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Fatboy Slim: "I’ve never been paid to play Glastonbury"
29 September 2026, 15:50 | Updated: 29 September 2026, 15:53
Norman Cook claims he's always been given free tickets to the Worthy Farm festival.
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Fatboy Slim claims that he's never been paid to perform at Glastonbury - and has DJ'd simply for a set of free tickets from Michael and Emily Eavis.
Speaking to the Metro, the superstar DJ revealed that he has never charged a fee despite playing the legendary music festival countless times, insisting he's happy to accept free tickets each year.
“I’ve never been paid to play there," Cook explained. "But at the same time, I’ve never paid to go there.
"Emily and Michael [Eavis] give me free tickets and allow me to do little quiet gigs in strange places.”
Cook went on: "I’ve played there so many times even when I’m not officially on the bill; some years I’m there in an official capacity and sometimes I’m just there as a sightseer.
"For me, Glastonbury is the most fun, forward-thinking, beautiful human experience of alternative culture."
Norman Cook first performed on the Pyramid Stage in 1986 with his old band The Housemartins.
Last year, he celebrated playing Glasto 100 times, though he later admitted he doesn’t “actually know” the true number of times he’s graced the stages of Worthy Farm.
He told BANG Showbiz: “The first time was 1986. We celebrated my 100th show there this year but we don’t actually know. The nature of a lot of Glastonbury gigs is that there’s no paper trail. None of us can run it back.
“I’m going on the fact that I’ve done every single one since 1996 and I play at least twice but up to six times. So we kind of guestimated 100.
“I know people like Billy Bragg and there’s a dude out of Hawkwind who have been to more but they make the mistake of only playing one gig, whereas if I played six I’ve probably overtaken them.
“But I’m not claiming that one. It’s unofficial.
“When we claimed the 100th gig at this Glastonbury I was waiting for someone to go, ‘Are you sure?’ The thing is I can’t prove it anymore than they can disprove it.”
Tickets for the 2027 edition of Glastonbury are set to go on sale this week, with coach tickets being available from 6pm (BST) on Thursday 1st October and standard tickets at 9am (BST) on Sunday 4th October 2026.
