Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl dedicated the last song of the band’s surprise set on Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage to their late drummer Taylor Hawkins.
The US rock band stormed through a number of hit songs during the hour-long performance – their first time at the world-famous festival since 2017.
There had been high speculation that the Foo Fighters would take to the main stage on Friday from 6.15pm in a slot which was billed under the name The Churnups.
An hour before the slot, the band posted a photo of flags within the festival crowd, one with the phrase Churn It Up brandished across it, and tagged the post #Glastonbury2023.
The 2023 performance marks 25 years since Foo Fighters first performed at Glastonbury.
Famous faces watching the show included Sir Paul, Stella, and Mary McCartney, US rock guitarist Slash and Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses, as well as Rick Astley and Kate Hudson.
Kicking off with All My Life, Grohl told crowd: “We only have one hour so we gotta make sure we fit in all the songs we can.”
They went on to play a collection of hit songs including Best Of You and The Pretender.
Finishing off the latter, Grohl said: “You guys knew it was us this whole time, you knew it.
“We’re not good at secrets.
“Well, it’s nice to see your faces again, it’s been a long time. This is another beautiful day, another beautiful audience.”
Foo Fighters then launched into My Hero, prompting the thousands-strong crowd to belt out the chorus.
Later on, Grohl took a pause to introduce the band members, including Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee, before welcoming his daughter Violet to the stage – who he described as his “favourite singer in the world”.
He also made special mention to drummer Josh Freese, who he said was “the man who helped us to be here today”, following the death of Hawkins last year.
The drummer died suddenly in March aged 50 while the group were on the South American leg of their world tour.
#glastonbury2023 pic.twitter.com/G5uz5dbdOF
— Foo Fighters (@foofighters) June 23, 2023
The band subsequently announced they were cancelling all of their upcoming tour dates “in light of the staggering loss”.
Ahead of their last song of the night – Everlong – Grohl said: “Well it’s nice to be here for 58 mins and 30 seconds.
“We usually play this one as our way to say goodbye because we never like to say goodbye because I figure that if you guys come back we’ll come back soon.
“But I already know we’re coming back for a whole f****** tour but I would like to thank every one of you for sticking around for the last 28 years.
He added: “I would like to dedicate this song to the Mr Taylor Hawkins.
“So let’s sing this one loud, we’re missing Taylor.”
He earlier told crowds: “You’ve got a long night ahead of you, you know that right, there’s a whole other rock show.”
“We could do this all f****** night, you know what I’m saying.”
Also due to perform on the mainstage on Friday are British rock bands Royal Blood and Arctic Monkeys.
The Sheffield band’s headline slot was thrown into question earlier this week when they announced frontman Alex Turner had acute laryngitis, forcing them to cancel their show in Marlay Park, Dublin, on Wednesday.
However, festival co-organiser Emily Eavis confirmed on Friday morning that “they’re on”, which was welcomed with uproarious applause.
“It was a little bit close there for a minute and we were thinking about whether we should have a serious back-up plan in place, but no, thankfully they’re on, so that’s great,” she added.
It will be the rock band’s third time headlining the festival after topping the bill in 2007 and 2013.
The group are currently on a world tour and since the start of the year, they have performed hits across Australia, Asia and the UK from their back catalogue including I Wanna Be Yours, 505 and Do I Wanna Know?
Earlier on Friday, Irish musician Hozier also confirmed that he would be the surprise act at 7.30pm on the Woodsies stage, previously named the John Peel stage.
The singer-songwriter, full name Andrew Hozier-Byrne, said he was “thrilled” to be performing at the festival again in a “not-so-secret set” on Friday evening.
Ms Eavis also appeared to accidentally confirm rumours that Rick Astley and Blossoms will play a secret set on Saturday.
When asked about if their set was confirmed, she said: “Yep” before catching herself and asking if the show was being broadcast live.
The third day of the festival also hosted film screenings, theatre and circus performances and a debate titled Solidarity With Iran which included British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was imprisoned there for six years.
Saturday night will see US rockers Guns N’ Roses headline, after the original line-up of Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan reunited in 2015.
Sir Elton John, 76, will close the festival on Sunday night for what has been billed as the final UK show of his mammoth farewell tour.
Ahead of Foo Fighters’ surprise set on Friday, a tribute was paid to the three victims of the Nottingham attacks earlier this month.
The images of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates were displayed on the screens of the Pyramid Stage, along with messages written by the parents of two of the victims.
“Hold no hate for race, religion, colour or culture,” read the statement from Emma Webber.
From Sanjoy Kumar, father to Grace, the message read: “You have to love everyone.”
