Glastonbury, England - British supergroup The Who closed the Glastonbury festival on Sunday before thousands of festivalgoers, but not before the appearance of an unusual guest on the festival main stage - the Dalai Lama.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, making his first appearance at the outdoor festival, turned up on the Pyramid Stage and spoke to the crowd about happiness.

He was treated to a rendition of Happy Birthday by the crowd to mark his 80th birthday next month, reported Reuters.

Appearing alongside him about 40 years after the release of her ground-breaking punk rock album Horses was American singer Patti Smith, whose anger and passion burnt as brightly as ever in a show that included her song Beneath The Southern Cross and ended with My Generation by Sunday night's headliners, The Who.

Appearing before Smith, Lionel Richie, 66, led the crowd in a 100,000-strong karaoke session on Sunday as festivalgoers sang along to a string of hits including Easy Like Sunday Morning and Dancing On The Ceiling, Reuters reported.

The former Commodores singer deployed his charisma to full effect in the Sunday afternoon slot filled by Dolly Parton a year ago, affecting mock horror at the enthusiastic participation of the audience and saying the enormous crowd was "out of control".

Richie only had to sing half of the lyrics to Hello as the audience filled in the gaps, while All Night Long turned a muddy field in south-west England into a carnival.

The Who presented a vintage rock performance full of their hits including Who Are You, The Kids Are Alright, Pinball Wizard and Behind Blue Eyes, before ending with an explosive performance of Won't Get Fooled Again.

Guitarist Pete Townshend took a potshot at Saturday night's headliner Kanye West, who had claimed on his set to be "the greatest living rock star on the planet".

Townshend described Won't Get Fooled Again as "big and rebellious" before adding, "who's the biggest rock star in the world?" to cheers from their crowd, reported the New Musical Express.

One of the world's biggest music festivals, Glastonbury opened last Friday with a headline performance by Florence And The Machine and the highly anticipated turn by rapper Kanye West last Saturday.

West's billing had prompted thousands to sign a petition against the choice of a rap act for the top billing.

But the rapper proved the doubters wrong by attracting a large audience who knew the words to many of his tracks.

His wife, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, was seen ahead of the performance traipsing the muddy field with him, dressed in strappy heels and a sleek dress.

The festival also saw performances by Pharrell Williams, Paloma Faith, George Ezra, singer-turned-activist Charlotte Church, Russian punk protesters Pussy Riot and even 87-year-old pop legend Burt Bacharach.

Last Saturday, Bacharach initially left the vocals to his singers for a medley of songs that sound-tracked the 1960s and 1970s, from I Say A Little Prayer to Trains And Boats And Planes and I'll Never Fall In Love Again.

He took to the mic later on, before leading the crowd in a mass singalong of Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head as, right on cue, light drizzle started.