Saturday, June 29, 2024

At UK's Glastonbury festival: Music, sunshine and a call to vote

Revellers take selfies as they urge people to vote in the upcoming general election, at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival, Britain, June 27, 2024.
PHOTO: Reuters

PUBLISHED ON JUNE 28, 2024

GLASTONBURY, England — Amid the thump of reggae beats from a stage nearby, the leafy scent of cannabis in the air and the warmth of sunshine at Glastonbury, a big sign tells festival-goers to "use your superpower" and vote in Britain's July 4 election.

The Just Vote campaign has installed a large black cube to represent a ballot box at the sprawling and eccentric five-day festival in southern England, and is trying to target young people with its message.

With polls predicting an easy victory for Keir Starmer-led Labour, there is a sense that many young people — a demographic with lower turnouts at past elections — may simply not vote.


That is a worry for Labour. It has told its candidates that if voters believe the election is a done deal, the Conservatives could do better than expected.

Polling by YouGov shows the vast majority of voters aged 18 to 49 want the Conservatives out of office after 14 years in government, which have seen five prime ministers, a series of scandals, widespread strikes, failing public services and falling living standards.

But among those at Glastonbury, a magnet for some 200,000 revellers, some will use their vote as a chance to back smaller parties, others care about voting the Conservatives out — and some simply won't turn up at all.

Many said they had taken a Labour victory for granted, and they want instead to support parties more closely aligned with the causes that matter to them, from climate change to Gaza. Campgrounds at the festival are dotted with Palestinian flags.

Under Starmer, Labour has shifted towards the centre, moving away from the hard-left politics of previous leader Jeremy Corbyn, who in 2017 addressed a huge crowd at Glastonbury.

Back then, many in the crowd treated Corbyn like a rock star, singing his name in a football-style chant. Starmer has since renounced the Corbyn era, and Corbyn is now standing as an independent.

"I'm excited about change, but I don't really love the Labour Party," said 28-year-old Ellie O'Connell, from Salford in northwest England, considered a Labour stronghold.


UK polls point to 'electoral extinction' for Prime Minister Sunak's Conservatives


"I think he's trying to appeal to [Conservative voters]," she said of Starmer, adding that she planned to vote for the much smaller Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition party.

Charles Olafare, 34, said he doesn't see much difference between Labour and the Conservatives: "The choice between them ... doesn't really feel like much of a choice, and it's quite frustrating."

An advertising copywriter from south London, Olafare said he was considering voting for the Green Party, which has advocated more taxes on the wealthy, scrapping university tuition fees and bringing forward the UK's 2050 net zero target by a decade.

Many younger voters still want to choose Labour if that is the best chance of removing the Conservatives from office, such as 20-year-old Harvey Morrey, who reckons the race will be tight in his constituency in Crewe, central England.
Tactical voting

Others, like Louis Billett, 23, will not vote at all. Turnout among those aged 18 to 24 at the last election in 2019 was about 52 per cent, compared to about 81 per cent for those aged over 75, according to the British Election Study.

"I just don't know enough about it to vote and I just don't see anyone I'd like to vote for," Billett said as he sipped from a can of cider.

Billett, a cheese factory worker from Midsomer Norton, 16 km from the festival site, who described himself as working class, said Corbyn was the one politician he "sort of had any respect for".

The Just Vote campaign, backed by Labour donor Dale Vince, is targeting people like Billett, and is managing to convince some to vote, but not everyone, said campaign volunteer Verel Rodrigues.

Sammy Henderson, 23, said she supported the Green Party but was considering Labour this time if that would help keep the Conservatives out of power — her overriding objective rather than any desire to see Starmer as Britain's next prime minister.


Glastonbury: How politics accompanies the music of the festival

Festival-goers will be familiar with Glastonbury's mix of music and politics. But this year's event is held just days before a General Election.


