Glastonbury 2011 live – Sunday 26 June evening

Join us from Somerset for the final evening of Glastonbury 2011. Beyonce is headlining the Pyramid from 9.45pm, with Gruff Rhys, The Streets and Kool and the Gang also closing out the festival

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Beyonce performs at the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards
Beyonce performs at the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards. Photograph: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images

6.20pm: Good evening, and welcome to the Guardian's live coverage of the final evening of Glastonbury. Beyonce is due onstage at the Pyramid at 9.45pm, AND the sun's out, AND lots of the mud has dried. Hallelujah!

We'll be here til the small hours, and you can tweet us @guardianmusic, if you like. If not, then sit back and relax as we bring you news and reviews from the last few hours of Glastonbury 2011.
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Glastonbury 2011 live – Sunday 26 June evening

Join us from Somerset for the final evening of Glastonbury 2011. Beyonce is headlining the Pyramid from 9.45pm, with Gruff Rhys, The Streets and Kool and the Gang also closing out the festival

Share4
reddit this
Comments (437)

Beyonce performs at the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards
Beyonce performs at the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards. Photograph: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images

6.20pm: Good evening, and welcome to the Guardian's live coverage of the final evening of Glastonbury. Beyonce is due onstage at the Pyramid at 9.45pm, AND the sun's out, AND lots of the mud has dried. Hallelujah!

We'll be here til the small hours, and you can tweet us @guardianmusic, if you like. If not, then sit back and relax as we bring you news and reviews from the last few hours of Glastonbury 2011.

6.34pm: Caspar Llewellyn Smith is out on the prowl:

Up by Bella's Bridge – built a couple of years ago in honour of the late Arabella Churchill, granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill and co-founder of this festival – there were some trolls, handing out free hugs.

6.52pm: Remember when Bono plucked a photographer's camera from the press gallery during U2's Pyramid stage gig on Friday? Well the photographer was the Guardian's very own David Levene.

At the end of U2's third song, Bono knelt down in front of me and stretched his hand towards the camera. At first, I thought he was just doing a rocker pose. But then he got closer and closer, and I thought: He wants my camera. So I just gave it to him.

I was initially worried he wasn't going to be able to use it. You can't generally take a photo with the camera unless the auto-focus is engaged – and that's quite a faff to figure out. So it was only when I had a look later that I saw he'd fired off four or five frames.

Check out Bono's pictures of David here.

7.08pm: Beyonce's larking about backstage here, downing pints and chugging on Marlboro Lights as she gets ready to close the Pyramid stage later... of course she's not. She's probably being fanned by assistants somewhere.

However there have been a few celebs knocking about, not least old mates Wayne Rooney and Angus Deayton, who I happened across in the bar last night.

Others celebs spotted by Guardian staff this Glastonbury include Toby Anstis, "someone from Made in Chelsea" and Will Young – who everyone seems to have bumped into at least three times.

7.14pm: Henry Barnes is out enjoying some choons:

Took forever for TV On The Radio to get going on The Other Stage, then they one-two suckerpunched us into submission with a frantic Wolf Like Me and superb and ridiculous cover of the Ghostbusters theme tune.

7.19pm: Paul Lewis has been getting people to sing at him:

Most people who heard the Paul Simon set seem to have left a bit disappointed. But I found these two fans who didn't have a bad word to say about his performance. "Doo-du, dudu. Doo-du, dudu."

7.49pm: Tim Jonze saw Paul Simon too. Read his full review here, and there's a snippet below:

"Yeah, I'm happy to be here," shrugs Paul Simon. "I've got a throat infection so if I'm not at the top of my game, that's the reason."

Well, they say get your excuses in early. Not that Simon needed to apologise – at least not at first. Boy in the Bubble kicked off the New Yorker's first ever Glastonbury appearance, an earlier signifier that this was to be an uptempo, hit-heavy set, especially with his band drawing out the ending with handclaps and a full-throttle electric guitar solo. Bathiki Kumalo, who has been in Simon's band for more than two decades, even adds a finger-crippling bass solo – proving he doesn't need You Can Call Me Al for some good old-fashioned showing off.

Simon, who apart from a blue bow around his hat is clad head-to-toe in sun-defying black, then pulls out 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, but after this the set threatens to drift away. The thing with Glastonbury is you can't simply rely on your setlist. It's a delicate balancing act, making sure your songs suit whatever the elements throw your way. With this in mind, you might imagine a laidback, sleepy set would be just what the crowd needed while basking in the glorious afternoon sun. But it's baking out here, and packed too – the audience are in search of an adrenaline rush that's not provided by the likes of The Obvious Child or new song So Beautiful or So What. Even Slip Slidin' Away threatens to do just that.

However, a glorious Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes pulls things back, its crystal clear guitar refrain ringing out as the crowd join in. Simon leaves the stage early but it's a false alarm and he returns to finish with You Can Call Me Al, a song that would be criminal to leave out of a Glastonbury set.

7.54pm: Caspar writes:

Plan B: why? Although walking the path at the very back of the absolutely rammed field for the Pyramid, people are into it. EVEN WHEN HE MASSACRES Stand By Me...