Carhenge: Joe Rush shows us around Glastonbury’s newest installation

Glastonbury 2023 has welcomed a new installation from artist Joe Rush. Watch him walking and talking us through the ambitious Carhenge area above.

• READ MORE: Check out the full Glastonbury 2023 line-up and stage times here

Announced last month, the “monumental” new art sculpture is made by underground artist Joe Rush, founder of the Mutoid Waste Company, and the “builder of rock’n’roll environments”. The artist has had his “mutant world” installations showcased at Glastonbury since 1985 – including the original scaled-down version of Carhenge which was displayed in 1987 – and the iconic mechanical Phoenix atop the Pyramid Stage in 2013.

The design — which is named after Stonehenge — is developed out of 24 mutated vintage cars and will be displayed in the middle of the festival.

“This is Carhenge 2023, as opposed to Carhenge 1987,” Rush told NME. “We’re basically revisiting the idea which was one of the first things we did when we came to the festival. What happened was The Mutoid Waste Company was formed and we were trying to get to Stonehenge Free Festival, when we built our first mutated lorry.

“We couldn’t get there because the police attacked the hippies going into Stonehenge Free Festival, smashed all their wagons and beat them all up. So by the time we were ready to go, there was no Stonehenge to go to – so we came here to Glastonbury, and built Stonehenge out of cars.”

He continued: “We thought, if they won’t let us go to Stonehenge then we’ll just build Stonehenge ourselves out of cars and we can have our party there.

“It’s gone down as part of the history of Glastonbury Festival, and so we decided to revisit it. We’re doing the version we always dreamed of doing.”

Pointing out the other elements of the area – located at William’s Green – Rush added: “There are also some sculptural pieces involved in this as well, some new and some revisits of earlier things. In the middle of the henge is this tree made of exhaust pipes. I did it as a memorial to Joe Strummer, who was a friend who died that year. It’s a comment on the destruction of burning petrol into the atmosphere. So here we’ve got a tree which pumps smoke up into the atmosphere through its exhaust pipes.

“They’re just fun fun sculptures to make, because you get a lovely feeling with this about how vast it is when you get up really close to it. I like making things quite vast, because it makes you feel quite small. If you’re feeling small, you might feel a bit like a kid. Its’a a nice way to make people stop taking themselves so seriously for a bit.”

The display opened yesterday (Wednesday June 21) to mark the summer solstice, and will fully come to life tonight when the sculpture will be illuminated with a show of lights, created by designer Ed Warren, and “the inventive Congolese jump up beats” of musician Fulu Mizik.

Thousands of fans were present for festival organiser Emily Eavis opening the gates at Worthy Farm yesterday (Wednesday June 21) with this year’s line-up including headline performances from Guns N’ Roses, Elton John, and Arctic Monkeys, alongside the likes of Lizzo, Lana Del Rey, Måneskin, Fred Again.. and Cat Stevens, Manic Street Preachers, Wizkid, Lil Nas X, Chvrches and The War On Drugs and more.

Doubt was cast over Arctic Monkeys’ headline set however, when the band were first to cancel a show earlier this week due to frontman Alex Turner coming down with laryngitis. Eavis then said that she was confident that the band would be performing, but that they “have a couple of back-up plans” just in case.

When the full line-up with stage times were revealed last month, much speculation arose around an unknown band called The Churnups appearing on the bill at 6.15pm on the Friday of the festival, playing on the Pyramid Stage before Royal Blood.

The most common theories are that it will be Foo Fighters, or returning Britpop veterans Pulp. The rumour mill then seemed to spin in favour of Foos, after Dave Grohl teased fans with a message that mentioned “churning up” emotions.

Known for joining the band on stage, Rick Astley also responded about the Foos rumours in a new interview with NME.

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