Oasis icon Noel Gallagher has pulled no punches with his savage verdict on this year's Glastonbury festival.
Last weekend, the likes of Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA headlined the annual event in front of hundreds of thousands of concertgoers.
And while there were several talking points - from SZA's technical mishaps to Cyndi Lauper sparking concern - plenty of the biggest headlines stemmed from the political grandstanding on display.
Throughout the weekend, Palestinian flags were held aloft in a number of the crowds, Charlotte Church sparked controversy with her political rants, and a model dinghy created by Banksy portraying migrants crossing the channel surfed over concertgoers.
The distractions only added to the criticism from some who had already expressed dismay at the quality of the festival's line-up prior to Friday's opening show.
Now, Gallagher has followed suit, admitting that while he "f***ing loves" Glastonbury, "it’s getting a bit woke now".
Glastonbury 2024: Palestinian flags were held aloft at this year's event
GETTY
Letting rip on this year's event, he said: "I don’t like (virtue-signalling) in music — little f***ing idiots waving flags around and making political statements and bands taking the stage and saying, ‘Hey guys, isn’t war terrible, yeah? Let’s all boo war. F***k the Tories man,’ and all that.
"It’s like, look — play your f***ing tunes and get off. It’s too much. Donate all your money to the cause — that’s it, stop yapping about it."
Gallagher went on to tell The Sun that he knows the "world is in a bit of a f***ed up place" before asking: "But what’s all the kids in a field at Glastonbury going to do about it?"
"Everybody knows what’s going on in the f***ing world, you’ve got a phone in your pocket that tells you anyway. What is the point of virtue-signalling?"
Glastonbury 2024: Dua Lipa headlined the Pyramid Stage on Friday night
PA
Gallagher, who attended this year's event, isn't the only person who's grown tired of virtue-signalling displays at the festival.
X, formerly Twitter, was awash with complaints over the weekend, including one person who raged: "What the f*** happened to Glastonbury? Nothing but a load of virtue signalling garbage with even more diabolical music #glastonbury2024 #Glastonbury."
A second echoed: "Millennials have ruined Glastonbury. Its full of virtue signallers and you've got to wear a bar-coded wrist band. Hardly a bastion of rebellion and freedom. Shania Twain, Seventeen and Dua Lipa ffs. #Glastonbury #Globalists #GoWokeGoBroke #KPop."
Elsewhere, another hit out: "Exactly why the modern #Glastonbury #Glastonbury2024 is nothing but a political, virtue signalling cesspit nowadays. It should be defunded & shut down, especially being shown by the frightened to death & woke #BBC."
And another weighed in: "RIP #Glastonbury. Used to be class but now a woke fest pile of s***e , painful to watch this year." (sic)
Of course, plenty of festivalgoers and viewers applauded this year's line-up and performances on-stage, with Coldplay, in particular, inundated with plaudits for their performance - which included a surprise cameo from Michael J Fox.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Two summers ago… ☀️#GlastonburyFestival #Glastonbury
— Noel Gallagher (@NoelGallagher) June 30, 2024
🎬: BBC Music pic.twitter.com/6NLyJfShCV
The festival is due to return to Worthy Farm next year despite some years being treated as a fallow year to allow the land to recover.
The last official fallow year was back in 2018 but as the pandemic rendered 2020 and 2021's festivals a no-go, the next fallow year isn't scheduled until 2026.
