Glastonbury 2023: Which politicians have been to Worthy Farm including Boris Johnson?

Festival camping, political campaign…to some these events may be two entirely different entities, but to others the lines are blurred, especially when it comes to the biggest greenfield music festival in the world - Glastonbury.

Throughout the years that Worthy Farm has hosted the music festival, politicians have been spotted not only enjoying the headlining gigs but also giving speeches on the legendary stages, with one even being renamed after a late Labour politician.

The spotlight has once again focused on political attendance at the festival after Glastonbury announced they had cancelled the screening of a Jeremy Corbyn ‘conspiracy theory film’ that was originally set to premiere on Sunday before Elton John’s last-ever performance.

‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn…The Big Lie’ is a collaborative effort between writer Jackie Walker and filmmaker Ken Loach and explores “a dark and murky story of political deceit and outrageous anti-semitic smears", as per Sky News.

Despite Glastonbury organisers originally choosing to screen the political movie in ‘good faith’ to ‘provoke political debate’, they have cancelled the premiere after a leading Jewish group filed a complaint.

Jeremy Corbyn

While Jeremy Corbyn will not feature on the Pyramid Stage this year among the likes of Arctic Monkeys and Lewis Capaldi, he has a history of appearing on the main stage.

In 2017 when he was still the leader of the Labour party, Corbyn raked in one of Glastonbury’s biggest audiences when he spoke about ‘human rights, peace, justice and democracy’ before calling for the former president Donald Trump to build ‘bridges not walls’.

Caroline Lucas

Caroline Lucas may have stepped down from her position as Green Party MP for Brighton this year in a bid to focus on her environmental work, but she stepped up to talk about global poverty and water levels on the Pyramid Stage in 2011.

Prior to American rap group Wu Tang Clan’s performance, Caroline addressed the festival gatherers for around 10 minutes to raise awareness to climate problems.

Boris Johnson

Perhaps one of the most memorable political appearances, not necessarily for good reasons, was when Boris Johnson received a documented tour from left-wing activist Billy Bragg in 2000.

The now-disgraced MP who is still facing the consequences of the Partygate scandal report, had a train mishap 23 years ago when he got off at the wrong stop before walking the grounds at Glastonbury, performed in the poetry tent and had a henna tattoo.

Tony Benn

The same year that Boris Johnson spoke to nudists at the festival, the Left Field area was created at Glastonbury to ‘tackle apathy and promote trade unionism and left-wing politics’.

The late Tony Benn performed twice in the Left Field area in 2002 and 2008 before Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis renamed one of the towers the ‘Benn Tower of Strength’ to pay tribute to the left-wing politician after he died in 2014.