LIPA Dance grad co-directs Glastonbury's spectacular opening ceremony
Tuesday 08 July 2025
Dance graduate Emma Bate (2000) co-directed the opening ceremony at Glastonbury, attracting an estimated audience of 75,000 people to the Pyramid Stage.
Fusing circus arts, dance, music, and audience participation, the huge production had a cast of over 300 people. We caught up with Emma Bate (nee Davies) after the festival to find out more.
For those who didn't see the opening ceremony - how would you describe it?
The Glastonbury Opening Ceremony is a much-loved tradition that officially kicks off the festival on Wednesday evening, before the main music acts take to the stages on Friday. In recent years, there have been several opening ceremonies across different parts of the site and this year, the Theatre and Circus fields were given the exciting opportunity to create the very first Pyramid Stage opening since 1990.
I was invited to collaborate on the project and had the pleasure of working alongside Jade Dunbar as Co-Director and Assistant Curator for the show, which we called The Dreamweaver’s Journey. We wanted the performance to capture the full spirit of Glastonbury, not just visually, but emotionally and energetically too.
Our aim was to express everything the festival represents through the movement and dynamics of the show. We leaned into a dreamlike, ethereal quality to reflect how Glastonbury feels like nowhere else on earth; a place where the outside world pauses, and ‘real life’ is momentarily replaced by celebration, connection, and creativity in a field full of strangers who don’t feel like strangers for long. It was important for us to highlight the values of unity, community, and togetherness, but also embrace the beautiful chaos, wild energy, rebellion, and late-night partying that are just as much a part of the Glastonbury experience.
The show was packed with aerial spectacle and striking visuals, including cloud swing, Spanish web, sway poles, Cyr wheel, hand balancers, fire artists, jugglers, and aerialists flying 30 metres above the Pyramid Stage on two towering cranes. These were brought to life alongside live Taiko drumming, marching bands, and a 200-strong choir; a cast of over 300 in total.
Since the festival hadn’t officially started and there was no licence for amplified sound, we worked with an acoustic soundscape and encouraged the audience to join in by singing and clapping along, creating a shared, powerful atmosphere.
The night ended with a firework display behind the Pyramid Stage; a celebratory, high-energy moment that officially welcomed in Glastonbury 2025.
Photography: Luciana Cacciatore
How did this opportunity come about?
After graduating from LIPA in 2000, I embarked on a wonderfully varied career in the entertainment industry. I worked professionally as a dancer, stilt walker, drag queen and magician’s assistant, appearing in a range of UK and European productions. In 2004, I began choreographing shows for the Spanish hotel market, and by 2009, I had launched my own company, Spectacular Entertainment, where I started blending circus arts with dance and physical theatre.
We toured across the European hotel market with entertainment giant Romantic Corporate, and I later became Creative Director for high-profile UK touring events such as Festival of the Dead and The Great Gatsby Ball. I also took on the role of director for Circus Hassani, developing family-friendly big top productions across the country. My career has always been about fusion, collaboration, and visual spectacle, but no matter how much experience you have, getting into Glastonbury is a whole different story!
And actually, it’s a great one.
The Circus Big Top at Glastonbury is a really close-knit team, made up of family and long-time friends who return each year to run the space. One of the artists I’ve worked closely with for over eight years has been part of that team all her life, her dad is the head rigger there, and he also rigs on my own circus productions.
In 2023, I asked her (begged her, really) to send a message and see if there was any way I could get involved. I was more than happy to volunteer as a runner, anything just to get my foot in the door. At first, the answer was a definite, no. The team is hard to get in to and places are limited. But, by complete chance, someone dropped out that morning and a space opened up. Even with a long waiting list, I was offered the chance to join the crew as a favour to my friend.
I started that week doing whatever was needed, opening curtains, sweeping the floor, but by the end of the festival, I’d stepped up into the role of assistant stage manager. Off the back of that, I was invited to return the following year as stage manager.
It was during that time that I really connected with Jade Dunbar, who I’d later go on to co-direct The Dreamweaver’s Journey with. Jade has since supported and advised on several of my Spectacular Entertainment productions, and when the opportunity came up to create the official Pyramid Stage Opening Ceremony together, she asked me to join her.
