Lana Del Rey’s headline set at Glastonbury was cut short after the US star arrived on stage 30 minutes late.
Fans were left waiting for the Ivor Novello-winning singer-songwriter, who admitted her Other stage appearance was delayed because “my hair takes so long”.
“I’m so fucking late they may cut my set,” she said shortly before the midnight curfew for Glastonbury’s two main stages. “I’m sorry, my hair takes so long. If they cut the power, let’s keep going.”
Del Rey’s microphone and video screens were then suddenly switched off as she fell to her knees and removed her in-ear monitors.
The abrupt end came just an hour after she walked on stage for one of the most highly anticipated performances of the weekend before a crowd of tens of thousands.
Footage filmed by fans showed her remonstrating with crew on stage as she apparently pleaded to finish her set as boos rang through the crowd.
She then tried to address the crowd despite her microphone being switched off, soon followed by the huge on-stage screens which suddenly turned to black.
Del Rey then climbed down from the stage barefoot to sing an impromptu a cappella version of Summertime Sadness to fans close enough to be able to hear her.
The curtailed set left many fans disappointed. “It’s just kind of devastating, because ... apparently she did like less than half her set according to the security people and I basically just came to this festival to see her,” Sasha Watkins told the PA Media news agency.
The 18-year-old from London said despite Del Rey’s performance starting half an hour late she “was fine and she was doing herself”.
“Then you got to [about] midnight and all the screens went black, her mic cut out, everything went black,” she added.
“Then the whole audience started singing Video Games together ... she was like conducting it, which was really, really amazing. She kind of came and said hello to the people in the front.”
After arriving on stage 30 minutes late, Del Rey smoked an electronic vape between her songs – in defiance of Glastonbury’s well-publicised ban on the devices this year.
Her performance had generated minor controversy weeks ago when she appeared to complain about having a less prominent place on the Glastonbury poster than Pyramid stage headliners Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Elton John.
In a comment posted on the festival’s Instagram announcement, she wrote: “Thanks for announcing that I was headlining the other stage. Thumbs up.”
She then reportedly took to her own private Instagram account to share the poster, adding: “‘Well, I’m actually headlining the 2nd stage. But since there was no consideration for announcing that, we’ll see.”
