Louis Tomlinson Didier Messens/Getty Images
Louis Tomlinson is the hero of Glastonbury Festival — and he wasn’t even performing.
The Guardian reports that the former member of boyband One Direction, 32, left the festival early on Sunday, June 30, to go and purchase a flatscreen TV (with wheels), a generator and a WiFi dongle. Tomlinson brought the setup back to one of the campsites so festival-goers could watch England’s football match against Slovakia.
“It’s the second screen I’ve bought,” Tomlinson told The Guardian on Sunday. “The first got cracked. I wasn’t going to take credit for it because it looked like we were going to lose in normal time, but now that we’ve equalized I’m happy to.” (England took home the win against Slovakia with a nailbiting 2-1 win in extra time.)
“It was a little — well, we brought a TV in, very Glasto in some, like, stones and a little stand,” Tomlinson told BBC after the match had ended. “It was a little bit touch and go at times, ‘cause the signal kept going in and out. But, yeah. Luckily we got the win. We pulled it off. Made up, made up.”
Lottie Tomlinson, Louis’ sister, shared a video of their mission via TikTok with footage of the rocks used to secure the TV stand and the crowd gathered to watch the game.
@lottietomlinson Its coming homeeee 🏴
♬ Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home) – Baddiel, Skinner & Lightning Seeds
Glastonbury officials announced in May that the England v. Slovakia match would not show anywhere at the festival, as it would conflict with performances on the main stages, such as Avril Lavigne.
However, fans like 26-year-old Nathan Davenport were grateful to find a TV to watch the match, instead of using their phones. “Our mate found this and texted us to come,” Davenport told The Guardian. “I 100% would have liked to have seen it on a big screen instead and I think the way the acts lined up, it would have been feasible. We were just walking around watching it on our phones but having this is better.”
Since One Direction’s 2016 split, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik have had varying levels of success in the music industry. All five original members have embarked on solo careers, with Malik becoming the first to do so after abruptly leaving the boy band in March 2015. He subsequently signed […]
Callum Stokes, 26, was also watching the game on Tomlinson’s TV with 15 of his friends. “We’re just watching it on our phones,” he told the outlet. “We were determined to find a way to watch it, but we’re here to enjoy the music and the festival as well.”
When he’s not taking care of football fans at Glastonbury, Tomlinson is focused on his music career. The singer recently performed at the Pinkpop Music Festival in Landgraaf, Netherlands on June 22, and is set to headline Lollapalooza in Berlin this September alongside fellow former 1-D member Niall Horan.
Tomlinson released his first-ever live album, simply titled Live, in May.