Artist hopes 200,000 fans at Glastonbury will stay silent for 7 minutes

Glastonbury Festival is known for its joyful, party atmosphere, with music playing across multiple stages at once to entertain attendees – but one artist is hoping to change that completely.

At the 2024 event at Worthy Farm in Somerset, far from headliners Dua Lipa, SZA and Coldplay and Shania Twain, Cyndi Lauper and Avril Lavigne, Marina Abramović is hoping for silence.

And not just a few seconds, but seven minutes of total silence from Glastonbury’s iconic Pyramid Stage.

Yes, the same stage that has hosted David Bowie, Pulp, Sir Elton John and Bruce Springsteen, to crowds of tens of thousands, and up to the festival’s capacity of around 200,000, according to Abramović.

The Serbian artist, who is due to address Glastonbury from the main stage on Friday at 5.55pm – just before PJ Harvey’s set – admitted she was “terrified” at the prospect.

Abramović, 77, calls her piece “Seven Minutes of Collective Silence” and considers it a “public intervention” rather than a performance as such.

It is also, unsurprisingly, his most important participatory work ever.

“I don’t know any visual artist who’s done something like this in front of 175,000 to 200,000 people. The biggest audience I’ve ever had was 6,000 people in a stadium and I thought ‘wow’, but this really surpasses anything I’ve done,” the world-renowned visual artist told the Guardian.

She is aware that it is a “big risk”, and that is what scares her, asking more than 210,000 Glastonbury festival-goers to remain silent – ​​and for so long.

The idea behind Abramović’s stunt, which is being facilitated by arts organisation Circa, which has previously covered Piccadilly Circus billboards with art, is to get people thinking about current world events and what she calls ‘a truly dark moment in human history’.

“I could fail completely, or people could just sit there. I don’t know, but I’m willing to take the risk. Failure is also important, you learn from failure as well as success,” she added.

Abramović hopes to “go beyond acid, beyond mushrooms, beyond everything that exists, touch that moment in their soul and stop everything for seven minutes.”

She hopes that this “incredible moment” will come true, but also acknowledges that “keeping the energy of silence” will be one of the biggest challenges of her career.

It’s Abramović’s first time at Glastonbury, and the woman who in 2023 became the first female artist to have a solo exhibition in the Royal Academy’s main galleries in its 255-year history is delighted to discover “ amazing new bands that I don’t know about.” anything about’.

“We are honoured that Marina Abramović is bringing such a meaningful and profound experience to Glastonbury,” said Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis.

“His work has always pushed boundaries and inspired deep reflection, and we believe this moment of collective silence will be a memorable and impactful addition to the festival.”

Eavis, 44, is the daughter of Glastonbury Festival founder Sir Michael Eavis, 88, who delighted festival-goers on Thursday night by taking to the stage again to give a traditional performance alongside his band.

They treated the crowd to a set that included Frank Sinatra hits Love’s Been Good To Me and It Was A Very Good Year, as well as Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds.

His daughter praised her father’s singing voice, calling it “better than ever” and said he was “eager to get going again.”

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