Glastonbury 2025 Day 3 review: Olivia Rodrigo, Rod Stewart, Wolf Alice and The Libertines

We’re shattered, sunburned and our backs are sore, and yet, we soldier on. 

Sahara-like temperatures were reached on Worthy Farm yesterday, with punters cowering from the beating rays in what little shade they could find. It was a relief to awake to a cover of cloud this morning, but as the weekend built to a crescendo of Rod Stewart and Olivia Rodrigo’s headline sets, things started hotting up again. The best thing to do? Embrace it, for one last evening of rousing live music. 

Today was another heavy hitter for nostalgic rock, with The Libertines and Snow Patrol each putting on solid run-throughs of their top tracks, but Wolf Alice and Olivia Rodrigo were more gen Z-friendly standouts of the day, too.  

Time Out writers Liv Kelly and India Lawrence have been on the ground at Glastonbury festival this weekend, bringing you reviews of everybody from Lorde and CMAT, to Neil Young and the Kaiser Chiefs. You can have a look at our reviews of day one with The 1975 and Gracie Abrams, and day two with Neil Young and Charli xcx, but read on for our roundup of day three at Worthy Farm. 

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Olivia Rodrigo on the Pyramid Stage: a pop-punk lesson in female rage

If you’ve ever been through a bad breakup, Olivia Rodrigo’s angsty and sorrowful music is going to resonate with you. The former Disney star led a lustral singalong session on the Pyramid this evening, seamlessly switching between piano ballads, and noisy pop-punk tunes. 

The sad ones hit hard: fans were emotional as Olivia played ‘Drivers Licence’ at the piano, and as she tinkered  out the first few notes to ‘Vampire’ a tear was in her eye, as she was overwhelmed by the size of the crowd. Later, giving the punters what they wanted, and for what seemed like the first time of the weekend, Olivia brought out a special guest: The Cure’s Robert Smith. While at first many of the overwhelmingly young crowd didn't know who he was, the faces of the dads holding their young daughters on their shoulders lit up. ‘Come on, give it up!’ she screamed, before the pair performed ‘Friday I’m In Love’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’ – they sang and smiled to each other sweetly, and it was a cute moment. 

But Olivia was at her best when she was slamming her cherry red guitar, or jumping around the stage in her sparkly union jack hot pants, during her angriest, noisiest (and in my opinion, best) tracks, like ‘Brutal’ and ‘Jealousy, Jealousy’, which made up the final act of her show, alongside ‘Good 4 u’. ‘Are you still with me, Glasto?’ she yelled, before launching into the final song ‘Get Him Back’. Fireworks filled the sky, and the overjoyed crowd passionately chanted along to the snarky revenge track, closing out Glastonbury for 2025. India 

Rod Stewart on the Pyramid Stage: the wedding DJ of Glastonbury headliners 

The crowd reached all the way to the back of the Pyramid field this afternoon to see 80-year-old Rod Stewart take over the tea-time Legends slot. Perhaps some of them came to see if he was going to mention Nigel Farage again (we’ve got to give him a chance, after all!). Fortunately, Rod left the politics at home today – he’s taken a leaf out of Matty Healy’s book. 

Rod had the full shebang with a massive band and backing singers, as well as three guests throughout the set: Lulu, Ronnie Wood and Mick Hucknall. There were multiple outfits. He even brought out Michael Eavis at one point. His raspy voice stood up, sure, but I’m sorry, the songs were just not good (especially compared to Chic, who followed). There was a fun interlude when his trio of blonde backing singers in red mini dresses (which felt a bit dated, by the way) cracked out the violins and a massive drum for a sort of Irish jig during one of the better tunes ‘Forever Young’. But the best moment was when one of his the backing singers went full Christina Aguilera with a cover of ‘Lady Marmalade’. Maybe she should headline instead. India

Nile Rodgers and Chic on the Pyramid Stage: a dependable Saturday afternoon disco

Nile Rodgers’ ego is so big it almost doesn’t fit on the Pyramid Stage. He boasted about writing and producing for some of the world’s most famous artists, and about having six number one albums under his belt when Madonna approached him to work on Material Girl (which he wrote, he reminds us). But I’ll let it slide, because this was the perfect Sunday afternoon Pyramid set. It was just banger after banger after banger: they were doing Daft Punk, David Bowie, Sister Sledge, Madonna. We danced relentlessly – we didn’t know they had written this many pop hits. It was a slick, well oiled performance from the band. Drummer Ralph Rolle was one of my heroes of the weekend, asking us to scream so that his sound reader could get up to 100. On the fourth try, we got it. He was probably making it up, but I didn’t care, I was just there for the retro showmanship. They closed off with a euphoric ‘Good Times’ and for the first time of the weekend, fans chanted ‘one more song’ after the band had walked off. India

