By any measure, American rapper Doechii's Glastonbury set on Saturday night was a massive success.
The artist, whose rise to fame hasn't been meteoric so much as stratospheric, took to the West Holts stage to give a masterclass in look (those Vivienne Westwood outfits!), style and performance. Alter Ego, Anxiety, Nissan Altima: all the hits were there and delivered with relish.
All that, and it was her Glasto debut too. It's a coup for both her and the festival (though surely she'll be back as a headliner some day)... so why isn't her set on BBC iPlayer?
BBC iPlayer is the place to go to watch any of Glastonbury’s content. Most of its big gigs are on there, but not Doechii's, though audio of the gig is. Instead, a line of text tells us that “this episode will be available soon.” At the same time, sets that took place on Sunday, a full day later, are already available to watch.
But with an artist as visually powerful as Doechii, the audio is only half of the story: we want to see the whole thing in all its glory. What's going on? Is it shoddy organisation on the part of Beeb editors? Is it ongoing negotiations on the part of Doechii's team?
Are the editorial team going through the set, frame by frame, combing for potential controversies? This weekend has been a torrid one for the festival thanks to the one-two punch of Bob Vylan and Kneecap earlier on Saturday.
Beforehand, there was controversy around whether or not Irish rap trio Kneecap's set would be streamed thanks to their strongly pro Palestinian views.
The BBC ultimately agreed to release a recorded, edited version of the set rather than stream it live. Ultimately, Kneecap peppered their set with so many incendiary statements that Mo Chara joked the BBC editors would have their “work cut out” cutting everything out.
But in the end, the real drama came from the set that happened before the camera stopped rolling live: London duo Bob Vylan led the crowd in chants of “death to the IDF”, which must have caused heart palpitations in BBC headquarters.
That caused a media storm so potent that the festival ended up making a statement, in which they declared they were “appalled” at the statements made by the artists they booked.
But even if nervous BBC editing was involved in the set not yet being live, Doechii's performance was relatively politics free. Even if it weren't, both CMAT and Jade made pro-Palestinian statements during their sets (in Jade's case, she led a crowd chant of “f*** you” against everything from Reform UK to transphobia), and both their gigs can be watched on iPlayer in their entirety.
Yes, there was a lot of swearing; show me a set these days that doesn't. If we were reaching, I suppose there's a sexual element to consider — the artist wore a low cut top with Vivienne Westwood orb nipple covers — but come on. Gracie Abrams’ appearance as the ‘Apple Girl’ for Charli xcx flashed way more nipple than that due to the entirely sheer top she was wearing.
I suppose we can't blame the BBC and Glastonbury for wanting to be cautious. The BBC hasn’t confirmed either way why there’s a delay. But there comes a point where any delay stops looking like caution and starts looking like panic.
Put Doechii's set up: that way we can all celebrate one of the best performances of the festival in its entirety.
