Glastonbury 2016: The music that made it magical

Glastonbury, you beautiful, beautiful thing. Arguably the greatest festival on the planet, whether it's your first time or your fifth time, there's absolutely no denying that once you walk onto the hallowed grounds of Worthy Farm, you're going to have a ball. This year was a weird one, though. People who made the pilgrimage on the Wednesday hoping to get there early were sending through savage reports of 12 to 20-hour queues due to flooding and rain. The queues are bad enough but the talk of torrential amounts of rain and no solid ground underfoot was enough to scare even the most weathered Glasto veteran.

You can't really talk about this year's festival without the mention of Brexit, either. Once we arrived on Thursday afternoon (a painless three-hour journey from station to site via the train, cheers), we pitched up our tent and got stuck in but the feeling that the country was on the verge of something potentially very scary was hard to ignore. It got to around 3am and people started to get nervous but that didn't stop hundreds of thousands of dancers throwing caution to the wind and partying hard anyway. Once the morning rolled around, we were awoken from a deep sleep at 8am to the voice of someone in the tent next to us saying "We're out".

Those words would reverberate around our heads and our beloved Glastonbury site for the duration of the festival but that again is the beauty of the best festival in the entire world; that even something so upsetting and so mind-numbingly hard-to-comprehend wouldn't get us down. If we pick any location in the world to be in when that news broke, it would be in Pilton, surrounded by a field of generally like-minded individuals who weren't going to let anything get in the way of a damn good time.

So fuck the mud, fuck the rain and fuck Brexit, we had an absolute ball at Glastonbury. So let's celebrate the good times. This is the music that made us quiver, that made us dance and that made us realise that we were all very lucky people to be smiling together in the field of dreams. Until next time Glasto. Words: Funster

Funster is Mixmag's Digital Music Editor, follow him on Twitter here

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter here

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This year the Beat Hotel gifted us with one of their biggest, most impressive line-ups to date. There have always been highlight sets there to choose from but 2016 was pretty silly. Special back-to-back performances from Midland, Joy Orbison & Ben UFO and Four Tet & Floating Points brought hoards of dancers to the best house party on site but another first time pairing stole the show for us. Tiga and Seth Troxler, two of the most enigmatic selectors in the game, went head-to-head and it was a joy. We donned our slippers and grabbed a Pina Colada to watch the madness from the bedroom on stage and the two picked out records in front of us, dancing around to the sounds of house, techno, disco and acid. The Johnny Aux remix of 'Where It's At' sums up the levels of gangster sleaze the dons were pulling out. Words: Funster

[Photo Credit: Milly Baker]

If the sound isn't perfect for grime acts, then the whole showcase turns out to be pretty underwhelming. Brownie points have got to go to the Glasto programmers for putting Skepta on the Pyramid Stage, then. He's without doubt the kingpin of the genre right now, having conquered the United States and beyond in the past two years, and he only deserved the best arena at Worthy Farm.

We couldn't have asked for the audio output to be crispier for the MC's Friday lunchtime slot. And we weren't even stood right in the thick of it. 'Shutdown' and 'That's Not Me' might be the major hits from his album 'Konnichiwa' but the production on 'Crime Riddim' is ice cold and even had mums and dads bopping their heads in sync with their kids who probably aren't even old enough to know what it means when Skeps claims "I ain't a chippendale".

Novelist joined him for 'Lyrics', buoyantly bouncing around in a gilet from his Joy Rich collection, then joining the Boy Better Know crew to cruise around the stage on bikes as if they were back on the London streets. The sun shone for the whole set, before the stormy clouds hovered above and the rain poured down just as it ended. Skepta sure knows how to shower it down. Words: Dave Turner

The offer of a house classics set from Roger Sanchez was too much to turn down, especially with it going down in the steamy, debauched place they call NYC Downlow. An imitation of New York's infamous gay club, almost anything goes there and you'll be surround by drag queens and leather-strapped muscles all night long.

Sanchez followed Honey Soundsystem and, as soon as the clock hit 1am, anthems from the '80s and '90s were in full flow. Those too young to have heard them in the club the first time round knew exactly what they were, though, no doubt thanks to the endless amounts of archival Ministry of Sound compilations over the years.

It doesn't get much more vintage than 'Strings Of Life', a true gem from Derrick May's Rhythim Is Rhythim alias in 1987. Pure elation spread through the room as the piano keys stabbed and the majestic strings floated, but Sanchez, cool as you like, just carried on as if it was no biggie at all. A true pro. Words: Dave Turner

NYC Downlow, we whole-heartedly, totally love you. While it might have been as hard to get in as it was trying not to get stuck in the mud, that was only an indicator of just how popular it is every year.

Once you've been greeted by moustache-sporting hunks in leather bondage, you can make your way into the glamorous, sassy and damn-right fabulous late-night spot. When we saw The Black Madonna last year at the Downlow, it was one of our highlights so this year on Saturday night we just had to see her again. Sporting an orange, leopard print hat, she exuded confidence and had every dancer in that room losing their shit in the sexiest spot in Pilton.

