By Benji Chapman Music Editor (2024/25), Sophie Scannell Music Editor (2025/26) & Megan Foulk Co-Deputy Music Editor (2024/25)
Returning to the Downs in its newly-acquired, sunny bank-holiday spot, Forwards Festival well and truly cemented its presence in the Bristol live music calendar. Sold-out on Sunday and with exponentially better weather than last year (safe from lightning strike warnings), Forwards felt bigger, busier and more impressive than ever before.
Despite the unfortunate drop out of Sunday headliner Doechii, announced just days before the event, the lineup still held strong. Replaced by Jungle royalty Nia Archives, who headlined sister festival Love Saves the Day only a few months prior, any risk of disappointment was quickly resolved.
Maintaining the weekend’s female-heavy equilibrium, with Sunday's set especially stacked with female names, Forwards lived up to its progressive nature, showing others in the game how to correctly spotlight female talent.
Opening midday on Saturday, Swedish-born indie pop star Anna Erhard graced the West Stage in the early afternoon, with her quip lyrical sarcasm and wonky distorted guitar. The scathingly comical ‘170’, which chews on height insecurity: ‘you say you are the same height as me/ but I'm 170/ and you're half a head shorter than me/ so how could that be?’ got the crowd giggling in the sunshine before they'd even touched a pint.
Followed by the West Country’s very own Katy J Pearson, the feel good tunes continued, steering down a folkier avenue. Recalling her cameo during Yard Act’s set at the festival last year, Pearson informed the audience she would not be repeating previous mistakes (ending the day drunk, lost and alone in the middle of the Downs). Instead, it was our turn to have all the fun.
Over on the East Stage, a dancing, maraca-bearing Bez welcomed the mid-afternoon influx of festival-goers, as Happy Mondays stepped on (pardon the pun) Bristol as part of their European tour.
Also heralding from the North, Leeds born rock band English Teacher eased the West Stage into its evening set. Growing in presence as their performance continued, front woman Lily Fontaine’s unique vocal style and honest lyricism had captivating charm.
Perhaps the most surprising performance of the day however, had to be Confidence Man. Backed by a spiked, inflatable stage and masked band, the Australian electro-pop duo certainly won the weekend’s award for extravagance and showmanship. Combining doll-like choreography with catchy melodies and trippy pigeon-studded graphics (it worked, surprisingly), the band transported Forwards into electronic utopia. Hits ‘Now U Do’, a collaboration with DJ Seinfeld, and ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’ were standout favourites.
Equally adored by the crowd were 2023 Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective, who opened by promising: ‘so long as the collective exists we will always visit Bristol.’ The first city the quintet performed in outside of London, drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso credited Stokes Croft favourite, The Canteen, as a crucial stepping stone for the band. Sparkling in the golden hour glow, the collective's set provided the perfect boost of energy in anticipation of the evening's headliner.
Crowning the evening was the Scottish-born Barry Can’t Swim, and with him came a full accompanying band. While his tracks are produced electronically, the session musicians that took to the stage alongside the unexpected bandleader delivered a set with appealing flashes of musical inconsistency: pauses, skips in a drum-fill, or a stray off-kilter note from the live melodies. But rather than reducing the flow of the day, and indeed the festival more broadly, it only spoke to the organic nature of the performance that was tinged with vulnerability and joy.
With half of the festival under our belt for another year, we got some beauty sleep as the grass had a breather from being relentlessly trampled on by Puma Speedcats and crushed cans of Jubel, psyching itself up for another day of beer, bands, and boogie.
Like many others, nursing Saturday’s hangover meant we were stumbling into Sunday slightly later than the day before. If there was one thing to summon us back to the scene of the crime, though, it was hearing Olivia Dean sound checking ‘Nice To Each Other’ from my housemate’s bedroom window. A more than ideal alarm tone.
Slotting into a staggeringly packed crowd to be met with Dean’s opening tune was nothing short of blissful. A combination emerged of the sun beaming down on us, being serenaded by the crooning of 2023's ‘Dive’ singer in a slinky hot pink slip dress, and the first sip of a free beer from someone who lost all their mates in returning from a drink run. A new pal had already been acquired, as had a new lease of life, and it seemed that the gateway was well and truly open for what day two had in store for us.
Swapping stages, and all the while chanting snippets of Dean's ‘Man I Need’ (as we would continue to do for the rest of the day), we made our way to catch Squid, Bristol-based alt-rock champions. The band delivered an extremely fun and lively set that managed to stretch their energy from the foot of the stage to the very back of the crowd, where soon everyone who was taking five on the grass was up and watching the rock masterminds at work.
A growling rendition of ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ had the crowd lugging imaginary ores back and forth as the tune descended into a clash of chaotic cymbal crashes, rippling a buzz through the hypothetical ocean that would then wash us up on the shore of the West Stage for a highly anticipated Nia Archives set.
The absence of Grammy award-winning Doechii was disappointing for a lot of festival goers that weekend, but Nia Archives filling those alligator-skin shoes was one of the best calls Forwards could have made. Adored by Bristol already, Nia didn’t have to worry about winning over what could’ve been a glum crowd of hardcore Doechii lovers, as we were just as besotted to see her name appear on the lineup and were eagerly waiting her arrival.
First though, a surprise appearance from Zarah Sultana, who co-lead alongside Jeremy Corbyn a split from the Labour party to found a new left grassroots party. Exuding with fervour and rigour the values of this future-facing festival, Sultana gave a passionate speech about politics’ existence in every corner of our lives, and a fine-tuned awareness of its permanence has never been more necessary than it is right now.
Defining hope as a ‘deep moral conviction that we can build something new, and all of us will be doing that’ was a simply put sentiment that rang true with everyone in the crowd and the wider aims of Forwards as a collective.
Nia Archives’ set keeps us on that hopeful high for the next hour. A plethora of classics displayed, M.I.A.’s ‘Paper Planes’, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s ‘Heads Will Roll’ and Pink Pantheress’ ‘Illegal’ are just some of the tracks that Nia sampled into her dance-powered jungle wonderland. A definite highlight of the weekend, Nia’s set was one of undeniable energy, hypnotic stage visuals, and a healthy smattering of drum and bass to keep the aspiring DJs in the crowd at bay.
Bopping amidst the plunging sun behind the West Stage, we became sharply aware of the curtains that were drawing on the festival for another year. A grippingly sultry set from Jorja Smith tied a bow around what had been another fantastic weekend for the festival’s legacy. Her biggest hits, ‘Blue Lights’ and ‘The One’ were enough to leave us more than content as we trod through the downs grinning from ear to ear.
We couldn’t be more grateful to witness Forwards putting their name into practice by creating an ever-evolving festival and delivering an increasingly important message on cultural affairs and the future of live music each year. It is safe to say that the last festival of the summer, and the last hurrah for the Epigram 2024/25 music team, was a goodun. Until next year!
Who would you like to see at FORWARDS Festival 2026?
