Stormzy's headliner set at Glastonbury Festival 2019
Set Model
2024 (made), 2019 (designed)
2024 (made), 2019 (designed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Set model designed by Misty Buckley for Stormzy's headliner set at Glastonbury Festival 2019.
On Friday, 28 June 2019, UK rapper Stormzy (Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr.) headlined the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury Festival. This was the first time in the festival's 49-year history that a solo Black British artist had headlined Glastonbury, and the performance is considered a significant moment in UK music; an iconic music set for the Festival as well as a celebration of Black British culture. Stormzy is widely credited with taking Grime music to the mainstream and giving the genre wider recognition.
The stage set for the performance was designed by Misty Buckley—an award-winning designer for live touring shows, TV and large-scale events who worked with production directors TAWBOX (Chris "Bronski" Jablonski and Amber Rimell), lighting designer Tim Routledge and art director Matt Rees. This complete model was created in 2024 to act as an archival capture of the realised set design. The stage design needed to be visually impactful and convey the powerful and emotional messages of Stormzy’s music, whilst being adaptable and able to house the variety of performances within the show, including fierce rap, soft and intimate solos, a ballet interlude by Ballet Black, an afrobeat dancer, BMX bikers, and a gospel choir.
Inside the stage model, model figures are used to represent Stormzy on the stage and the supporting performers that are placed on the three-tiered structure. The bottom tier has been dressed with an example of how the screens were used during the performance, with names of the South London areas where Stormzy grew up and developed his career—Selhurst, Norbury, South Norwood, Croydon – thereby bringing ‘South London to the farm’ (Amber Rimell’s words referring to Glastonbury’s site).
Buckley’s design for Stormzy’s 2019 performance focuses on a three-tiered structure with LED screens, supported pyrotechnics and lighting. The structure acts as a backdrop to Stormzy, with the visuals encapsulating his career to date, signifying his artistic style as well as celebrating wider Black British culture. The design references a number of cultural and political inspirations: South London brutalist high-rise flats, barbed wire of prisons, projections of emotive words from lyrics that took inspiration from the work of Jenny Holzer, the imagery of underground music sound systems, and historical newspaper headlines. The design earned Buckley a BAFTA nomination for the 'Entertainment Craft Team Award,’ the first and only time Glastonbury TV coverage had been nominated for a BAFTA in this category.
On Friday, 28 June 2019, UK rapper Stormzy (Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr.) headlined the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury Festival. This was the first time in the festival's 49-year history that a solo Black British artist had headlined Glastonbury, and the performance is considered a significant moment in UK music; an iconic music set for the Festival as well as a celebration of Black British culture. Stormzy is widely credited with taking Grime music to the mainstream and giving the genre wider recognition.
The stage set for the performance was designed by Misty Buckley—an award-winning designer for live touring shows, TV and large-scale events who worked with production directors TAWBOX (Chris "Bronski" Jablonski and Amber Rimell), lighting designer Tim Routledge and art director Matt Rees. This complete model was created in 2024 to act as an archival capture of the realised set design. The stage design needed to be visually impactful and convey the powerful and emotional messages of Stormzy’s music, whilst being adaptable and able to house the variety of performances within the show, including fierce rap, soft and intimate solos, a ballet interlude by Ballet Black, an afrobeat dancer, BMX bikers, and a gospel choir.
Inside the stage model, model figures are used to represent Stormzy on the stage and the supporting performers that are placed on the three-tiered structure. The bottom tier has been dressed with an example of how the screens were used during the performance, with names of the South London areas where Stormzy grew up and developed his career—Selhurst, Norbury, South Norwood, Croydon – thereby bringing ‘South London to the farm’ (Amber Rimell’s words referring to Glastonbury’s site).
