Inside Block9 at Glastonbury, where protest, politics, and partying align

Cosmopolitan

16 hours ago

Despite the tired debate about whether politics 'belongs in music', protest has always been at the heart of Glastonbury. The festival has long supported the anti-nuclear and anti-war movements, been a haven for stigmatised Traveller communities, championed environmentalism and social justice, and invited MPs and other political figures to galvanise festivalgoers with messages of peace, unity, and, notably in the case of Jeremy Corbyn in 2017, hope.
Protest is also etched into the structures of the site itself. The Pyramid Stage is famously emblazoned with a giant peace symbol, which first appeared in 1982 as a nod to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's involvement in the festival that year. More recently, in 2023, the late-night area Shangri-La introduced an immersive 'shopping' installation as a commentary on consumerism and capitalism. Ahead of the 2024 general election, an archway in the Greenpeace area of the site was engraved with the words 'Vote Out to Help Out', a nod to the Tories' deadly 'Eat Out to Help Out' campaign during the pandemic.
So, then, it should come as no surprise that Glastonbury 2025 was as political as ever. Palestine flags could be seen flying around the whole festival site, including one mounted on a stage. And, although the media has focused on two 'controversial' protests — by Irish rap group Kneecap and punk duo Bob Vylan, who both spoke out about the ongoing genocide in Palestine — countless acts used their performances to express solidarity with Palestinians, who remain under siege by Israel.
This has always been something to celebrate — but, at a time of political turmoil, when the structures that govern us feel impenetrable and contemptuous; as our clubs and music venues are shuttering at an astronomical rate; and as algorithms seek to divide us, it feels more urgent than ever to utilise the countercultural and political power of partying, especially via an immense world stage like Glastonbury.
One key area of the site that knows a thing or two about the political nature of partying is Block9 — the coolest corner of Glastonbury's late-night area, known as South East Corner. Not only is it the place to go after dark — a heady haven for pleasure-seekers, electronic music lovers, LGBTQ+ partygoers, and the most voguish celebs (this year, we spotted Lorde, Harry Styles, Charli XCX and George Daniel, Haim, and Paul Mescal) — it's also one of the most politically-charged areas of the site. It houses the festival's first and only queer club — the illustrious NYC Downlow — and hosts an ever-changing roster of activists and artists, each of whom bring their own galvanising vision.
Following in the footsteps of fashion designer and activist Katharine Hamnett, who brought her general election-inspired political slogans to Block9 in 2024, this year it was the turn of political campaign group Led By Donkeys, who are renowned for their guerrilla techniques, including plastering hypocritical tweets by pro-Brexit politicians on billboards, displaying banners behind politicians giving speeches (including one that read, 'I crashed the economy' behind Liz Truss), and, most recently, projecting a photo of Elon Musk doing a Nazi-style salute onto Tesla's Berlin factory.
'This Labour government is continuing the work of the Tories in shutting down space to protest,' Led By Donkeys tells Cosmopolitan UK. 'Designating Palestine Action as a terrorist group is dangerous and shameful. So we need to find ways to protest and resist that can't be shut down. Glastonbury showed one way to do that — showing dissent through music and partying.'
At Glastonbury, the group unleashed their unique blend of activism and guerrilla art… with some very familiar faces.
At the edge of Block9's immersive audio-visual IICON stage — a colossal, pseudo-religious head that spits out trippy visuals and plays host to cutting edge electronic DJs — was a gigantic rocket commandeered by Elon Musk. The Tesla founder and X owner has long talked about his company SpaceX's determination to colonise Mars, turning it into a self-sustaining and self-governing settlement. Thank God, then, that someone has finally taken the initiative to send him there (if only for a weekend).
But he wasn't going alone. Musk was flanked by a queue of tech billionaires, politicians, and other public figures waiting to board who have, as Led By Donkeys sees it, 'made life on Earth more difficult for us in recent years'.
