The band confirmed the news they was at Glastonbury festival prior to their surprise set on stage, posting a picture to their Instagram of a bunch of flags, with one saying ‘’CHURN IT UP.’’ The picture was captioned ‘#Glastonbury2023.

The Foo Fighters were welcomed to the stage by a sound wave of cheers. As Dave Grohl spoke to the crowd, he said, ‘’You guys fucking knew it was us this whole time, didn’t you? We’re happy to see you guys. It’s nice to see you guys after all this time.” During their performance, Dave Grohl brought his daughter, Violet, to the stage to sing one of the band’s new songs from their recently released album, ‘’But Here We Are.’’ He explained that the song, called ‘’Show Me How’’, was written as a tribute to his late-mother.

As they performed their final song, ‘‘Everlong’‘, the band dedicated the song to their late-drummer, Taylor Hawkins, who passed away last March at the age of 50. Grohl said,”Lets sing this one loud and sing for Mr Taylor.” The Glastonbury crowd cheered as he continued by saying, ”Sing it for T.” The Foo Fighters drumming spot has recently been taken over by Josh Freese. He was announced as the new drummer on a live stream of the band performing in early May on the app, Veeps. Josh Freese has worked with iconic bands such as Weezer, Nine Inch Nails and Glastonbury 2023 headliners Guns N’ Roses.

Foo Fighters sang some of their greatest hits during their Glastonbury set, including ‘’Best of You’’, ‘’My Hero’’, ‘’Learn To Fly”, ”All My Life” and ‘’The Pretender.’’ Dave Grohl also confirmed the band will be returning to the UK next summer to embark on their highly anticipated tour. A release date for the tickets or any confirmation of where they will be performing is still yet to be announced.

To re-watch the Foo Fighters Glastonbury Festival 2023 performance, to replay other performances or watch live across the weekend, click here.

A photo of Shane and his dad was shown on the big screen as the young drummer kicked off the performance of the 1997 single. Grohl cheered him on as Shane finished the song with an immense solo. Stewart Copeland has said that he “started crying” when he saw Shane drum “My Hero”. He told CBS “It is very emotional to be here and perhaps the most emotional moment of this whole thing, because we’re all staying in one big hotel together and laughing it up, talking about Taylor and enjoying the brief time he was with us, all too brief. But the most emotional moment for me was at sound check a couple of days ago here and to see young Shane Hawkins on the drums. I started crying. He’s got it. He’s got such power, enthusiasm. He’s got his father’s stance, musical language. That was really emotional to see young Shane up there.” You can view Shane’s performance of “My Hero” below.

At its opening on Saturday September 3, the event frontman Dave Grohl promised it would be “a gigantic fucking night for a gigantic fucking person” spanning almost six hours with a set list of 50 songs. This was Foo Fighters first performance since Hawkins’ untimely death back in March. Liam Gallagher kicked off the night performing two classic Oasis songs with members of Foo Fighters, while Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith shared a touching video story. Later, Grohl’s daughter, Violet, took to the stage to perform some Jeff Buckley covers, accompanied by her father, Queens Of The Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures’ Alain Johannes and Jane’s Addiction‘s Chris Chaney.

Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich and AC/DC‘s Brian Johnson joined forces on a pair of AC/DC covers, while Mark Ronson and Violet Grohl covered “Valerie”. Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor then joined Foo Fighters for a five-song set, while The Eagles‘ Joe Walsh led a reunited James Gang in their first live performance in 16 years. Calling them the “one band that I always associated Taylor Hawkins with” Grohl joined the surviving members of Rush, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, on stage to perform some of the band’s biggest hits. The final set of the night featured Paul McCartney, Travis Barker, Nandi Bushell, Rufus Taylor (son of Roger Taylor), Josh Freese and Devo joining the Foo Fighters on stage for “Times Like These”, “All My Life”, “The Pretender”, “Monkey Wrench”, “Learn To Fly”, “These Days”, “Best Of You”, “Aurora”, “My Hero” and “Everlong” . Hawkins died aged 50 back in March of this year and was most known as the drummer with Foo Fighters, a second tribute show will take place at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum on September 27.