Glastonbury weather to be sunny and rain-free, forecast shows

Glastonbury’s gates have opened, welcoming around 200,000 people to the UK’s biggest music festival – who hopefully won’t be facing the infamous waterlogged scenes from previous years.

Temperatures are set to reach a high of 27C on Friday at the Somerset site, cooling a little on Saturday before fresher weather on Sunday, with highs of 19C. The record Glastonbury temperature of 31.2C, set in 2017, looks likely to remain unbroken. But the heatwave that is set to bring temperatures of up to 35C in the south of England – and potentially threatening the UK’s all-time record of 35.6C in Southampton in 1976 – should keep Glastonbury dry, with less than 5% chance of rain forecast for most of the weekend.

Those arriving this morning were doing so under threatening clouds, though these are forecast to clear up later today.

This year’s festival is headlined by Stormzy, the Killers and the Cure, with Kylie, Janet Jackson, Liam Gallagher and Miley Cyrus among the hundreds of artists also appearing.

The 83-year-old farmer and festival organiser, Michael Eavis, welcomed the crowds as the gates were opened. “It’s never been better, it’s never been as good as this one,” he said. “The weather looks good – isn’t that marvellous?”

Glastonbury is banning single use plastics. The world’s largest greenfield festival wants to avoid scenes of the area in front of its legendary stages being strewn with plastic after the shows have ended. In 2017, visitors to the festival got through 1.3m plastic bottles. 

For 2019, festival co-organiser Emily Eavis said “We’re asking people to bring a reusable bottle to the festival this year, which can be filled up from one of 37 WaterAid kiosks or 20 refill stations.”

People are also being encouraged to take other steps to limit their impact on the environment, such as using public transport to get to the venue, avoiding the use of undegradable wet wipes, not leaving their tents behind to prevent them ending up in landfill, and opting for biodegradable glitter instead of the plastic kind.

This year the festival will also feature a procession held by climate crisis activists Extinction Rebellion.

The festival has announced it will be screening England’s Women’s World Cup quarter-final match against Norway on Thursday, on the West Holts stage from 8pm. Another last-minute change to the schedule is that Snow Patrol were forced to pull out because band members required medical treatment for separate injuries; they have been replaced by the Charlatans.