After its former incarnation as Downs Festival, starting in 2016, next weekend sees Forwards Festival back at the Downs for its third year. Reverting back to its Saturday and Sunday format (2023 was hosted on Friday and Saturday), a packed line up of thirty plus acts will play across three stages over a two day feast of live music.
Headlining Saturday night on the West Stage is South London hip-hop star Loyle Carner. Having appeared on the Downs Festival’s smaller stage in 2019, Carner’s placing at the top of the bill at this year’s festival is testament to an impressive career ascent in the years since. Thankfully, Carner is no mono-dimensional bling and booty obsessed egotist; his is a hip-hop flavoured by emotion and vulnerability, and themes such as love and loss, race and his own struggles with ADHD and dyslexia infuse his lyrical style. His tasteful use of instrumentation and inflections of other genres such as jazz sees him perform rap at its most musical.
Supporting Carner on the bill for the main West Stage will be a full afternoon and evening line up of seven acts including London born psychedelic R’n’B and neo-soul queen Greentea Peng and duo Joy Anonymous who will bring ghostly vocals and multi genre reference points. The set times for the West and East stages at this year’s event have been mapped out in a way that revellers will be able to go back and forth between stages and catch as much of the action as possible. There will be plenty of interest on the slightly smaller East stage with premier electro acts such as Floating Points (Manchester born DJ Samuel Shepherd) and Four Tet (genre melding, remix master Kieran Hebden) leading the line up.
Presiding over the Sunday night headline slot on the West Stage are Brooklyn electronic rock group LCD Soundsystem. As part of a New York City rock revival era, lead by The Strokes, in the early 2000s, it’s been a lengthy decades long journey that has brought the band to Bristol so this is a rare opportunity for local music fans to see their much celebrated live show (certainly, reviews were positive following their set at Glastonbury this year). Hard for one to place in a befitting musical box, the band have been described as everything from dance-punk, indie rock and alternative dance, and the fact that they’ve won multiple awards within the disparate brackets of dance, rock and electronica is glowing endorsement that LCD Soundsystem have mastered an eclectic approach.
A welcome last minute addition to the East Stage line up this year are celebrated shoe-gazing, noise pop veterans The Jesus & Mary Chain. Signed by Alan McGee near the birth of Creation Records in 1983, ten years before the label truly took off with the signing of Oasis in the 90s, and with Jim and William Reid predating the Gallagher brothers as the prototypical feuding siblings, the Scottish band have an important place in British rock and, again, it’s a rare chance for local fans to catch them live.
Other acts to look out for on Sunday include London singer Jessie Ware and her brand of disco, R’n’B and soul, up and coming Leeds rock group Yard Act whose debut album The Overload brought both attention and best new act awards in 2022, and Cardiff electro legends Underworld who, of course, soundtracked a significant part of the swinging 90s – not to mention 1994 British cinema classic Trainspotting – with the ubiquitous ‘Born Slippy.’
On both days, a third stage – Information By Night – will kick off in the evening and feature a line up of local, alternative and up and coming acts to be enjoyed away from the two larger stages.
Forward Festival 2024 takes place on Saturday 31st August and Sunday 1st September. For the full line up, set times and info on how to purchase tickets, visit the festival’s official website at www.forwardsbristol.co.uk
