Adele wows her way through Glastonbury 2016 headline set

Only Adele could rock up to Glastonbury’s Pyramid with a mid-song squawk of “fuckin ‘ell!” midway through one of this year’s most gigantic belters. Confessing multiple times to being absolutely terrified, she spends much of her time in between songs hyperactively roaming the pit, yanking audience members up on stage for a chat, and nicking (before later returning) a man’s fez.

“The BBC had to give a warning about my potty mouth!” Adele gleefully declares once her initial sweary outbursts have ever-so-slightly subsided, along with informing the endless 100,000 strong crowd of her attitude towards anybody moaning about her set of downbeat break-up songs. “Fuck ‘em!” she cackles. Fuck ‘em indeed.

Adele’s previously shut down any faint possibility of playing festivals full-stop; let alone the biggest and most infamous one in the world. Just three years ago, she said “the thought of an audience that big frightens the life out of me,” quipping that she’d prefer to play twelve nights at The Barfly instead. Last year, Michael Eavis convinced her to reccy the site, and Adele – as she tells the audience tonight in yet another babblingly meandering story – watched Kanye headline last year. Yet somehow, something’s changed, and hello, she’s here.

As she admits multiple times on stage, many of Adele’s “miserable” ballads of heartbreak and pain don’t obviously lend themselves to a Saturday night at Glastonbury. But then again, she rarely takes the obvious route. Her music’s unescapable ubiquity helps out no end, but really, this set hinges on a massive, magnetic opposition; Adele’s crystalline vocals, her incredibly sincere songwriting, and of course the lead attraction of Adele herself. The whole thing pops off into a roaring sing-along. As white hot rain pours down the back of her stage, and red flares illuminate Glastonbury’s largest crowd yet, there’s not a single person holding back for ‘Set Fire To The Rain’. Even security, as they bustle through the packed audience, are howling along to ‘Someone Like You’. During her Bob Dylan cover ‘Make You Feel My Love’ the thousands-upon-thousands of people in front of the Pyramid raise their phone torches in unison, and Adele is moved, almost to tears.

Immediately after playing ‘When We Were Young’ – a performance which prompts audible sobbing and eye-dabbing across the field – Adele immediately hurries to the side of the stage, snatching up a cup and swigging from it with relief. “I’ve been dying for a cider!” she yowls, “oh my days!” Leaving an overbrimming swear jar, and thousands of people screeching their own renditions of ‘Someone Like You’ for hours after the set, Adele’s performance tonight is one brimming with authenticity; so much so that you half expect to bump into her later on tonight at Shangri-La for a dance and a rollie.

Photo: Emma Swann / DIY