Lana Del Rey Apologises For Cutting Glastonbury Set Short: “My Hair Takes So Long To Do”

Lana Del Rey performed at the iconic Glastonbury festival in Pilton, Somerset over the weekend, although fans weren’t totally stoked on her performance: she wound up onstage 30 minutes later than planned, and had to cut a stack of material from her setlist.

As noted by setlist.fm, the Ultraviolence songstress shortened seven of the tracks she performed – A&W, The Grants, Ride, Born To Die, Norman Fucking Rockwell, Arcadia and Video Games – with the stage power being cut during the lattermost song on account of the festival’s strict midnight curfew. Notably, though, five songs were performed with extended intros (and White Mustang with an extended outro too).

Del Rey’s set was scheduled to begin at 10:30pm on Saturday night (June 24), however she didn’t make it out until 11:00pm. She performed for about an hour before having her mic and band cut off, missing out on five tracks from her written setlist: Venice Bitch, Diet Mountain Dew, Summertime Sadness, Bittersweet Anthem and Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. 

Eagle-eyed fans will notice the significance of Bittersweet Anthem being on the setlist (and the pain of it ultimately not being performed), as the song is unreleased and would’ve been performed for the first time ever at Glastonbury. Del Rey didn’t leave the stage when her power was cut, though, opting to finish Video Games as an a capella with her audience.

During the set, Del Rey addressed her tardiness, telling the crowd, “I was so fucking late that I am about to rush this set today. If they cut power, they cut power. I’m super fucking sorry – my hair takes so long to do. I love you though. Let’s keep on running the set as it’s supposed to go. Let’s do it.”

Lana Del Rey apologizing to fans for being late pic.twitter.com/WbITGRDC50

— jude (@jfloridakilos) June 24, 2023

Del Rey is currently touring in support of her ARIA #1-debuting ninth album, also titled Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, which arrived back in March on Interscope and Polydor. It was released amid a hectic month for the New York native – also in March, she (reportedly) got engaged and had her dad announce his own debut album.

May saw Del Rey release the standalone single Say Yes To Heaven, an off-cut from 2013’s Ultraviolence album. And earlier this month, she revealed she’d be leaving social media for good.

Del Rey’s last visit to Australia came in March and April of 2018, when she performed headline shows in Meanjin/Brisbane, Naarm/Melbourne and Eora/Sydney. In TheMusic’s review of the Eora stop, Dave Burrowes wrote, “The night went long, Del Rey performing for almost two hours, right up to the venue curfew. The set was intimate, bold and, while perhaps a little rough and improvised at times, was built for the fans.”