Lorde’s debut in Bristol for Forwards Festival
Words & Photos: Ed Fry
★★★★★
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Forwards Festival always delivers, but this year felt extra special. A Friday afternoon packed with world-class talent, and Lorde headlining her first ever Bristol show.
Photo: Ed Fry | Lorde at Forwards Festival, Bristol
Girl Group kicked things off in the sunshine on the East Stage. The British-Norwegian piece knows how to write a pop banger. Their instrument-swapping and vocal-trading set was pure class. A sharp pivot in weather and mood saw Grove’s explosive, raw, electronic jungle D&B-filled set follow, hitting even harder in the pouring rain.
Over on the West Stage, Rose Gray brought the energy. Fresh off a run of festival slots, she commanded the space with a prop-heavy set destined for late-night tents. Even in the drizzle, the crowd was hooked as she shifted seamlessly from the atmospheric ‘Angel of Satisfaction’ into club-ready cuts like ‘Free’ and ‘I Don’t Speak French’. She skipped her Kesha feature ‘ATTENTION!’, but when your debut features heavy-hitters like ‘Club to Your Arms’ and set-closer ‘Party People’, it wasn't missed.
Photo: Ed Fry | Girl Group at Forwards Festival, Bristol
Audrey Hobert leans into the strange, and we’re entirely here for it. Opening perched eight feet high on a ladder hidden beneath a trench coat, she clutched a banjo for ‘I Like to Touch People’. That was her sole moment of stillness. Shedding the coat for a yellow fishing jacket, she spent the rest of the set frantically pacing the stage. Her band matched the manic energy. Her synth player broke a transparent umbrella mid-set, and her roadie was as much of the entertainment as Audrey. She’s been credited as co-writer for a few years, but it’s her time to shine in the rain, with the crowd roaring back lines on ‘Thirst Trap’ and ‘Phoebe’, before she closed out bouncing on a trampoline for ‘Sue Me’.
Forwards thrives on variety, and Maisie Peters provided exactly that. Amidst a day dominated by electronic music, her catchy pop hooks, acoustic sensibilities, and sharp songwriting landed perfectly with a crowd already primed for Lorde. Opening with ‘Questions’ from her latest LP, she moved seamlessly into punchy anthems like ‘Lost the Breakup’ and ‘Body Better’. She then wound down with the chilled-out ‘Fluorescence’. A highlight was her tribute to the late, great Dolly Parton. A nod to the music royalty who paved the way for so many on today's lineup with a cover of ‘Here You Come Again’.
Back at the East Stage, the crowd was thick and buzzing for Djo, fronted by Hollywood’s Joe Keery. They kicked things off with ‘Awake’. A slow, grungy wash of acoustic guitars set against a dingy stage aesthetic, with Keery tucked away under a cap and sunglasses. Then, bam, the track drops into a wall of fuzzy guitars, setting the energy for the remainder of the set. Keery’s on-screen fame might precede him, but make no mistake, they’re class. Most of the audience were likely there waiting for the three-billion-streamed ‘End of Beginning’, but the set proved they're far from a one-hit wonder. Every track in between was a winner. ‘Charlie’s Garden’ was particularly magnificent. An ELO-esque gem, complete with an interlude featuring a voicemail from Keery’s co-star, Charlie Heaton.
Despite the wind, the rain, the seven hours in a field, the travelling from Aotearoa, and the few hundred metres weren’t gonna stop her fans sprinting from Djo’s set to Lorde’s headline slot at the West stage.
Lorde is good at themes, and there were several over the course of her set. She appeared surrounded by synths and electronic instruments, showcasing her appreciation for the ability to play electronic music live. Not just using backing tracks. From this, she opened with ‘Royals’, promptly cutting into ‘What Was That?’; it felt appropriate later on. Two songs bookend her career to date.
With such a strong opening, how would Lorde go on? The answer is pretty well. She launched into tracks from 2025’s incredible album ‘Virgin’, merging it with huge hits from ‘Broken Glass’ to ‘Buzzcut Season’ to sing-alongs like ‘The Louvre’.
Every song was incredible; we knew that. However, it’s easy to get complacent and rely on good tunes. Lorde knows how to put on a show. Her production was ridiculous. From the beginning, with the live synths she adorned a custom Roland SP404 drum machine and was wandering around playing it, hitting hard through the festival line-arrays. She had huge, movable screens dotted around the stage, actors portraying some kind of narrative. She even harnessed up and ascended to the top of the huge festival stage on said light boxes. More artists need to take a leaf from Lorde’s live repertoire.
Throughout, the passion was there. The second half of the set’s songs included ‘Liability’, ‘Hammer’, and ‘Man of the Year’. Lorde had her fair share of media coverage. But you cannot fault her emotional delivery of these songs that clearly mean so much to her and take on so much meaning in her audience. While she only delivered one track from ‘Solar Power’, she praised Forwards and Bristol a couple of times for the use of clean energy and the festival’s approach as a whole.
Despite starting in her gorpcore-inspired Arc-y in the chilly, windy British evening, Lorde peeled it away to reveal her chest. It was hooked up with heart and EKG monitors to echo the x-ray aesthetic of ‘Virgin’, as well as medical-monitor graphics we’d seen in the visuals throughout her set. Closing her set, Lorde got in her cover of Charli XCX’s ‘Girl, So Confusing’, before ending on a trio of classics: ‘Green Light’, ‘David’, and ‘Ribs’.
It was ‘David’ that really hit home. Producing a banner into the crowd that read the dates 2013, 2026, and the lyrics “I don’t belong to anyone” — a not-so-subtle hint of recent changes in her recording career. The dates echo the set’s opening tracks ‘Royals’ and ‘What Was That?’. When you realise Lorde is only 29 and a newly independent artist, you can’t help but think, this is what she’s produced? While this set certainly belongs in the Louvre… Lorde, please come back to Bristol.