Coldplay at Glastonbury: Little Simz, Laura Mvula and Michael J Fox join band for historic headline slot

Coldplay welcomed an array of special guests on stage during their historic Glastonbury 2024 set.

The British band, led by Chris Martin, played the Pyramid Stage on Saturday (29 June), one night after Dua Lipa impressed crowds with her very own headline set – despite a sound issue with the BBC broadcast.

Coldplay last graced the stage at the festival in 2016, which was their fourth time headlining – and this fifth set, which The Independent called a “spectacle of a lifetime”, saw them become the act to have headlined the most number of times.

To mark the occasion, Coldplay enlisted some help from other famous stars. Martin and his bandmates were first joined by Spanish-American singer-songwriter Victoria Canal, who helped out with the vocals on “Paradise” and they previewed a brand new collaboration with Little Simz and Burna Boy, titled “We Pray”.

Little Simz, who had played the Pyramid Stage hours before, was present for the performance, as was Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna and the Bolton String Orchestra– but Burna Boy appeared in a VT behind them as they played.

The song will be on Coldplay’s 10th studio album, Moon Music, which is due out on 4 October.

Immediately after, Elyanna performed Coldplay’s 209 song “Arabesque” alongside the band and Femi Kuti, while Laura Mvula led a rendition of 2008 song “Violet Hill”.

Towards the end of their set, they were joined by Back to the Future actor Michael J Fox for two tracks: “Humankind” and “Fix You”.

Coldplay also had an array of stars watching from the viewing platform: Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg, who star together in the Mission: Impossible franchise, were present – and in a video obtained by The Independent, the pair could be seen joining the crowd in a rendition of Oasis’s “Don’t Look Back in Anger” before the gig.

Gillian Anderson was also there as was Stormzy, who was watching from the crowd.

Other stars to have played this year’s festival include Cyndi Lauper, ambitious rock band The Last Dinner Party and, with an impressive performance tainted by overcrowding, 2000s pop group Sugababes.

Coldplay made their Glastonbury debut in the New Bands Tent in 1999, and went on to headline the festival in 2002, 2005 2011 and 2016.

Their performance clashed with Disclosure on the Other Stage, Jessie Ware on the West Holts stage and Gossip on the Woodsies stage.

Across the weekend, an eclectic lineup will perform on the sprawling festival’s various stages – but organiser Emily Eavis has poured water on any rumours of “big surprises”. Here is the full Glastonbury 2024 lineup and set times.

One of Friday’s highlight were Sugababes – however, their performance on the West Holts stage drew such huge crowds there were reports of fans fainting during their show, while security blocked others from entering in an attempt to reduce overcrowding.

Rounding out the festival on Sunday (30 June) will be SZA.

Follow all the Glastonbury updates as they happen in our live coverage of the festival here.