Riz Ahmed & Joy Crookes Win Hearts At England’s Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world and a template for all the festivals that have come after it. The difference is that Glastonbury has all the best aspects of being at a festival in one astonishing bundle.
Thousands of people thronged the Glastonbury Festival after it returned after three-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic. Over two lakh people returned to the 50th edition of the festival to watch their favorite singers.
Fans loved the vibe, the music, and adding South Asian color to the spectrum were our very own Riz Ahmed and Joy Crookes.
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Riz Ahmed took to Glastonbury’s Lonely Hearts Club’s stage and went on to impress his fans. The British-Pakistani actor has an academy award and an Emmy under his belt and is also maintains a side career as a rapper. Known for both his solo project and his group with Heems, the Swet Shop Boys, Ahmed uses his music to air his frustrations with a world that is increasingly racist and Islamophobic, his latest record, The Long Goodbye, being a dense, heartbroken reckoning of the UK’s relationship with the South Asian diaspora.
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Also rocking the stage was British singer-songwriter Joy Crookes who performed on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival. She sang a beautiful rendition of the single “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now.” A cover of The Clash’s “London Calling” which as per fans had never sounded so laidback and soothing. As it was a debut performance at the festival, Crookes unexpectedly starts crying and said, “Today is such a big day for me. This is a crazy moment,” tears streaming down her face. Then, laughing, she said “This is not cute, I’m sorry!”
It is epic to see South Asian artists make a mark at an event that defines music festivals across the globe.
This year, Oxfam, Greenpeace, and WaterAid joined forces to fight climate change and uplift the communities most affected by it. The festival was also attended by the who’s who of British royalty, with performances by Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney, Kendrick Lamar, and many other great artists.
