How r/RollingStones Crowdsourced the Ultimate Setlist in 2020

In the summer of 2020, with the Rolling Stones stuck at home like the rest of us, the subreddit r/RollingStones decided to build a dream setlist through a series of daily polls. Each round asked users to vote for one song per slot, starting with an opener and ending with an encore, with the rule that no artist could appear twice (except for the “wild card” final slot). The whole thing took about three weeks and generated a surprising amount of strategy — people debated pacing, deep cuts versus singles, and which B‑side deserved a live debut.

The final list leaned heavily on the band’s 1968–1973 peak, with “Gimme Shelter” as the opener and “Sympathy for the Devil” closing the main set. But the community also carved out room for an obscure “Sticky Fingers” outtake and a post‑punk track from the underrated “Black and Blue” era. The thread turned into a mini‑archive of fan knowledge, with users linking bootlegs and explaining why certain songs worked better in certain positions. It was a reminder that even without touring, the Stones’ catalog still feels alive when fans get to curate it.