Music icon slams Glastonbury as ‘gory drugs bender’

Blur guitarist Alex James, who lives on a 200‑acre dairy farm in Kingham near Chipping Norton, is no stranger to festivals.

As well as playing many with the band, he also hosts The Big Feastival on his land every August bank holiday, where he and his family run a cheese‑making operation.

This is a three‑day family‑friendly food and music festival that brings Michelin‑starred chefs, big‑name bands and tens of thousands of visitors to the site.

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Alex James at The Big Feastival. (Image: The Big Feastival)

Now, Mr James has hit out at the globally popular Glastonbury Festival, questioning the hype around the famous Worthy Farm weekender in a candid new chat with The Times.

He argued that, in his view, there are plenty of European festivals that outshine Glasto but never seem to attract the same level of adoration as the sprawling Somerset event, which covers hundreds of acres.

“You’d think it’s the only festival in the world,” he shared, describing Glastonbury as “a gory drugs bender” when set against more “underrated” gatherings such as Denmark’s Roskilde.

Singing the praises of the Danish festival, he went on: “Roskilde’s got amazing food because it’s Denmark, it’s just really civilised and the toilets are nice.

“It’s a wonderful, magical, Hans Christian Andersen fairytale of an event.”

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Glastonbury Festival. (Image: Newsquest)

Despite his sharp words, Blur have played Glastonbury’s stages on several occasions in the past few decades.

These shows over the years include an early slot on the NME Stage back in 1992 and headline performances in both 1998 and 2009.

Glastonbury drew around 210,000 people to Worthy Farm in 2024, cementing its status as one of the biggest music festivals in the world.

The event runs over five days, with the most recent edition taking place from 26 to 30 June 2024.

Although Glastonbury is usually held annually, organisers periodically schedule “fallow years” to allow the site to recover, with 2026 confirmed as the next fallow year.