception is Saturday night’s headliner Neil Young. The BBC has confirmed it will not broadcast his set live “at the artist’s request”.

A statement added: “Our plans, including those for our TV highlights shows and on-demand coverage, continue to be finalised right up to and during the festival.”