Glastonbury 2015: what to look forward to on Friday

The gates are open and the bands will soon begin to play. Here’s what’s happening on the first day of the Worthy Farm event - from Florence’s first-time Pyramid headline slot, to Run the Jewels’s rabble-rousing rap

★ Florence + the Machine: Pyramid stage, 10.15pm

Florence + the Machine, the saviour of Friday night’s headline slot, tops the bill following the Foo Fighters’s cancellation. There will be plenty of speaker climbing, vocal theatrics and all the wide-eyed euphoria you’d expect from a first-time Pyramid stage headliner.

★ Mary J Blige: Pyramid stage, 4pm

A bona fide soul-pop legend at the Pyramid stage in (hopefully) the late afternoon sun? Yes, please. Even if she only plays a fraction of her library of hits, it will be a silky-smooth parade of tune after brilliant tune.

★ Alabama Shakes: Pyramid stage, 2.30pm

Heartfelt garage soul with a voice as big as the state from which they hail, Brittany Howard and the band bring riffs strewn with emotion, and a set bolstered by the strength of triumphant second album Sound & Colour.

★ Hot Chip: West Holts, 10.15pm

Superlative indie-dance-funk from the electro-rock stalwarts. If you’re ready for the floor, prepare to dance like a monkey with miniature cymbals. Or something.

★ Rudimental: Other stage, 10.30pm

Beats, breaks and anthemic belters guaranteed from the chart-topping, drum’n’bass success story.

★ Mark Ronson: Other stage, 9pm

The pop polymath with a Rolodex to die for. He’s worked with Bruno Mars, Lily Allen, Christina Aguilera and Stevie Wonder, and this year brings with him Boy George and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker for his Glastonbury performance.

★ Run the Jewels: West Holts, 7pm

Rabble-rousing, politically furious hip-hop from the New York duo featuring beats and brawn-with-brains of Killer Mike and El-P’s records to set West Holts off.

• Run the Jewels on hip-hop’s golden age, playing Ferguson and America’s civil rights problem

★ Lamb: Avalon stage, 11.15pm

Just the tonic for the flagging Glasto punter, Andy Barlow and Lou Rhodes’s classy chillout soothes and seduces in equal measure.

★ Fuse ODG: Sonic, 10pm

Or for something completely different, bounce to the buoyant Afrobeats and boisterous hip-hop of the London-via-Ghana rapper. Set to be one of the weekend’s biggest parties.

Contributors

Gwilym Mumford Rachel Aroesti Luke Holland

The GuardianTramp

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