Resplendent in (among other excellent outfits) a George Michael T-shirt, at this year’s festival Mark Ronson DJ’d on Friday night, hosted a massive party in the Stonebridge bar on Saturday night including a five-hour DJ set, and generally went the distance. We caught up with him just after he’d taken the stage at King Princess’s show in a wig.

Hi Mark. You’ve only been at Glastonbury a few hours and you’ve already managed to rock up on stage at someone else’s gig. How come?

I went on stage with [queer pop star] King Princess, who’s signed to my label. She was very sweet. She asked me to come up and perform the song with her. She’s so “hands off my music”, very fiercely independent and rightfully so, cos her stuff’s great and I don’t want to ruin it. So when she asked I got a little teared up. I came on dressed as her. It was cute.

You make a lot of guest appearances at the festival. Is it just a spur of the moment thing?

There are rehearsals. I flew to Denmark this morning to rehearse with Miley Cyrus [for a surprise appearance on her Sunday set]. The only way we could rehearse was by me going to a festival she was playing at. Everybody wants their stuff to sound good. Everyone’s a bit of a perfectionist. It’s not just a case of jumping on a pair of decks.

Can you remember your first experience at Glastonbury?

Because I moved to the States when I was pretty young, I didn’t ever experience Glastonbury until I played it. I heard people talking about the festival as this mythological thing, but you don’t truly understand until you get there. My first one was 2007. It was really muddy. I remember Wale, the rapper from DC, was touring with us and wouldn’t get off his tour bus. He saw the mud and went “no way.” And then we found out that the night before Dizzee Rascal had worn binbags over his shoes so that he could go on with Arctic Monkeys. So we got Wale off the bus [using binbags].

Binbags aside, what’s the wildest moment you’ve experienced at Glastonbury?

The first year I really had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea of the lay of the land and I was staying at some place off site. I got lost leaving on Saturday because I was staying at some late rave. And our set was on Sunday. So I was kind of freaked out, thinking: “I do need to get some sleep.” It starts raining, and suddenly I see a man coming over the hill. I’m like “Thank God, he’s going to tell me where to go”. It turns out he was like a super drunk farmer with 40 sheep behind him. He was cogent enough to direct me, and I went to sleep, but after that I thought, ‘OK, I’m not risking this luck any more. I’ll stay on site.’ I’ve never had a bad time here. Even just coming here to play a DJ set is interesting. It’s hard to do it wrong unless you have a bad attitude.

Mark Ronson DJing … ‘It’s hard to do it wrong at Glastonbury.’ Photograph: Lorenzo Garrido

Speaking of rain, you were here in 2016 for the notorious Brexit Glastonbury. What are your memories of that?

Brexit happened the day before. It was such a fucking crazy, down vibe. It was really muddy too, and I could tell that I stayed up a little late past my bedtime because all these pictures were of me and Kevin [Parker] wandering through mud and really looking a bit “all right mate, go to sleep”.

What is the one festival essential you can’t live without?

You’ve got to have a toothbrush, and a phone is good. But beyond that I think it’s very much a ‘go with the flow’ thing.

As a veteran, are there any secret tips you would give to newcomers?

It doesn’t really matter where you go. You plan to see all these things when you get here and you just end up having a drink at some bar and that’s amazing. You’re just hearing the music seep over you from the background. That’s the vibe, not to get too caught up with the schedule and the map. Do that at other festivals. Here’s a bit more in the moment.

That must be a little harder when you’re famous. Are you able to visit Glasto incognito?

I like going out. This year I’ve got two film cameras and have been going out taking pictures of the crowd and stage. I just wanted to talk to people for fun and do amateur photography. It’s super fun to get into the crowd. If you don’t get into the crowd, you can’t feel the spirit. I understand there’s a certain level of star, like Miley, who can’t go walking around. But this might be the one place where the vibe is chill.

Do you think Miley Cyrus will be roaming around then?

She told me she wants to get stuck in on Sunday night. She made me promise I would stay for it. I want to invite her to my club night on Saturday, but I couldn’t in good conscience make her go to a 5am rave the night before her big set. I’ve told her, “It’s not happening.” The thing is she’s so generous, she’d want to come. And she’d kill it. But you’ve got to save yourself for the big one on Sunday. Get your beauty sleep.

