Glastonbury fans SLAM organisers as 70,000 watch Avril Lavigne at 'dangerously overcrowded' stage

By Kirsten Murray For Mailonline 09:24 02 Jul 2024, updated 13:16 02 Jul 2024

Glastonbury fans have slammed festival organisers after they allowed 'dangerous overcrowding' during Avril Lavigne's set on Sunday. 

The Complicated hitmaker, 39, drew a huge crowd of 70,000 people, including Cara Delevingne and Anya Taylor-Joy, to the Other Stage for her debut at the summer festival. 

While hoards of festival goers rocked along to the pop punkers set, fans branded American R&B singer SZA's headline performance as the worst ever after a dismal turnout and technical issues plagued her set over on the Pyramid stage. 

And the scheduling mishap has left fans furious as they took to Twitter to express how they felt unsafe at Avril's set due to the crowds and suggested she should have been playing on the main stage instead. 

Fans wrote: 'Dangerous amount of people there, shape up Glastonbury for next year.... Get your headliners better arranged.'

'the avril lavigne crowd is a joke… just taken an entire hour to walk like sardines from one side of the stage to the other. why the fuck is she not on pyramid? they keep putting people on the wrong stages it’s unsafe';

'HUGE crowds for Avril Lavigne. The Old Railway Line is gridlocked with people trying to get close enough just to listen. Routes closed. Who could've foreseen this? 

'(Well, everyone except Emily Eavis & her team) We all called it the moment the schedule was released.'

One mother penned: 'My daughter said it was scary watching Avril Lavigne on the Other stage as the crowd was to big. 

'She goes every year and said this is the first time she was worried. Definitely Glasto made some wrong decisions this year.'

Others added: 'Avril lavigne should've been pyramid tho, never been so squeezed in a crowd'; 'Avril lavigne set was so unsafe #Glasto please consider our safety more! @glastonbury'.

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'Yet again some really bad scheduling from Glasto!!!! Putting Avril Lavigne on a dangerously crowded Other Stage, blocking paths to campsites etc while the Pyramid looks like this…. So much audience data is available I don't know why this keeps happening!'

Even from home viewers thought the set looked crowded as they wrote: 'i'm just catching up with avril lavigne's glasto set and b****y h**l she could've, should've been one of the pyramid headliners'

'Avril Lavigne should've headlined Glasto on the Sunday. Pop punk will never perish'; 'Avril Lavigne wasn't a headliner at Glasto? Did someone explain Millennials to the organisers?'

'Extra weird when we keep hearing newsstories on both BBC & Sky about how Glastonbury is struggling to get female headliners and they actually get Avril Lavigne and do this!';

'I gave SZA a good hour but not a headliner imo. Compared to Elton last year I felt SZA as Sunday headliner didn't end Glasto on the high it should have. Avril Lavigne on the other hand...'; 

'The football didn't seem to stop the 80000 watching Avril Lavigne. Blame the Glasto scheduling. Avril should have had the legends slot and then Monae might have performed to 40000 instead of 4000. Never seen the Other stage so full.'

Avril's popularity wasn't the only artist festival organisers seemed to under estimate after entry to the Sugababes set was shut down by security on Friday. 

The West Holts stage, which has capacity for 35,000 people, had to operate a 'one in one out' system to avoid a crush as police restricted entry to the gig to stop more people arriving due to safety concerns.

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Taking to Twitter once again, fans wrote: 'SZA should’ve definitely swapped with the Sugababes at Glasto. Some really odd stage and set times this year'.

'Utter stupid behaviour from glasto putting Avril on the other stage and Sugababes on West Holts please use brains when booking artists I beg!'

'They've closed the entire area around the West Holts stage because of the amount of people who want to see Sugababes. Same happened for their Avalon stage set in 2022. 

'It really needs to be more widely acknowledged that they're one of the topper most adored groups of their era'. 

'SZA (17th most streamed Spotify artist in the world) having a sparse crowd as the #Glastonbury headliner, while Sugababes and Avril Lavigne were over-capacity on smaller stages is a great illustration of how streaming doesn't equate to fans. I actually feel quite sorry for SZA...'

As well as overcrowded stages, the festival has come under fire this year after a slew of artists were hit with technical problems that left them sounding 'awful'. 

On top of this, artists including Camila Cabello, Dua Lipa and Coldplay have been called out for allegedly miming. 

There's been frenzied guessing game as to who is to blame for the issues, with questions raised as to whether Glastonbury Festival's technical team is at fault or the BBC for the broadcast. 

