Glastonbury fans have faced many challenges over the festival s 50-year history: Torrential rain, mud baths, navigating its ever-growing site – not to mention the digital scrum when tickets are released.
And this year s online show was no exception – as technical glitches denied thousands access to the Live At Worthy Farm event.
The livestream from the site in Pilton, Somerset, was due to start at 7pm on Saturday but some waited for up to two hours to access the video feed of acts including Coldplay and Damon Albarn.
Angry viewers who paid £20 for a ticket were met with invalid codes messages before co-promoter and producer Driift Live said it would provide a free link.
The BBC has secured rights to broadcast footage from Glastonbury’s livestream event held at the weekend, with a behind-the-scenes documentary also commissioned, the corporation has announced.
Live At Worthy Farm, a five-hour global livestream which premiered on Saturday night, saw acts including Coldplay, Michael Kiwanuka, Jorja Smith and more performing.
Event organisers apologised after having to make the stream free after a nearly two-hour delay saw some ticketholders unable to access the stream due to technical issues.
The BBC said a director’s cut of the stream will be aired on BBC television in the upcoming weeks, as well as a chance to see highlights from the livestream across the corporation’s radio, TV and online platforms as part of The Glastonbury Experience 2021, which is the BBC’s annual celebration of the music festival.
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The Smile along with jazz drummer Tom Skinner were announced as surprise headliners of Glastonbury s Live At Worthy Farm streaming event on May 22.
Slotting into the bill between performances from Jorja Smith and Kano, they performed an eight-song set comprising seven new tunes and a reworked version of Radiohead rarity Skirting On The Surface.
The Smile, who take their name from a Ted Hughes poem, are yet to reveal whether they plan to release a body of work containing the songs they performed.
An exclusive director’s cut of the Glastonbury ‘Live At Worthy Farm’ stream, which premiered online on Saturday 22 May, will be broadcast on the BBC in the coming weeks.
Glastonbury: BBC to screen director s cut of live-stream concert
By Mark Savage
image copyrightPA Media
A director s cut of Glastonbury s all-star live-stream concert will be shown on the BBC in the coming weeks.
Featuring sets from Coldplay, Damon Albarn, Haim and Kano, the show will be accompanied by a behind-the-scenes documentary presented by Jo Whiley.
The five-hour show was first streamed on Saturday, but was beset by technical issues that stopped thousands of ticket-holders from watching.
Once the stream came to life, reviews called it a triumph . Getting the experience of being at Glastonbury via a camera is impossible, but the stagings somehow succeed in giving you more of a flavour than anything previously attempted, despite the absence of crowds.