Glastonbury Festival has announced they will replace the Arcadia spider with a giant dragonfly in the line-up reveal for this year’s edition.
The Arcadia spider has become an iconic symbol of the festival over the years. Created by the Arcadia collective, who introduced their first installation at Glastonbury in 2007 with The Afterburner, the spider became a permanent fixture in 2014, with the huge installation made from scrapyard looming over huge names like The Chemical Brothers, Skepta, Floating Points and more last year.
The spider has since appeared every year except in 2019, where it was replaced by a giant repurposed crane dubbed ‘Pangea’ for that edition.
Now, the festival have revealed the latest Arcadia stage will not feature the spider, but rather a “giant biomechanical” dragonfly instead.
“Arcadia kicks off a whole new chapter at Glastonbury with their boldest installation yet,” the festival wrote on their website. “The Dragonfly, a giant biomechanical creature, will awaken at the heart of an evolved geometric space, exploring ideas around renewal, our relationship with technology and how we adapt to a changing climate.”
Arcadia kicks off a new chapter at Glastonbury 2024 with their boldest installation yet!
The Dragonfly, a giant biomechanical creature, will awaken at the heart of an evolved geometric space, exploring our relationship with technology and how we adapt to a changing climate. pic.twitter.com/QomLuQOPMZ
— Glastonbury Festival (@glastonbury) May 22, 2024
The Dragonfly was apparently built from an ex-military Royal Navy helicopter, transforming a “weapon of destruction” into “a unifying symbol”. “As conflicts flare around the world, the transformational nature of the sculpture is a monument to hope.”
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The sculpture will also see representatives of the Wadjuk Noongar nation from Australia to perform a ceremony called Warraloo, which “sees The Dragonfly burst into life”.
The stage also shared its line-up for this year, announcing that Fatboy Slim, Eric Prydz, Barry Can’t Swim, Joy Orbison, and Hot Chip will play. Shygirl will also present Club Shy, whilst HAAi will play a B2B set with Ki/Ki, whilst Joy (Anonymous) will play a B2B with Salute. You can check out the full lineup above.
Previously, Glastonbury has unveiled two new venues for The Park, along with the full Strummerville line-up and its guests for the Pilton Palais Cinema including Paul Mescal, Florence Pugh and Andrew Scott.
Check out all the day splits and stage line-ups here.
The final batch of tickets for this year’s event sold out in 20 minutes last month. A limited amount of coach/ticket packages were snapped up in 18 minutes three days prior.
Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis had revealed earlier that the festival had seen its “highest percentage of ticket balances paid ever”. “Incredible. Thanks so much everyone,” she added.
In other news, Dua Lipa has said she “manifested” headlining Glastonbury “by album three” early on in her career. Her third studio record, ‘Radical Optimism’, was released on May 3.