In the fifth year of its incarnation as Forwards Festival, Bristol’s flagship summer spectacular celebrates its half-decade with a bountiful selection of musical acts, and the bonus of a prestigious curtain raiser on the Friday before the weekend festivities kick off in full. 2026’s version of Forwards features ‘Forwards Presents: Lorde’ wherein the New Zealand star will headline a nine hour line-up of artists, with a strong leaning toward singer-songwriter talent: included in the bill is Djo – the musical stage name of Stranger Things’ Joe Keery – indie pop singer-songwriter Maise Peters, Indian-Australian folkster Esha Tewari and New York City’s Audrey Hobert, who has co-written tunes with artists as diverse as The National’s Aaron Dessner and Gracie Abrams. And Lorde herself, who has garnered impressive plaudits in the form of, among others, three World Music Awards, two Grammys and two Brit Awards, could well be the weekend’s biggest draw.
A generous line up of acts will commence from midday on Saturday with seventeen artists performing on three stages: The East Stage, West Stage, and the more dance orientated Arches stage. Headlining the East Stage will be Isle of Wight indie rock group Wet Leg, who specialise -as per best known song ‘Chaise Longue’ – in a deadpan and slightly tongue-in-cheek approach to songwriting. The East Stage line up is bolstered by special guests Maribou State, the electronic duo’s 4.40pm slot seeing in the day’s transition from afternoon to evening. Over on the West Stage, Nigerian Afrobeat and R&B artist Tems will no doubt provide a sterling headline set, while the experimental pop of Rebecca Taylor, AKA late-blooming musical success story Self Esteem, will certainly leave a high bar to follow.
The Sunday line up sees this year’s Forwards finish in style as another sixteen acts perform across the three stages. Since appearing at Forwards’ inaugural event in 2022, the career of London-born rapper Little Simz has gone near stratospheric, and this year sees her return as headliner on the West Stage. For those looking to vent life’s stresses and frustrations via powerful angsty guitars, a double header of Swedish post-punk outfit Viagra Boys (look out for the heavily tattooed torso of frontman Sebastian Murphy) and angry Australian punks Amyl and the Sniffers. Again, for those of a more dancey, electro persuasion, you can hop over to the Arches Stage for DJ sets by, among others, Jamz Supernova, “one of the leading next generation DJs in the UK” according to the BBC.
Forwards 2026 promises a little something for everyone and, as ever, will be a delightful way for any Bristolian music fans to see in the end of this year’s festival season.
Tickets for this year’s Forwards Festival – including the Lorde headed event on Friday – are still available. See here and here for ticket details.