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, fans penned: 'Why is the sound so awful on every single bit of Glastonbury that I've watched (apart from the Sugababes). Is it bad there? Or is it the TV/BBC mics/sound?';

'Glastonbury is one of the biggest music festivals in the world, yet their sound engineers can't seem to get much right this year? Bad mics, in-ear monitor situations, drowned out vocals. Or is this just the TV coverage from the BBC?'; 

'After watching the #BBC #Glastonbury2024 footage over the weekend, the most important conclusion is that the sound quality wasn't very good across the board, and truly awful in some cases. Question is, was it that bad on site as well or was this just a tv thing?'

Dua Lipa was the first to be accused of lip-syncing by those watching coverage of the festival on the BBC on Friday night.

One watcher wrote on X: 'Imagine paying all that money to go Glastonbury to stand there and watch Dua Lipa mime the song and not even sing it. How bad.'

Another wrote online: 'Dua Lipa delivering a Top of the Pops mime set'.

A third said: 'Dua Lipa has some decent catchy tunes, but I'm fairly sure she's lip syncing. Sounds like a live vocal, but just not convinced she's singing it live 'right now'.'

However, she set the record straight after her set and insisted miming is not something she ever does. 

'I don't mime,' said the Grammy Award-winner as she toasted her headline success with her actor boyfriend Callum Turner, 34, in an exclusive bar at the Worthy Farm festival site.

The same issue occurred with Coldplay's record breaking set on Saturday night, which saw frontman Chris Martin wow crowds after he brought on an old friend to perform with them.

Michael J. Fox arrived on stage in his wheelchair to play the guitar during Fix You and Humankind. 

However some cynical viewers have suggested that Chris may have been miming the words to his songs, rather than singing. 

One wrote: 'Tons of miming and backing tracks being used in this Coldplay performance. Bass player in danger of being made redundant.'

A second said: 'There's a fair amount of blagging and miming going on here... Loads of tracks running in the background.'

While a third commented: 'The people who were giving off about Taylor Swift's band miming or using backing tracks would get a big surprise if they saw Coldplay's input list.'

Another to have come under the scrutiny of eagle eyed fans is Camila Cabello, who put on a racy performance at her set on Saturday.

As she took to the stage in a busty top and hot pants, one of Camila's backup dancers, who was dressed as an animal, could be seen cooling her down by rubbing an ice lolly all over her body. 

While viewers' eyes popped out their sockets at the steamy performance, some couldn't help but notice something off, accusing the singer of miming her songs.

One person posted on X: 'Camila Cabello miming her way through her set, nice #Glastonbury #Glastonbury2024'.

A second wrote: 'You were s**te you lip syncing fake - Camilla Cabello'.

There was also other complaints about the quality of the sound, with Cyndi Lauper's performance on Saturday beset by problems.

Festival goers were left struggling to hear the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun singer's vocals as her voice was drowned out by rumbling bass.

After a few songs, Cyndi, 71, performed Rocking Chair and she seemed to struggle with her pitch and timing. 

Shania Twain suffered the same fate as she took to the stage on Sunday. 

The iconic singer, 58, could be seen struggling with her ear piece as she seemed to have trouble with her pitch and timing.

Shania made a very dramatic entrance alongside drag queens and dancers, before quickly finding herself beset with problems.

Horrified fans rushed to X, formerly Twitter, to slam the behind the scenes crew as they felt nothing but sympathy for Shania's moment being ruined. 

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They wrote: 'Utterly horrific sound mix on Shania!': 'The sound at Glastonbury has been terrible on BBC, Cyndi yesterday and now Shania? Maybe BBC just hates gay icons': 'Sound is pretty rubbish for Shania': ''Looks like Shania knows something is wrong with the sound'.

Wrapping up a weekend of sound issues was SZA's headline gig on Sunday night. 

The American hitmaker, 34, performed on Worthy Farm's iconic Pyramid Stage, but the show sparked complaints from viewers, who slammed her 'awful' mic problems.

SZA's show also struggled to draw in the huge crowds that were on display during Coldplay's headline slot the previous evening, as thousands of fans abandoned the show after tuning into England's Euro 2024 match.

As SZA kicked off her headline slot, viewers were quick to complain about her sound problems, with some claiming it sounded like she was 'singing into a fan.'

Posts on X included: 'Why are the backing singers crystal clear and SZA sounds like she's singing through one of these???'

'Me after hyping SZA up to my mum and dad for months and then her sounding like she's singing into a fan;' 'Fix SZA's mic RIGHT NOW;'

'Is something wrong with SZA's mic? I can't understand a word she's saying rn;' 'Who the hell is sabotaging SZA's mic at Glastonbury????;'

MailOnline has contacted the BBC and Glastonbury Festival for comment.