Her set was a disco extravaganza, and the best song was Midland's 'Final Credits'. The glorious cut was played at least four times over the weekend and became our official Glastonbury anthem. Not only because we premiered it as part of our Gold feature but because it's an absolute belter that provides goosebumps every time those riffs zip in. What made hearing it this time even more special was that Midland was stood in front of us when it got dropped. He was wearing a vest and a smile on his face as people fist pumped and high-fived him for his extraordinary creation. A special Glasto moment for sure and enough to earn Midland our 'Hero of the Weekend' award.

(Special shouts also go to Gideon, the man behind Block9. He not only curated and ran our favourite section of Glastonbury but also laid down a chunky, rolling and ferocious house set before The Black Madonna stepped up. Brawther was dancing behind him and everyone was going nuts. Another huge performance.) Words: Funster

For recorded sets from NYC Downlow and for more fabulous content, head here

[Photo Credit: Egle Trezzi]

We'll admit it. We weren't actually planning on heading to Arcadia on Sunday night. Word had started to spread throughout the day that Radiohead, having been spotted strolling through the site, were playing a secret set on Sunday night. Twitter was full of chat that The Park would be their destination once Grimes had finished, but after a 20-minute wait, watching the stage crew remove cables and hearing them announce "The Park stage is now closed", it was clear we wouldn't be getting the 'A Moon Shaped Pool' treatment.

A Basement Jaxx DJ set from the nearby Arcadia spider it was, then. It was clear from the off they'd be making the most of their hit-filled back catalogue amid the epic LEDs scaling the spider's legs. 'Where's Your Head At' was the deadly finishing move, going on for way longer than the four-minute original and sending everyone below the famous mechanical spider into a sing-a-long frenzy. It's safe to say it took us a while to find our heads after that, not helped by the Arcadia finale featuring dangling robots, zorb balls and the incredible shots of fire. Words: Dave Turner

[Photo Credit: Anna Barclay]

We'd already caught a bit of Midland and Palms Trax separately earlier in the festival, so we had to make sure we got a taste of their back-to-back set as one of our last of the weekend. Both of them are known to play the sweetest house and disco and, after four nights of partying, that was the exact medicine we needed.

You could be forgiven for forgetting you were on a boggy, grassless farm when walking into The Temple in the Common. The coliseum-styled club blew our mind as soon as walked in: each step of the circular space filled with end-of-the-night ravers, rainbow patterns swirling around on the walls and a vibe so fresh it could pass for Ibiza. Both DJs were elevated high above the central dancefloor, firing out classics like Sylvester's 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)'. Funny that, 'cause, boy, did they make us feel good. Hugs and kisses all round for this one. Words: Dave Turner

[Photo Credit: Dave Jensen & Ed Bishop]

It's worth mentioning that it wasn't easy to get into the The Temple on Sunday night. The line-up had everyone clambering for a spot in the towering, jungle-themed venue but once you'd braved the queues and made your way into the spot, it was all worth it. The general consensus post-Glasto was that The Temple on Sunday night was the clear dance music highlight of the weekend.

Midland and Palms worked their way through disco, house and some gnarly stuff as well and we were stationed directly below the booth in the main pit. Boy, was it muddy. It may have been hard to dance but it didn't stop anyone from showing off their best sloppy salsa and if one tune has summed up the past year musically then it's Denis Sulta's 'It's Only Real'. The colossal track has been a highlight in sets for a while now with Jackmaster and the Numbers crew giving it's original airing last summer. The place erupted in true festival fashion and when it bounced about the arena, it marked an impressive 12 months for Sulta's banger. Words: Funster

Midland and Palms Trax were a tough act to follow, but Hessle Audio co-founder Ben UFO and Dutch DJ Job Jobse had no trouble in keeping our wellies on the dancefloor. The entirety of their 3am to 5am set was jam packed with smile-inducing cuts, dousing us with lush, grooving house. One commenter on social media said the two DJs "absolutely schooled" it and we're not ones to deny it. As the night sky started to fade away and the grey morning began to emerge, the realisation that the festival was nearly finished started to kick in and that dreaded sick feeling in the stomach started to make itself known. BUFO and Job may well have had the same symptoms and made sure they'd be kept at bay by treating everyone to the delicate synths and mind-massaging drums of Lock Eyes' '21 Le Fou'. What a dream. Words: Dave Turner

[Photo Credit: Dave Jensen & Ed Bishop]

And that was it. The last tune at Glastonbury was played. Although it was a sad time knowing that we'd only have one last jaunt to the Stone Circle before heading back to the grim reality that is post-Brexit Britain, Ben UFO and Job Jobse saw us out in style. It's always a tricky thing, picking not only the song to end a set, but one to close out the best festival in the world...

If anything was going to do the business it was Armand Van Helden's 'I Want Your Soul'. Cue an epic sing-a-long that united The Temple for seven minutes of pure euphoria. The mud by this point was upsettingly heavy under-foot and the sky was grey but who gave a fuck? No-one did. Everyone who was in The Temple for the last six hours of Glastonbury knew they'd made the right choice. Words: Funster