Celeste on the Pyramid Stage: Sunday was off to a strange start

Day three began overcast on Worthy Farm, and that certainly matched the tone of Celeste’s midday performance on the Pyramid Stage. With dishevelled hair and thick smudges of black makeup over her eyes, the British singer-songwriter began her set with an eerie rendition of ‘Hear My Voice’, where her borderline disassociated demeanour gave the whole thing a ghostly aura. On the screen behind Celeste, while she paced the width of the stage (occasionally awkwardly lingering at a platform closer to the audience), live footage of her was projected in a blurred, black-and-white filter, dramatising her look further. She didn’t give us much stage presence, but it’s not clear whether that was due to nerves, or on purpose. While the set is a downright bizarre watch, her voice is undeniably mesmerising, rich and soulful yet raspy, and likely the reason a lot of the crowd lingered. Nearing the end of her set, Celeste reassured the audience that ‘the crazy stuff’s over now,’, before closing with a just as spooky delivery of her biggest song, ‘Strange’. Liv

The Libertines on the Pyramid Stage: a breezy set from iconic noughties rockers

Glasto 2025 has been a weekend of dad music, but it’d be unfair to lump The Libertines, who are proper indie-rock legends, with the likes of the silliness of the Kaiser Chiefs yesterday. This set was a testament to their cult status as noughties icons, and while they rattled off some of their newer stuff, it was full of all the belter songs and on-stage chemistry between frontmen Pete Doherty and Carl Barât that makes them so adored. The pair intertwine as they play their way through ‘The Delaney’, and a fan on their mate’s shoulders in the crowd pulled out his own acoustic guitar to get stuck in with the duo during ‘What Katie Did’. In ‘The Good Old Days’, Doherty even broke into a few lines of Rod Stewart’s ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’, but the tone implied it was more of a dig than a tribute. After a long, crowd-sporned round of clapping, the band finally strummed their way through ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ which had even had stragglers at the back up from their picnic blankets to two-step along. Liv

Snow Patrol on The Other Stage: an anthemic wake-up for a knackered crowd

Sunday afternoon at Glastonbury wouldn’t be complete without an anthemic belter of a set which feels more like crowd-led karaoke, and that’s exactly what unfolded at Snow Patrol’s early-evening Other Stage slot. The band appeared and a booming singalong of their opener ‘Take Back The City’ kicked in from the millennial-heavy crowd straight away. Throughout the set, it’s clear how much fun the band are having (having not performed at Glastonbury since 2004), smiling at each other through what are actually quite depressing love songs, giving it some proper umph, and the sunny evening and captivated crowd propelled that. The atmosphere was very much one of making the most of Glasto (which we now won’t see again for two years), but the thing about Snow Patrol (and why their position in this slot was so ideal) is that their music is very singalong friendly – so much requires a vague ‘ooooh’ or ‘aaaah’ noise rather than actual words, making it easy for even a stranger to their catalogue to get involved. ‘Light Up’ saw a sea of waving hands, swaying flags, bubbles and the odd flare, but it all culminated in a heady rendition of ‘Chasing Cars’. Liv

Wolf Alice on The Other Stage: earning their place in the Glastonbury bands halls of fame 

When Ellie Rowsell stormed on stage, posing confidently like a camp wrestler with her back to the audience, wearing a matching glam-rock tank top and mini shorts embellished with bright blue stars, we were on for a proper show. The first notes of ‘Formidable Cool’ began pelting, and the band, who look like classic rockstars with long hair and leather get-up, got to work. Rowsell showed off her stunning vocal capability with an impressive range as well as some intense, guttural screaming as they took us through ‘How Can I Make It Ok?’, ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ and a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’, which was transitioned to so beautifully that it could have been the bands’ own track. ‘Safe From Heartbreak’ had an air of country, with Rowsell perched between two band members placidly strumming acoustic guitars, but ‘Bros’ was packed with energy, and from the ground it felt like half the crowd was suddenly on a pal’s shoulders. They obviously couldn’t skip ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’, a dreamy, indie pop-rock song, and it was a euphoric close to a brilliant penultimate set of the festival. Liv