Avril Lavigne Sparks Pop-Punk Mayhem Debuting At Glastonbury Festival 2024

Avril Lavigne reignited the pop-punk spirit at the 2024 Glastonbury Festival, dominated by bubblegum pop, with a show-stopping performance of her 2002 hit “Sk8er Boi.” She captivated a massive crowd of 70,000 at The Other Stage, making it one of the festival’s most memorable moments.

At her Glastonbury debut, Avril Lavigne kicked off with a bang, starting with her 2007 #1 hit “Girlfriend” and seamlessly transitioning through ballads like “Complicated” and “My Happy Ending.” The climax of her set came with “Sk8ter Boi,” which unleashed a frenzy among the vast crowd as they shouted back every lyric and screamed along to its iconic guitar riff.

Avril Lavigne, who is famously rumored by conspiracy theorists to have been replaced by a look-alike in 2003, donned a quintessentially Y2K outfit for her performance: a distressed tartan miniskirt with buckles, straps, and chains, paired with a cropped black jacket flaunting a frazzled Union Flag on the back, complemented by fishnet tights, ripped over-the-knee socks, and flat, knee-high platform boots. Her stage echoed this throwback vibe, decked out with skulls and hearts reminiscent of early 2000s punk-rock aesthetics.

The size of Avril’s audience at Glastonbury was so vast that festival-goers were eventually prevented from joining the spectacle after the crowd at The Other Stage overflowed into the nearby campsite. Festival organizers faced criticism for underestimating the crowd-pulling power of nostalgia-driven acts, having allocated prime spots on the main stage to newer artists. A similar situation unfolded with the Sugababes at the West Holts stage, where entry had to be shut down after reports of attendees fainting due to overcrowding.

There’s no wonder the crowd was so pumped for Avril’s set — just one week before causing mayhem at Glasto, the Canadian songstress released her Greatest Hits album, comprising pretty much every song featured in her Glastonbury set plus eight extra tracks. After performing at Glasto, Avril will be heading across England and Wales for her sold-out Greatest Hits Tour, before setting sail for her European, Canadian, and North American shows.

The Canadian songstress, now aged 39, revealed the long road to playing Glastonbury after her set. She told the BBC, “I can’t believe it’s taken me 22 years to finally play Glastonbury, but it was amazing. The audience was incredible, everyone was up on shoulders, holding signs and there were colourful smoke bombs going off, it was just so cool.”

She added her theory as to why her hype is still burning strong after 20+ years in the music biz: “Everyone is still really excited by [the music] – I think that’s what connects me and my audience, it’s the songwriting and the songs […] It’s always been important for me to write and be real. I’m writing about stuff that I went through in high school, like having a crush on a guy for the first time, experiencing love and what that feels like.”

Despite the teen mentality of her lyrics, her hits truly do stand the test of time.