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Glastonbury Festival 2024, scheduled to be held from June 26, 2024, to June 30, 2024, has announced it is replacing the iconic giant spider artwork installation at the Arcadia stage with a biomechanical dragonfly. The announcement was made by the festival via a post on its official X (formerly Twitter) page.
"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."
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The announcement also revealed the lineup for the Arcadia stage at the 2024 festival, which includes the following acts:
- A Little Sound
- Amelie Lens
- Andy C ft. Ton Piper
- Barry Can't Swim
- Eric Prydz
- Fatboy Slim
- HAAI b2b KI/KI
- Hedex b2b Bou ft. B Live 247 & Eksman
- Hospital Showcase ft. Anais b2b Hoax b2b Unglued ft Ruthless
- Hot Chip (DJ Set)
- Joy (Anonymous) b2b Salute
- Joy Orbison
- Lens
- Mandidextrous b2b (IVY)
- Sarah Story
- Shygirl Presents Club Shy
- Arcadia Collective and The Wadjuk Noongar nation presents Warraloo
Glastonbury Arcadia dragonfly details
Like the Arcadia spider it is set to replace, the dragonfly installation at the upcoming Glastonbury Festival will be installed by the Arcadia Spectacular. They are a collective of performers and artists who use recycled materials and decommissioned military equipment to make art installations.
The collective founders Pip Rush and Bert Cole spoke about their new effort, saying:
"We've loved the challenge of forging something so new as our main Glastonbury installation - it's been hard to contain the excitement and keep this under wraps. Arcadia's firmly back to its roots with some deep repurposing of insane military machinery to create a ground-breaking centerpiece for our boldest ceremonial arena yet, opening profound new levels to the experience."
The founders continued:
"The magic is weaving all of the unique elements together into a powerful melting pot which is going to explode on Friday night and throughout the rest of the festival."
The dragonfly is being built by repurposing what appears to be a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter, a medium-lift utility and anti-submarine warfare helicopter, a licensed copy of the US SH-3 Sea King helicopter. The dragonfly project for the festival was first teased by the collective back in 2022 when they released a video showing a truck towing a Sea King away.
Glastonbury Arcadia spider history
Glastonbury's Arcadia spider was first unveiled in 2007 as the Afterburner, with the addition of Customs and Excise scanning units that were first used as the legs of the spider.
The Afterburner and the spider would subsequently become separate installations, with the spider becoming a permanent fixture in 2014. Speaking about the installation on August 22, 2013, in an exclusive interview with Nu Magazine, the founders gave a response to a question about what the inspiration behind the installation was:
"It started with loads of ideas, with limited resources, being knocked around with hundreds of people over five years that started to look more and more like a spider. It ended up being a stage that worked better as 360 than 180 degrees. All these different factors came together to make that (the spider)..."
The Arcadia spider, while primarily a Glastonbury attraction, has been taken to other festivals as well. The collective took the spider to Gravity Thailand in 2014 and 2016 and the Ultra Music Festival in Miami in 2016. Alongside the spider, Arcadia Spectacular is also known for the mobile bug stage.
Apart from the Arcadia stage, the Glastonbury Festival Pyramid stage will have Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and SZA as headliners. The festival will also have the K-pop group SEVENTEEN, the first K-pop act to perform at the Glastonbury Festival.
