The Lumineers described the hot and dry weather as “so-not-Glasto” as they appeared at the festival.
The American folk rock band took to the Other Stage on the back of the success of their hit Gloria from their third studio album, their highest charting song in the US since Hey Ho in 2012.
Band members Wesley Schultz and drummer Jeremiah Fraites said they were excited about their third appearance at the Somerset festival.
They joked that seasoned festival-goers expecting mud and rain “didn’t know how to act” in the hot and dry conditions, with temperatures reaching up to 28C on Thursday.
Speaking before their performance, Fraites told PA: “This is probably the coolest festival in the world. It’s so different to any other American festival. It’s just so legendary.
“This is our third time so I feel like we’ve earned the right to even call it Glasto.
“It’s really dry. I remember we bought these wellingtons for the first Glastonbury we played but we never actually got to use them.
“It’s funny, it’s the tale of our wellies, where they’re always in our wardrobe cases and we never had them for when it was wet.
“We probably have them today.”
Schultz added: “It was raining so heavily during our set last time and this time it’s sunny, and it’s a little taste of home in Denver where the weather is always drastically changing.
“I think everybody doesn’t really know how to act right now because it feels so not-like-Glasto.”
The band are due to release their third album III on September 13, told in three chapters, with the songs from each chapter focusing on one character from the three generations of the fictional Sparks family.
The album deals with the theme of addiction, something the band members say is an easy trap to fall in while travelling the world as rock stars.
Fraites said: “You can really easily fall into that cliche because everyone is in on it.
“You get off stage and someone’s like ‘do you want a drink’.
“No one’s ever like ‘Yo, you look really tired, you want some sparkling water and some vitamin C and a banana or something’.
“It’s always like ‘do you want a drink? I’ll buy you a drink’. Or ‘do you want some drugs?’ or whatever.
“I haven’t drunk alcohol for about four years and I feel a lot better for it.
“I found myself having that relationship with alcohol where I was kind of becoming that cliche.
“I saw addiction first hand in my family in my older brother.
“He died of a heroin drug overdose many years ago, and obviously that’s the worst thing that’s ever happened in my life.”
Schultz added: “It’s hard to kick things that are becoming a routine, especially on the road.
“Jeremiah just telling his story, there’s going to be a kid watching that – that suddenly his idea about what it means to be a musician can change based on him saying that, that it’s possible to still be a musician that’s sober and still have a great show and have a great life because it’s so intertwined with the rock and roll myth.”
The band have also announced a worldwide arena tour, including a date at The O2 in London on November 27.