Buckley’s design for Stormzy’s 2019 performance focuses on a three-tiered structure with LED screens, supported pyrotechnics and lighting. The structure acts as a backdrop to Stormzy, with the visuals encapsulating his career to date, signifying his artistic style as well as celebrating wider Black British culture. The design references a number of cultural and political inspirations: South London brutalist high-rise flats, barbed wire of prisons, projections of emotive words from lyrics that took inspiration from the work of Jenny Holzer, the imagery of underground music sound systems, and historical newspaper headlines. The design earned Buckley a BAFTA nomination for the 'Entertainment Craft Team Award,’ the first and only time Glastonbury TV coverage had been nominated for a BAFTA in this category.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Stormzy's headliner set at Glastonbury Festival 2019 (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Card and plastic with electrical components |
| Brief description | Set model designed by Misty Buckley for Stormzy's headliner set at Glastonbury Festival 2019 |
| Physical description | Set model designed by Misty Buckley for Stormzy's headliner set at Glastonbury Festival 2019. Model of a grey pyramid-shaped stage surrounded by faux green grass. It has a plastic light at the apex and a hooded entrance surrounded by lighting structures at the front. There is one silver figure attached to the lighting rig, on the inside left. The inner stage is black with a silver human figure model in the centre. Behind the figure is a multiple-storied structure with 24 silver figures on the landings. The set structure is layered with strips that represent LED screens on the top and bottom, with the words of South London Boroughs - Croydon, Norbury, South Norwood, Selhurst - in purple, white and black. On the back of the structure there are two cut out squares at the bottom. The model contains electrical components. |
| Dimensions |
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| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Given by Misty Buckley |
| Object history | This set model was created by Misty Buckley’s team in 2024 to act as a physical record that represents the process of designing the set on the Pyramid Stage. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Place depicted | |
| Summary | Set model designed by Misty Buckley for Stormzy's headliner set at Glastonbury Festival 2019. On Friday, 28 June 2019, UK rapper Stormzy (Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr.) headlined the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury Festival. This was the first time in the festival's 49-year history that a solo Black British artist had headlined Glastonbury, and the performance is considered a significant moment in UK music; an iconic music set for the Festival as well as a celebration of Black British culture. Stormzy is widely credited with taking Grime music to the mainstream and giving the genre wider recognition. The stage set for the performance was designed by Misty Buckley—an award-winning designer for live touring shows, TV and large-scale events who worked with production directors TAWBOX (Chris "Bronski" Jablonski and Amber Rimell), lighting designer Tim Routledge and art director Matt Rees. This complete model was created in 2024 to act as an archival capture of the realised set design. The stage design needed to be visually impactful and convey the powerful and emotional messages of Stormzy’s music, whilst being adaptable and able to house the variety of performances within the show, including fierce rap, soft and intimate solos, a ballet interlude by Ballet Black, an afrobeat dancer, BMX bikers, and a gospel choir. Inside the stage model, model figures are used to represent Stormzy on the stage and the supporting performers that are placed on the three-tiered structure. The bottom tier has been dressed with an example of how the screens were used during the performance, with names of the South London areas where Stormzy grew up and developed his career—Selhurst, Norbury, South Norwood, Croydon – thereby bringing ‘South London to the farm’ (Amber Rimell’s words referring to Glastonbury’s site). Buckley’s design for Stormzy’s 2019 performance focuses on a three-tiered structure with LED screens, supported pyrotechnics and lighting. The structure acts as a backdrop to Stormzy, with the visuals encapsulating his career to date, signifying his artistic style as well as celebrating wider Black British culture. The design references a number of cultural and political inspirations: South London brutalist high-rise flats, barbed wire of prisons, projections of emotive words from lyrics that took inspiration from the work of Jenny Holzer, the imagery of underground music sound systems, and historical newspaper headlines. The design earned Buckley a BAFTA nomination for the 'Entertainment Craft Team Award,’ the first and only time Glastonbury TV coverage had been nominated for a BAFTA in this category. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.892-2024 |
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| Record created | May 29, 2024 |
| Record URL |
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