We turned out to be a perfect creative partnership. Jade has huge experience in managing large-scale outdoor productions and expertly handled all the logistics and infrastructure. My strengths lie more in creative direction, artist coordination, and choreography - so I took the lead on rehearsals and performance. The balance between us worked beautifully, and the show became one of the most collaborative and rewarding projects I’ve ever worked on.
Photography: Neil Juggins
What was the biggest challenge?
There were many challenges! With such a large cast and very limited time on site, one of the biggest hurdles was coordinating everything in advance. We had over 300 performers, 11 choreographers, and more than 20 group leaders, all needing direction, rehearsal plans, and up-to-date information. The entire process was run remotely using Zoom calls, WhatsApp groups, and an ever-growing collection of Google Drive folders. There are even choreographic videos of me dancing and demonstrating routines in my conservatory... not glamorous, but it got the job done!
On-site rehearsal time was incredibly tight. The Pyramid Stage is a huge operation, with major headline acts loading in, so our access was restricted. To make things trickier, we lost a day of aerial rehearsals due to high winds, which meant no crane tests, that definitely set us back.
One of the biggest creative challenges was the fact that the festival hasn’t officially started on Wednesday night, so there’s no licence for amplified sound. That meant we had to come up with a different way to bring the performance to life sonically. We worked with composer Gareth Churcher, who specialises in large-scale audience participation, to build a soundtrack the crowd could sing and clap along to. It was a bold approach. While the results were mixed (the crowd was an estimated 75,000 people, which they say might be the largest audience for a circus production ever), the sound didn’t always reach the back. Some people felt disconnected, which was disappointing to hear, but given the limitations, we focused on creating something that was visually powerful and immersive. We knew the visual spectacle would carry the show, even without full sound coverage.
And of course, looking after a cast of 300 people, many of them camping, brought its own logistical challenges. Keeping everyone fed, hydrated, safe, and informed was no small task. We owe a lot to the brilliant Circus Big Top team, whose care, calmness, and professionalism ensured everyone was well looked after and supported throughout the week.
Photography: Neil Juggins
How did you feel once it was finished - and where does this rank in your career achievements?
It felt like a massive achievement... almost surreal. We were all asking ourselves, did we really just pull that off? But there wasn’t much time to celebrate! As soon as the fireworks ended, we had to go straight into the get-out. All our equipment needed to be cleared by 6am, it had to look like we’d never been there. Then, after just a few hours' sleep, we were back on site opening the Circus Big Top to the public and I was straight into my usual role as stage manager for the rest of the festival.
Seeing the performance featured on the BBC was incredibly validating. I’d been so focused on calling the show in the moment that I hadn’t had a chance to take in the full picture. Watching it back made me realise just how spectacular it looked, not just the individual acts, but the whole piece working together. It was really emotional to see it from that perspective.
To be honest, it’s only just starting to sink in now. The scale of it, the collaboration, the trust that was placed in us. It’s definitely one of the biggest moments of my career so far. And of course, the big question is, where do I go from here? It’s going to be hard to top this one!
Looking back at your time at LIPA, what was the most useful thing you learnt that still informs your creative practice?
For me, it was all about collaboration. LIPA gave me the chance to work with artists from so many different disciplines - musicians, dancers, designers, technicians - and that experience of creating work together, across art forms, has had a lasting impact on how I approach every project. I still carry that spirit into everything I do.
I was at LIPA right at the beginning, from 1997 to 2000, and there was a real sense of energy and excitement around the place. Everything was new, and there was this shared attitude of, let’s just give it a go and see what happens. We knew we were a bit of an experiment, and that made us bold. We were encouraged to think big, take creative risks, and try things that hadn’t been done before.
That ethos has stayed with me ever since. I still approach my work with the same curiosity and openness; collaborating, experimenting, and pushing to see how far we can take an idea. That foundation shaped the way I work now, especially on large-scale projects like Glastonbury.
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Portrait photography: Amy Dowling. Top image: Neil Juggins
