Featured photo by Eljay Briss.
Bristol’s Forwards Festival is a relatively new kid on the block and this is only the third year for the 60,000 capacity event. There are, however, no signs of any of the teething problems that affect other similarly new festivals. It is abundantly clear that this weekend has been organised by a team that know exactly what they are doing.
Set on The Downs, which has hosted outdoor concerts for some time, it’s impeccably well run. There are plenty of well-staffed bars with short queues and a wide range of genuinely great beer options, sufficient toilets in sensible places with similarly short queues, excellent sound quality and levels across all stages and a well-curated line-up which has been scheduled in a way that allows attendees to maximise the amount of acts they can see in one day.
Away from the music, there are family-friendly zones including soft play and science areas, speakers and debates on the Information Stage and branded drinking areas. A lot of the usual suspects we have seen at more corporate festivals this year such as White Claw and Johnnie Walker have their own bars with games, music and immersive experiences. Some people can be critical of such heavy branding at events but it’s a commercial reality of operating festivals of this size. At Forwards, it’s done tastefully and in a way that can heighten the experience for some guests.
The two main outdoor stages are at opposite ends of the field and it takes around five minutes to casually walk from one to the other. The timetable has been scheduled so that an act starts on the East Stage as soon as one finishes on the West Stage. There are no overlaps (although the weather does change that slightly today) and so it is easy to move from one stage to the other for a day of non-stop music without any dreaded clashes.
At the start of the day, some local acts are given the opportunity to open these large stages. Holysseus Fly delivers a carefully created performance piece which is an enthralling and emotional start to proceedings. Jamaican reggae singer, Da Fuchaman and His Fire Blaze Band, then get the party started with a positive and unifying set which makes The Downs feel more sunny than it is.
FORWARDS festival 2024, Photo by Khali Ackford
Glass Beams are a great afternoon festival band. The masked group begin five minutes earlier than scheduled and do not address the crowd before a hypnotic, psychedelic jam. It’s easy to compare them to Khruangbin and I would expect them to move up festival bills over the next few summers in a similar way.
Crazy P were due to play on the East Stage but had to cancel. We have since discovered that this is due to the tragic passing of frontwoman and Bristol legend, Danielle Moore. Bristol band, Cousin Kula, do a great job of filling their spot with a dreamy, soulful performance just as the rain begins. They were one of the local bands playing over on the smaller, Information Stage. The Bristol music scene is more vibrant and exciting than ever and the addition of bands like this plus Knives who are similarly well-received on the Information Stage really adds to the feeling of community at the event.
CMAT has perfected her festival set over the past few years. Her powerful and polished performance is interrupted during “Whatever’s Inconvenient” due to lightning in the area. The band are pulled off stage during the torrential downpour and a message appears on the screens advising us that the show must be stopped temporarily. We experienced a similar thing at last year’s All Points East Festival and it was around two hours before things re-started with no updates in-between so we were concerned about how much festival we were about to lose today. Fortunately, around 20 minutes later and the show was up and running again as if nothing had happened. A good measure of a festival is how they deal with these unfortunate events and Forwards handled this perfectly. CMAT was able to return for two final songs and, despite the bad weather persisting, the crowd rushed back to the stage to line dance in the rain to “I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!” before a stunning finale of “Stay for Something”. The Irish singer/songwriter continues to get bigger and better and, whilst it was disappointing to lose a lot of the set, her performance was too impressive to leave anyone feeling short-changed.
FORWARDS festival 2024, Photo by Giulia Spadafora.
Baxter Dury seemed more than happy to be the act responsible for re-starting the festival after the rain stopped. The audience may have been very wet (very!) but spirits had not been dampened. A captivating, career-spanning show helped everyone to forget that they should have brought better waterproof clothing. It can be very hard to generate a proper ‘festival’ atmosphere at day events but looking around during “Aylesbury Boy”, we could have been at Glastonbury. It was a crowd of genuine music fans ready to have a good time regardless.
The sun reappeared in time for Yard Act‘s excellent main stage performance. This is a band who have really levelled up their live sets. Drawing from both of their studio albums plus some bonuses like “Fixer Upper”, it’s an exhilarating performance which shows no signs of a band fatigued by relentless touring (frontman James Smith tells us this is the final show of the Summer). Bristol-based Katy J Pearson joins them for their recent collaboration, “When The Laughter Stops”, and then returns with CMAT for an irresistibly infectious “The Trenchcoat Museum”. Smith throws himself around on stage while the rest dance behind him before physically dragging him off the stage.
Scottish legends, The Jesus and Mary Chain, give a more subdued but no less enthralling performance over on the second stage. There’s a false start of “April Skies” due to some sound issues on stage but there are no such issues for the crowd. The sound is truly impressive at this festival with none of the usual issues of crowd chatter overpowering what you are trying to watch.
Jessie Ware‘s name stands out as something of an anomaly on today’s 6-Music heavy line-up but any uncertainty in the crowd is dissipated within about five minutes of the self-proclaimed Mother Pearl and her Pearlettes‘ cabaret-themed show. The set draws mostly from her two disco-themed records, “What’s Your Pleasure?” and “That!Feels!Good!”, which is understandable given LCD Soundsystem are tonight’s headliners. “Running” is the only song from Ware’s first three albums to make an appearance and even that is a remixed version as part of a medley. It’s high camp and impossible to not have a good time. Jessie manages to convince the entire crowd to join in with the dance routine for “Beautiful People”. A cover of Cher‘s “Believe” has the field singing along before disco banger “Free Yourself” gets everyone exactly where they need to be for the headliners.
It’s a rush over to Underworld who are headlining the second set and it feels like for many people they are their overall headliners. They pull a very large crowd and turn the field into a 90’s rave. Once again, the sound and lighting of Forwards Festival really cannot be praised enough here and really elevates the psychedelic set into something very magical. As soon as that intro to evergreen “Born Slippy” starts, there’s an enormous adrenaline rush as you realise you area about to experience one of the greatest songs of all time in a perfect setting.
FORWARDS festival 2024, Photo by Khali Ackford
The crowd then darts over to the other side for LCD Soundsystem‘s headline set. An incredible live band seemingly incapable of delivering a bad show. There were some sound issues for the crowd at last month’s All Points East appearance and so it was wonderful to experience this as it should sound. The punk disco crossover of their sound incorporates everything the audience has seen today. You can hear elements of Underworld, Yard Act or Jessie Ware and it becomes so obvious that the line-up has been expertly booked to compliment LCD’s danceable set. The poor weather from earlier in the day a distant memory by the time Murphy sings “if you’re worried about the weather, then you picked the wrong place to stay”. It’s an exceptional finale to a faultless Forwards Festival.
Bristol’s music scene is thriving and Forwards Festival is a worthy extension of that. We can’t wait to return.