By Katie Spencer and Gemma Peplow, arts and entertainment team, at Glastonbury
Saturday 29 June 2024
Image:Pic: Yui Mok/PA

Glastonbury is no stranger to mixing music with politics, and with the general election just days away and protests against the Israel-Hamas war ongoing, this year has been no exception.

Artists from Damon Albarn to Charlotte Church have been vocal about their thoughts on the war on stage - and reflected back at them, a notable number of Palestinian flags are being held aloft by those in the crowds.
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Closer to home, while the looming election means planned visits by Labour's Angela Rayner and the Greens' Caroline Lucas were shelved, Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham did give a speech, and installations such as a large black cube representing a ballot box, by the Just Vote campaign, are here to impress on people there is one way to make a difference.

Elsewhere, during Idles set on Friday night, an inflatable life raft with dummy migrants was propelled into the crowd - a stunt the band have reportedly claimed was orchestrated by Banksy, although there is no official word from the anonymous artist on this yet, which they were not aware of until afterwards.

While Glastonbury is about escapism, what's going on in the wider world matters also clearly matters to a lot of people enjoying the festival.


Gossip frontwoman Beth Ditto at Glastonbury

Ahead of their set, Gossip frontwoman Beth Ditto told Sky News that as an 18-year-old, voting for the first time, no one explained to her why it mattered so much - and that it is important now to encourage younger people especially.

"Absolutely," she said. "The hard thing about youth is that you don't realise how fast that 20 years goes and you're not 20 anymore. You don't realise you only have however many elections in the next 15, 20 years, what a big difference they make."

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She continued: "It's about the money that's being spent for your future… there's so much more going on, so much deeper, that really will affect you."

However, Ditto said younger generations are also helping to inspire change. "I also want to say that they're going to save us all, Gen Z and Gen Alpha."

On Saturday, Labour's Andy Burnham told about 100 people who came to see him speak that Sir Keir Starmer will not "bulldoze" local government if he wins the election.

"I think it will change if Labour get in, it will improve, but it won't stop being very difficult," Mr Burnham told the crowd.

Meanwhile, a timely performance of Things Can Only Get Better, the D:Ream song that became the soundtrack to Tony Blair's 1997 electoral victory and more recently Rishi Sunak's sodden election announcement - got a huge reaction from the crowd on Friday.

:D:Ream perform Things Can Only Get Better at Glastonbury

Meet Glastonbury's State Of The Ground Guy

But is there also apathy among some?

Cast your mind back to 2017 and you might recall then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn receiving a rapturous reception on the Pyramid Stage - the crowd echoing with people chanting his name.

For socialist singer Billy Bragg, the mood has not been quite the same this year.

"If you go out there and offer people a vision of a better world, then people respond," he told Sky News. "And I think Corbyn is the proof of that… [Nigel] Farage as well, he promises something to his people. It might not be something I believe in or that I think it's going to work, but you've got to offer something to people other than, you know, steady as she goes, managerialism."

Charlotte Church performs at Glastonbury. Pic: Ben Birchall/PA

Charlotte Church, who joined Bragg's Radical Round-up on the Left Field Stage, sang "free Palestine" with a crowd of hundreds during her performance.

The singer's appearance at Worthy Farm comes months after she said police had to check on her because her safety and that of her family has been threatened after she took part in a pro-Palestine march in London.

The 38-year-old strongly denied claims of antisemitism at the time and voiced her support for Jewish people.

During his surprise appearance on stage with Bombay Bicycle Club on Friday, Blur's Damon Albarn addressed both the general election and global issues.

"Are you pro Palestine? Do you feel that's an unfair war?" he asked the crowd, before highlighting "the importance of voting next week" and adding: "I don't blame you for being ambivalent about that but it's still really important."

While many praise the artists for supporting causes they believe in, there are also those on social media who have complained about the mix, saying musicians should focus on the music.

But like it or not, politics is very much still a part of the Glastonbury experience.

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