Sun forecast for Glastonbury in time for first acts to perform

Arctic Monkeys are billed to headline the main stage, with debates and an exercise session led by Joe Wicks among other events.

Festivalgoers are set to enjoy “dry, sunny weather” at Glastonbury as the first music acts take to the famous Pyramid Stage today.

Arctic Monkeys are still billed as Friday’s headliners but the rock band’s performance was thrown into doubt after a gig earlier this week was cancelled due to frontman Alex Turner having acute laryngitis.

The third day of the festival held at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset will host film screenings, theatre and circus performances and a debate titled Solidarity With Iran which will include British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was imprisoned there for six years.

The Master Musicians of Joujouka, a group of Sufi trance musicians from a village in the southern Rif Mountains in Morocco, will be the first act to play on the main stage this year.

Singer-songwriter Maisie Peters, rapper Stefflon Don and Scottish rock band Texas will also play there throughout the afternoon and early evening.

A mystery band named The Churnups is then listed to perform, with speculation that could be a cover name for Foo Fighters.

The Churnups will be followed by rock duo Royal Blood, who came under fire earlier this month when singer Mike Kerr called the crowd at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Dundee “pathetic” and left with his middle fingers in the air.

Kerr later said he “meant no offence” to the crowd and described his sense of humour as “dry as MDF”.

If Arctic Monkeys do make their main stage show, it will be the Sheffield band’s third time headlining the festival after 2007 and 2013.

They were due to perform in Marlay Park in Dublin on Wednesday but cancelled the gig on Monday after Turner was given medical advice to rest.

For those feeling energetic, lockdown fitness guru Joe Wicks will lead an exercise class on Friday morning.

Friday is set see a “good deal of dry, sunny weather” with temperatures likely to peak around 25C after highs of 25.2C were recorded on Thursday in nearby Yeovilton, the Met Office has said.

On Thursday, Glastonbury co-founder Michael Eavis performed on the Park Stage in what his daughter Emily described as a “lovely moment” to “kick off the festival”.

Hundreds chanted “Michael” as the 87-year-old was wheeled onstage in an office chair to perform a collection of classics as he recovers from an operation on his leg.

Speaking to the PA news agency after her father’s performance, Emily Eavis said: “It was brilliant, wasn’t it? That was such a lovely moment.

“It’s really nice to see him here just to kick off the festival.”

The festival co-organiser also revealed that Sir Elton John finally performing at Glastonbury for the first time in his career is the event she is most looking forward to.

The Rocket Man singer, 76, is due to close the festival on Sunday night for what has been billed as the final UK show of his mammoth farewell tour.

Asked what she was really excited for this weekend, Eavis said: “I can’t choose one thing. I think probably Elton coming after such a long time; a lifetime waiting essentially.

“And there’s a lot of significance to this show being his last and being Sunday night and the closing point of the festival.

“So I think that’s going to be really, really spectacular and a very special moment for everybody.

“Sunday night’s always an emotional night. Remember Beyonce or Blur? We’ve had some really incredibly epic sets on Sunday night and I think this is going to be incredible.”

The festival co-organiser confessed she could not reveal any of Sir Elton’s four surprise collaborators as she did not yet know who they were, adding: “Best kept secret, that one.”