Damon Albarn shares his message on Palestine and the elections at Glastonbury

English singer-songwriter and musician Damon Albarn surprised visitors to the annual Glastonbury Festival and commented on the current war in Gaza and the US elections.

The singer was invited to perform by Jack Steadman, frontman of Bombay Bicycle Club, when he played on the Other Stage on Friday.

The singer turned to the crowd and asked them if they were pro-Palestine and if they thought the war was unfair. His answer was met with approving applause.

He also commented on the upcoming US presidential election, saying that US President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump are too old for the office.

“The importance of voting next week – I don’t blame you for being ambivalent about it, but it’s still really important,” Albarn said.

“And thirdly, maybe it’s time we stopped entrusting octogenarians with the rule of the whole world?”

The remarks followed the recent debate between Biden and Trump, in which much attention was focused on the president’s cognitive abilities.

Albarn was not the only artist to use the stage to make political statements. On the festival’s Pyramid Stage, Serbian artist Marina Abramovic called for a seven-minute silence and asked the crowd to “be present.”

“I propose something that has never been done at a festival in the entire history of music: seven minutes of silence,” said Abramovic.

“The world is in a really shitty place…we can all give each other unconditional love…we can change the world.”

The Irish hip-hop group Kneecap also sent a message to the “10,000 heads in front of the set” on the festival’s screens.

The messages read: “Over 20,000 children have been murdered by Israel in nine months” and “This is made possible by the British government”, along with “Free Palestine” and the Palestinian flag.

The group had previously boycotted the South by Southwest festival in March in solidarity with the people of the Gaza Strip and because of the US military’s “super support” of the event.

Festivalgoers at Glastonbury also waved Palestinian flags, with 20 people waving the flag as they walked onto the main stage.

During singer Dua Lipa’s performance, a Nova Festival flag, symbolizing the Hamas attack on the Israeli music festival, and a Palestinian flag were displayed side by side in the front row as the singer delivered her speech to the crowd.