Glastonbury 2024: Who has performed a secret set at the festival previously and what did they play?

• Debate continues over who could be the secret act this year at Glastonbury Festival.
• Speculation mounts as the gates to Worthy Farm open this morning as to who is performing on the Woodsies stage on Saturday?
• Rumours range from Pulp and Kasabian to our own writer thinking its Amyl and The Sniffers.
• What have been some of the memorable secret sets in Glasto history, and what was performed?

I still maintain that Amyl and The Sniffers are the secret act at Glastonbury Festival 2024, which officially threw its gates open at 9am this morning (June 26 2024.)

But the speculation over who is playing that vaunted 6pm slot of the Woodsies Stage on Saturday (June 29 2024) continues with Pulp now considered the heavy favourites with the bookies, after suspended was halted after a number of bets were placed on Kasabian. 

It’s an age-old tradition that takes place throughout many festival sites; calls of a band performing at a remote location on the site at a time when quite clearly the main arenas were closed. I recalled hearing Limp Bizkit were to play at the Snickers Half-Pipe at Leeds one year and sadly, I was hoodwinked. 

But unlike that tradition, there is no smoke without fire; Dave Grohl practically telling us that they would be “The Churn Ups” in 2023, while those who arrived on the first day in 2014 might have gotten a clue the Kaiser Chiefs were performing a secret set to kick off the festival - their logo was emblazoned on the drum.

Others will regale you about the time Lady Gaga dropped into Shangri-La to perform a set in 2009 despite her main stage appearances, or when Fatboy Slim in 2013 dropped into the area to before a secret set on the Hell Stage.

So who else has performed a secret set at Glastonbury Festival over recent years and, just as importantly, what did they play to the assembled masses who might have lucked out walking to the stages these performances occurred on?

Did you catch any of the secret sets we’ve included in our round-up, or did we miss out on a secret set you felt should have been included? Let us know by dropping a comment down below or contacting the writer at [email protected].