Over the years, music festivals have become more and more popular with new ones popping up almost daily. With more festivals, this means more artists are playing the circuit and offering more opportunities for incredibly memorable festival performances.
Billboard has put together a list of the 50 greatest festival performances of all time, which is obviously subjective, but has some incredible talent nonetheless. The list includes performances from all genres and includes a couple of major DJ’s throughout the list.
Skrillex’s Ultra Miami set from 2015, which is where he brought out Diplo, Kiesza, Justin Bieber and Diddy, comes in on the list as #43, making it one of only two sets from Ultra to make the list. At #32, Deadmau5’ set from Lollapalooza in 2011 where he played in the cube on the main stage, becoming the first electronic act to do so.
Next up for electronic music on the list is Swedish House Mafia’s farewell set at Ultra Miami in 2013 where they played their final performance together to close out their One Last Tour. The last electronic entry to the list should come as no surprise since it is widely considered one of the most memorable and groundbreaking electronic performances to ever take place.
The last electronic entry is none other than Daft Punk’s Sahara closing Coachella set in 2006 where they took everybody by surprise when they debuted their famous pyramid. The French duo played an unforgettable set full of remixes of old and new tracks to accompany their brand new structure that has yet to be topped today, more than a decade later.
To round out the top of the list, the top five performances of all times are Prince’s Coachella set in 2008, Otis Redding’s Monterey Pop set in 1967, Beyonce’s Glastonbury set in 2011, Bob Dylan’s Newport Folk Festival set in 1965, and Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock 1969 set coming in with the number one spot.
With festivals becoming increasingly more common, more memorable sets are sure to come out every year so this list will likely look very different in a few years time.
H/T: Billboard
