Coldplay brought out a special guest during their headlining set at the 2024 Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom on Saturday night: Michael J. Fox. The 63-year-old actor joined the band for the song “Fix You.”
“Why we’re in a band is because of watching Back to the Future,” frontman Chris Martin told the audience, referencing Fox’s 1985 film. “So thank you to our hero forever and one of the most amazing people on earth, Mr. Michael J. Fox.”
The Teen Wolf star played guitar with Coldplay while on stage and received a huge applause from the 100,000 crowd, according to local reports.
Fox, who has Parkinson’s disease, called the experience “f*cking mind blowing” in a social media post on Sunday. The actor previously joined Coldplay for a performance at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in July 2016.
The Glastonbury Festival seeks to “encourage and stimulate youth culture from around the world,” according to its website. Take a look at some of the big names who performed this year.
Coldplay
The British band headlined the Pyramid Stage for a record-breaking fifth time on June 29. Critics seemed to love the set, which saw Martin and company belt out hit after hit like “Yellow,” “The Scientist,” “Paradise” and “Viva La Vida.”
Tom Cruise, Gillian Anderson and Simon Pegg
Coldplay drew a starry crowd as the Top Gun: Maverick star, Anderson and Pegg were among the famous guests in the audience. (Pegg appears alongside cruise in the forthcoming Mission: Impossible 8.)
Cruise has been on something of a concert kick lately as he recently attended one of Taylor Swift’s shows in London as part of her Eras Tour.
Dua Lipa
The 28-year-old singer brought an energetic performance on night three as the festival’s headlining act. She had five outfit changes and opened with a mix of her newest and biggest hits: “Training Season,” “One Kiss,” “Illusion,” “Break My Heart” and “Levitating.”
“Each one had the breathless choreography of an award show performance — and the pace didn’t let up all night,” read BBC’s review.
Lupa did not play her smash hit from the Barbie soundtrack, “Dance The Night.” Perhaps she’s not over the film’s Oscars snubs.
Shania Twain
The 58-year-old country icon brought her flare overseas. She highlighted “a lot of cowboy hats and leopard print” in the audience, which she said was “really, really special.” Reviews of Twain’s performance were mixed.
A scroll on X, formerly Twitter, shows the divide with some praising Twain. Others pointed out sound issues. BBC’s review said her “throat sounded a bit dry and scratch at times” and called out dust at this year’s festival. However, the journalist said “once her voice warmed up” things turned around.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Cara Delevingne
The actresses were among those who clearly enjoyed Twain’s performance. Delevingne was accompanied by her girlfriend Minke (real name Leah Mason).
Janelle Monae
Decked out in colorful flowers, the singer gave “a powerful showcase of audio and visual excellence” during her set, according to NME.
Avril Lavigne
The Canadian singer-songwriter made her Glastonbury debut. Judging from some reviews it was worth the wait as she wowed the crowd with hits from the early 2000s including “Girlfriend,” “Complicated” and “I’m With You.” But many fans were disappointed she was not given a bigger stage for her performance.
SZA
The Grammy winner closed out the festival as Sunday’s headliner. The “Kill Bill” singer is one of the hottest acts in music, but according to the Independent, attendance for her set “was unusually sparse” due to competing acts Justice, James Blake, London Grammar and The National.
Idles
The controversial rock group made headlines for a politically-charged performance, with frontman Joe Talbot leading the crowd in a “f*** the king” chant.
During the band’s pro-immigration song “Danny Nedelko,” an inflatable boat appeared and was passed around by the crowd. The prop depicted young refugees in life jackets. Street artist Banksy seemingly confirmed he was behind the stunt. A spokesperson for Idles told the Guardian the band didn’t know about it until their set had finished.
Cyndi Lauper
The music legend’s set was plagued by sound issues, according to BBC, which reported that the audience could hardly hear her. “At times, the singer appeared to be in dispute with members of the production team by the side of the stage,” the outlet reported.