Scheduled on the flight were Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Donald Trump and JD Vance, Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, Liz Truss, Keir Starmer, and Boris Johnson, JK Rowling, and many more.
A nearby sign expanded on the concept. It read: 'Block9 and Led by Donkeys have constructed a massive space rocket to carry Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos to the red planet, and it's launching from Glastonbury. The tech bros want to go to Mars, so we're sending them there — [and] there's room on the rocket for a few more souls. Let's send them to Mars while we party on Earth.'
The launch site also contained a Tesla with a number plate reading 'Fascism', which was, amazingly, crushed by Ken, a 98-year-old, anti-fascist World War Two veteran driving a tank. And if you think that needs to be seen to be believed, lucky for you, Led By Donkeys documented the whole thing. 'We've crushed fascism before,' Ken says in the video, 'and we'll crush it again.' The car spent the rest of Glastonbury weekend flattened once again, this time underneath a giant shipping container.
'Block9 is an incredible collective; we've loved and admired their work for years,' Led By Donkeys tells Cosmopolitan UK. 'Block9 and Led By Donkeys have a pretty similar take on the world and we've got to know them a bit over the past year. The things they build are stunning, but often try to say something important. A couple of months ago, we started talking about how we could use the space at Glastonbury to say something about the tech bros who wield enormous power over our lives with zero accountability.'
'Elon Musk and his mates want humans to become an interplanetary species. But they're dangerously wrong,' the collective continues. 'We don't need to live on Mars, we need to protect our planet and celebrate the fact that Earth is the only place where humanity can thrive.'
The billboards weren't up long before Glastonbury goers added their own slogans. By Friday, each of the figures queueing up — all of whom were wearing orange astronaut/prison jumpsuits — had their own personal insults graffitied next to them, most of which are a little too NSFW to print. But beneath Netanyahu, Trump, Zuckerberg, and Bezos, someone had scrawled the words, 'Viva la revolution'. 'People seemed to love it,' Led By Donkeys reflects after the festival.
Block9's political partnerships didn't stop there. 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of Block9's long-time collaborators PrEPster, a London-based HIV prevention activist organisation — and so, as well as promoting HIV prevention drug PrEP on site, the group widened its remit this year. 'We provided information on sex and consent, rehydration, drugs harm reduction, and where to go if anyone needed support across the festival,' PrEPster co-founder Dr Will Nutland tells Cosmopolitan UK. 'We also had earplugs, period products, and sexual health info.'
The group were also handing out 'Fuck Packs', containing condoms and lube. 'Sometimes people use them across the weekend, if they get lucky,' continues Nutland. 'Otherwise we know people put them in a bumbag and have a happy Glastonbury memory when they come across them days, weeks, or months later. Inside the packs, we remind folks to look after themselves and each other; our work is embedded in care.'
Nutland says Block9 is a brilliant fit with PrEPster's grassroots, DIY, and community sexual health work. 'We're a lived experience organisation, and most of us are queer, so being in the queer space, where people see us as part of the crowd, brings great engagement and connection.'
'Because we're part of our communities, people know us, and so it was at 3am on the dancefloor when we got the best responses: people come and start chatting about what we're doing; they ask for water or earplugs, or they need extra condoms because they've just got lucky. We always get the most stunning responses.'
Whether you're ruminating on the evils of capitalism while admiring striking art installations, dancing with drag queens in the burning heat at Downlow, two-stepping to techno at Block9's brutalist Genosys stage, or worshipping at IICON until the sun comes up, Block9 has long embraced partying as an act of rebellion and resistance — which is what Glastonbury is really all about. 'The 90s rave culture was a potent organising force against the Tories back then,' concludes Led By Donkeys. 'And there are other examples over the years. Protest can be celebratory, joyful and affirming.'
So, if you're lucky enough to score tickets for 2027, make sure you pay it a visit. Who knows what Block9 — and our increasingly dystopian world — will have in store for us then?