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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Brogan-Leigh Hurst

Glastonbury's biggest scandals – AWOL celebs, stage invasions and tragic overdose

Glastonbury Festival 2022 has finally kicked off - with festival-goers returning to Worthy Farm on Wednesday as they gear up to watch their favourite artists perform in the summer sun.

It's the first time in three years that the music festival has returned, following cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The jam-packed five-day event will welcome the likes of Billie Eilish, Sir Paul McCartney, Kendrick Lamar and Diana Ross to headline the stage this year.

Other acts across the rest of the week will include Sam Fender, The Libertines, Sugababes, Fatboy Slim and Wolf Alice.

Those who are watching from home can tune in and catch coverage of the music festival on the BBC - to get their fix.

Glastonbury 2022 has started (PA)

With festival season in full swing, we take a look back at the most unforgettable Glastonbury scandals.

Adele burps into mic and swears at fans

Superstar Adele burped on stage and couldn't stop swearing during her 2016 performance.

Despite having stern words from the BBC about her bad language, she just couldn't help herself when it came down to it.

The songstress managed to swear a whopping 33 times throughout her 90 minute headline set

She couldn't even get through her first song - Hello - without stopping to tell the crowd "You are f**king amazing!"

Not only that, but she also accidentally burped in the face of a young fan as they took a selfie on stage and blamed a "dirty burger".

Oasis' Noel Gallagher slams Jay-Z

Jay-Z was a headliner in 2008 (WireImage)

It was certainly a surprise when hip hop artist Jay-Z was announced as headliner in 2008.

And it definitely wasn't something Oasis' founder Noel Gallagher was happy with.

The High Flying Birds frontman grumbled: "I'm not having hip hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong."

Needless to say, drug dealer turned international music mogul Jay-Z didn't give a hoot and came up with a sassy way to really stick the knife in.

Kanye West's chaotic subtitles

Kanye West's performance was full of swearing - so subtitles were hard to keep up with (PA)

The BBC did it's best to keep on top of the lyrics to Kanye's All Day and make them as PG as possible.

Alterations such as "motherducker" had viewers at home in stitches before the channel ran out of ideas and simply wrote, "He raps".

There was more drama in Kanye's hotly-anticipated performance as he was interrupted by comedian turned prankster Lee Nelson.

Nelson ran on to the Pyramid stage mid song, before being swiftly bundled off by Kanye's security team.

Taking to Twitter after the event , Nelson tweeted " That was for you Taylor Swift."

Kanye famously interrupted Taylor on stage at the Video Music Awards in 2009 when he disagreed with her win.

The Smiths stage invasion

The band were performing back in 1984 when fans swarmed and climbed onto the Pyramid Stage.

There was already controversy with the crowd who claimed indie rockers were too 'heavy' for the festival.

It made history as the first time any performer had been invaded on the iconic stage.

Victoria Beckham's private helicopter arrival

Victoria Beckham gets a private helicopter to the festival (Instagram)
She was pictured with husband David Beckham (Redferns)

A muddy field is hardly VB's scene but she made it her own by arriving in a private helicopter.

Determined not to lower herself to wellies, she wore skinny jeans, a printed blouse and ankle boots as she watched Ed Sheeran with husband David.

While they looked loved-up in the pictures, sources claimed they had a backstage bust-up at around 7.30pm that had to be calmed by their son Brooklyn.

“Victoria wasn’t happy about being left alone in the VIP area. She was hanging around on her own for ages with minder types," the insider told The Sun.

“Then David came back and Victoria had a go at him and they were separated for a period. It was really awkward. Brooklyn came over to try and keep the peace.

“He said to David: ‘Don’t worry dad I’ll get you a drink.’ He then ordered him a double gin and tonic.”

A source close to the couple insisted it was "over in seconds" and that they went on to have a "great night".

Shooting and drug overdose

In 1994, the legendary event hit a dark period when a man began firing into the crowd, hitting festival-goers.

The weekend also saw the festival’s first ever death as the result of a drug overdose. A 23-year-old man died in the early hours of the same night

Festival-goers arrive at Worthy Farm (Tom Wren SWNS)

Poo explosion

Glastonbury took on its truly iconic status on the nineties - and this was the decade that saw festival-goers battling some of the most extreme weather.

Back in 1998, the dance tent was flooded by six inches of mud so organisers came up with the ingenious idea of sucking it up with a toilet truck.

That proved to be a grave error. Instead of switching the setting to suck, the operators had the machine set to blow and the whole tent was covered in human poo.

It was so gross that the tent had to be closed off for 24 hours while it was thoroughly disinfected.

Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@mirror.co.uk or call us direct at 0207 29 33033.

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