It was 2 AM on Saturday when I bumped into a friend in NYC Downlow. She was taking a breather in the seating area, having been in Block9's sweaty queer clubbing haven since it had opened hours ago. When I asked what her plan was for the rest of the night, she brandished what looked like a business card for some sort of mystic. Someone had given it to her, she said, for lifetime entry to a secret bar in Shangri-La. "Where is it?" I asked. "I have no idea!" she responded merrily. Later in the weekend, as I sought out some shade, the same friend told me she'd found the bar with the help of a member of the security team who knew Glastonbury, and the South East Corner, like the back of his hand.

For me, this series of events encapsulates the magic of Glastonbury—there are weird and wonderful surprises around every turn. This year, my fourth at the UK festival, I was also struck by the friendliness of the security and steward teams. At busy times going into the South East Corner, the festival's late-night playground, every single person going through the barriers got a high-five from a steward with glitter on their face. On one of the nights, when they paused entry to control the crowds, a steward with a mic kept everyone calm and entertained, doing shout-outs, singing happy birthday and cracking silly jokes.

Glastonbury didn't present its strongest lineup this year and was rightly criticised for its lack of non-male headliners and representation across the board. But when you're spending a few days in wonderland, there's so much more to it than names on a poster. Some key takeaways: Benga & Coki's "Night" is having a resurgence; Lizzo—with her gigantic Pyramid Stage crowd, incredible voice and stage presence—could easily have headlined; Fred Again..'s crowd at the Other Stage was one of the biggest I've ever seen; and The Levels, the new stage in dance music area Silver Hayes, was excellent. (The first night there, which included KI/KI, VTSS and Job Jobse back-to-back Palms Trax, was so good that we found ourselves glued to the stage from 7 PM until it closed at 3 AM.)

Here are five key performances from Glastonbury 2023.

I. JORDAN back-to-back SHERELLE

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Silver Hayes launched The Levels, a new open-air stage designed by Hidden Corners (which also designs stages at London festival Waterworks). When it opened at 6 PM on Thursday, people were already queuing up at the barriers. As they ran in to catch the opening bars of Danielle back-to-back Shanti Celeste, they were met with a gargantuan wall of black square blocks, lights, lasers and LED light strips. A cube of metal poles, almost like the skeleton of a building, loomed above the DJ booth. The sound was booming and crisp.

The Levels was striking during the day, but it really burst into technicolour life at night. The Silver Hayes team wanted the new stage to be an alternative to the South East Corner, where most dance music fans typically flock after the headliners. It's fair to say they succeeded. (One person even said the towering structure reminded them of the old Genosys stage in Block9.) Thursday, in particular, felt like the birth of something fresh and exciting, and I. JORDAN and SHERELLE's back-to-back was just the fast, raucous set the moment deserved. The two friends jumped around in the booth as they raced through '90s rave tunes, bassline edits and more, including a version of Usher's "U Remind Me" that I. JORDAN had prepared especially.

Kelis

I'd never seen Kelis before, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Ahead of her headline set at West Holts on Friday, a few people told me that her recent shows had been below par. But I wasn't disappointed. Dressed in a glittering yellow two-piece with sparkles in her hair and shimmering green eyeshadow, she worked the crowd with panache and experience, her voice as clear and soulful as on record. The set was curated like a mixtape, with snippets and reworks of her most famous tracks interspersed with classic house (Crystal Waters, Alison Limerick) and hip-hop (Dead Prez, Soul II Soul) interludes.

While some people wanted to hear Kelis's biggest hits—such as "Public," "Bossy" or "Caught Out There"—in full, I found the mixtape set-up slick and different. She was visibly having fun with it, though I also wondered if her approach had anything to do with her dispute with The Neptunes over the ownership of her early albums. The way she rattled through so many tracks was testament to the breadth of her discography—by the time she introduced a mashup of "Milkshake" and Wu-Tang Clan's "Gravel Pit" followed by a rendition of "Bounce," her track with Calvin Harris, there was a giddy feeling in the crowd. Just before the end, after leading the audience in a rousing a cappella rendition of—you guessed it—"Acapella," she gathered her band to take a selfie with the vast throng. "My mum wouldn't believe this," she said.

Mood II Swing

When Mood II Swing stepped up to the booth in NYC Downlow on Friday night, the queue outside snaked right around the building and the club was at capacity. Inside, the air was hot and heavy, clothes were few and far between, and the energy was increasingly heady. Their set was exactly what I hear in my head when I think about the Downlow: soulful house with great grooves and feisty vocals. "You're listening to the sound of 30 years of New York City deep house excellence," said the night's host on the mic, as Mood II Swing worked through tracks like Cajmere's "Brighter Days (Underground Goodies Mix)" and The System's "You're In My System (Kerri Chandler Remix)." This year, dance music at Glastonbury was, in keeping with the wider trend, generally very fast. The NYC Downlow was a sticky-sweet antidote to this, a reminder that classic, groovy house music is hard to beat.

Bashkka

Closing Genosys on the Saturday of Glastonbury is no mean feat—especially if you're playing after Ben UFO. But rising star Bashkka stepped up to the plate and delivered. The Blitz Club resident was born in Munich, but spent a decade living in New York, influences that I could hear in her set's rolling basslines.

This was the second year of the new-look Genosys—what was once the façade of a huge, decrepit building is now a repurposed rave bus. Bashkka played from 4:30 AM through 6 AM, the lights from the bus giving way to the sun glinting through the trees. Behind her, Block9 dancers, brandishing huge pink fans, sparkled in the booth. After a run of percussive house cuts, Bashkka upped the tempo, playing tracks like OZA's "PUSH IT" (a take on the Salt-N-Pepa original) and her own "Act Bad."

Underground Resistance presents Mark Flash

Block9's overarching ethos is one of self-expression, liberty and collaboration, a space for defiant dancing that celebrates the diversity of electronic music. This made the pairing of Detroit royalty Underground Resistance (represented by Mark Flash) and the colossal IICON stage especially fitting.

IICON, a huge sculpture of a head that looks over an entire field, is a mind-bending visual display after dark. During Mark Flash, the IICON signs were illuminated on either side of the stage, as spotlights unfurled a blue-green haze across the dance floor. The live set was a joyful celebration of house and techno, all thumping rhythms and crisp drums accompanied by gospel vocal riffs and bright melodies. One of many highlights, complete with a vocal that reminded me of Karizma's classic "Work It Out," was Ron Hall's "Talk To God 'Bout It (Spen's Sunday Service Re Edit)." As I was dancing, I spotted a T-shirt with a negroni on it designed by a friend. I hadn't seen her all weekend—another classic Glastonbury trope—but in that moment I was reminded of all my friends on Glastonbury's many dance floors, dotted across the farm.