Foo Fighters appear to have confirmed they will be playing the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury this evening.
There had been speculation that the rock band will take to the main stage on Friday from 6.15pm in a slot which is billed under the name The Churnups.
An hour before 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 #Glastonbury 2023.
Last year, the group’s drummer Taylor Hawkins died suddenly in March aged 50 while the group were on the South American leg of their world tour.
The band subsequently announced they were cancelling all of their upcoming tour dates “in light of the staggering loss”.
Earlier this month, they released their 11th studio album and their first since Hawkins’ death, titled But Here We Are, and it went straight to the top spot in the UK albums chart.
The US rock band – now comprising of Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Rami Jaffee and Pat Smear – was initially formed as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Grohl.
They went on to become one of the biggest bands in the world with hits including Best Of You, My Hero and Everlong.
Addressing the rumblings on Friday morning about the slot potentially being the rock band, Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis told Radio 2: “To be honest, I think there’s a lot of rumours that are circulating about The Churnups – one of which is true.
“I don’t think I can completely confirm, but it’s coming soon.
“But this is a huge, huge, huge, huge surprise and we have kept this secret for so long, just me and (her husband) Nick, we didn’t even tell the kids we were like ‘Nobody can know this’ and I think it’s going to be extraordinary later.”
The slot will be followed by rock duo Royal Blood and rock band 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, 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 on 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?
They played three shows at the Emirates stadium in London from Friday to Sunday last week before they had to announce that Turner was under doctor’s orders to rest.
They will close out the main stage at the festival in Pilton, Somerset, which kicked off this year at midday with a group of 10 Sufi musicians, named The Master Musicians of Joujouka, who performed a form of trance beats which are said to be “used for healing”.
The group, who are from a village in the southern Rif Mountains in Morocco, played a range of drums and woodwind-type instruments while donning brown robes over a white shirt with a cream headpiece.
A male dancer later came onto the stage dressed in a brown fur costume and wicker hat to represent “Bou Jeloud”, a Pan-like figure half-goat-half-man who is part of their legends.
Crowds clapped and danced around the field as he shook two tree branches as he performed.
They were followed by singer-songwriter Maisie Peters, 23, who played a range of tracks from her new album The Good Witch, which was released on Friday.
Rapper Stefflon Don and Scottish rock band Texas also played the main stage throughout the afternoon and early evening.
Hozier also confirmed on Friday morning that he will be the surprise act at 7.30pm on the Woodsies stage, previously named the John Peel stage.
The Irish singer-songwriter, full name Andrew Hozier-Byrne, said he is “thrilled” to be performing at the festival again in a “not-so-secret set” on Friday evening.
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.
Eavis revealed she has wanted to book the Rocket Man superstar for years but felt it was something that would “never ever happen”.
“Then I wrote him a letter, it was probably September or October last year, and it was like a really cool autumn morning and I sat thinking ‘What’s my dream?’ I’ve got to try and get him,” she added in an interview to Radio 2.
“So I wrote this letter and so lucky that he called up and just said, ‘I’m so up for this’. And I was like, ‘what?’ I can’t believe it.”
