Denise Welch is auctioning off her Glastonbury ‘Brat’ flag for charity
Matty Healy‘s mum, Denise Welch, is auctioning off the Glastonbury ‘Brat’ flag that has her name on it.
The flag was first spotted around the site of the 2025 festival, celebrating both Charli XCX, who was headlining the Other Stage on Saturday (June 28) and The 1975, who were headlined the Pyramid Stage on Friday (27).
Against a background of the famous shade of lurid green now synonymous with Charli’s hit 2024 album, is the text ‘Denise Welch’ – referencing the actor and television personality, who is also the mother of The 1975 frontman Healy.
The flag got even more attention when Charli XCX posted a photo of it on her Instagram page, and later it emerged that the flag had found its way to Welch, and now belonged to her.
Now, Welch has revealed that she’s putting the flag up for auction to raise money for Children North East – a charity that provides mental health support for children and families.
Writing on her Instagram story earlier this week, Welch said: “So at Glastonbury in June, @charli_xcx showed me a photo and said, ‘Have you seen the Denise Welch Brat flag!!’ It became quite a story and featured on lots of the coverage of the festival especially @loosewomen of course!!!
“We’re now auctioning the flag (and bra) to raise money for the amazing @children_ne who do so much for children living in poverty in the north east of England.”
So far, 13 people have placed a bid for the item, taking the price to £685. The auction ends on Monday August 11, and Welch will personally present the flag to the winner.
The flag was made by Chris Scull, a friend of comedian Josh Widdicombe, who got in touch with Welch to get it into her possession. Welch has shared a letter from Scull, which explained how he made the flag and had wanted to gift it to her.
“With The 1975 headlining the world-famous Pyramid stage on Friday night and Charli XCX effectively headlining on the Saturday night, my friends and I felt it only right to celebrate the British cultural icon that links these two acts biologically and in friendship: you,” Scull wrote. “Welcome to Denise Welch’s Brat summer.”
“Now Denise, it cannot have escaped your attention that there is a bra attached to this flag. Let me explain how it got there. Minutes before The 1975 took to the stage, two exhausted girls pushed their way to the now-famous flag with a look of extreme disappointment on their faces,” he added. “They then explained that they had seen the flag from the back of the field and convinced each other that only Denise Welch herself could be holding a Brat-themed Denise Welch flag.
Denise Welch, mother of Matty Healy from The 1975, finally got the BRAT flag with her name on it after spotting it at Glastonbury Festival 2025, thanks to Charli xcx who told her about it. pic.twitter.com/w2FK4jnonF
— hear and there (@hear_and_there_) July 1, 2025
“Recovering from their dismay, they hatched a brilliant Plan B: one of them had in their possession an ‘old bra’ that they wished to throw at Matty, but given that getting within throwing distance was now impossible – would we instead like to attach the bra to the flag? Denise, of course we would.”
NME gave The 1975’s set a four-star review, with Andrew Trendell writing: “It was said that the band spent four times their Glasto fee on the production. It wasn’t as ambitious as The Talking Heads meets West End fever dream theatrics of the house they built for the ‘At Their Very Best’ tour, but it came with a car for Healy to sit in and largely lent itself to letting the songs hit with impact and without distraction. It’s about the music, but almost to a fault.”
In other news, Welch recently commented on Healy’s split from Taylor Swift, saying: “Being her mother-in-law is a role I’m glad I lost.”
The post Denise Welch is auctioning off her Glastonbury ‘Brat’ flag for charity appeared first on NME.
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