Boy band Seventeen on Friday skipped, twisted and gyrated in a high-energy performance on Glastonbury’s main Pyramid Stage, making history as the first K-pop group to appear at the iconic music festival in southern England.
The 13-member group, dressed in shades of black, performed highly synchronized dance sequences alongside peppy hits such as HOT, Rock With You and VERY NICE, thrilling thousands of music fans in one of Glastonbury’s most atypical sets.
In Britain and at Glastonbury — which sells out before its lineup is announced — Seventeen might be relatively unknown, but the South Korean group had last year’s biggest-selling album globally.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Even though the language, country and culture are all different, we can still connect as one through music,” singer Joshua Hong told the crowd after performing SOS.
Seventeen drew a smaller crowd than proceeding acts on the stage, but many of those who came to check them out sang, waved and danced along even without knowing any of the songs. Loyal Seventeen fans, who are called “carats,” lined the front row.
“It was really good, it was so much fun,” said Kiera Finn, 26, from Liverpool in northern England, who said she had never heard Seventeen before. “The crowd was so good ... It was kind of, like, this is what Glastonbury’s all about, and everyone was just having fun.”
The K-pop industry, which involves rigorous training in dance, singing and language skills, has produced bands such as BTS and Blackpink who are increasingly appearing at Western festivals, having won international fan followings.
Seventeen’s appearance is another step for Glastonbury away from its traditionally hippie and rock ethos.
This year’s lineup also features Dua Lipa, who headlined the Pyramid Stage later on Friday, Coldplay, R&B singer SZA and country singer Shania Twain, among hundreds of other acts.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: ’After parkour ... you dare to do a lot of things that you think only young people can do,’ a 67-year-old parkour enthusiast said In a corner of suburban Singapore, Betty Boon vaults a guardrail, crawls underneath a slide, executes forward shoulder rolls and scales a steep slope, finishing the course to applause. “Good job,” the 69-year-old’s coach cheers. This is “geriatric parkour,” where about 20 retirees learned to tackle a series of relatively demanding exercises, building their agility and enjoying a sense of camaraderie. Boon, an upbeat grandmother, said learning parkour has aided her confidence and independence as she ages. “When you’re weak, you will be dependent on someone,” she said after sweating it out with her parkour classmates in suburban Toa Payoh,
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
RSS