Bristol’s Forwards Festival’s 5th year is a roaring success
A blanket of high-energy sets and joy settled over Bristol’s Clifton Downs, solidifying Forwards as a festival that can’t be missed.
Photo: Forwards Festival
As someone who’s never made their way up to Bristol before, Forwards Festival functioned as the perfect introduction to a city so full of life and harnessing a fierce passion for live music (shared by the residents of the city itself if the crowd was anything to go by).
Spanning two days and three main stages, I managed to catch around sixteen sets thanks to the festival’s incredibly efficient planning, ensuring the two bigger stages (East and West) never had artists performing at the same time. This not only worked perfectly for the artists, giving each performer the chance to rack up a great-sized crowd, but also gave the audience the opportunity to catch as many artists as they could. It worked particularly well for the headlining slots, enabling me to see all three headliners on both nights.
The other ‘main’ stage (The Arches) was situated in between East and West, often supplying high-energy DJ sets and was always packed out, which only made the atmosphere there even better.
The gates opened at midday on Saturday and AMBER soundtracked my entrance to the festival. After winning the RISING War Child competition, she was awarded the opening slot on the West Stage at Forwards. With a set-up consisting of just AMBER’s vocals and a lone acoustic guitar, the set worked well to ease everyone into the afternoon, and I’m intrigued to see where she takes off after securing a slot at such an exciting festival.
I then made my way over to the Information Stage and sat down to see none other than Green Party leader Zack Polanski. Joined on a panel by storyteller/presenter Euella Jackson, Anais Daly from Climate Live UK and director Phil Young, the hour long discussion focused on the importance of storytelling, not just in live music but also in nature, and each talk had a BSL interpreter just by the side of the stage, insuring that every talk was accessible for everyone (more of this at every festival, please!).
A Q&A rounded off the wonderfully thought-provoking session, and I headed off to catch the last of Erika de Casier’s set. A very slow, R&B-inspired set was just what was needed as the sun decided to emerge from behind the clouds, and Forwards began to feel like it had truly kicked off.
I migrated to the East Stage for the first time, and joined the crowd lounging in the sun, while taking in the Paraorchestra’s Kraftwerk ‘Rewerked’ set. The orchestral compositions of such well-loved tracks translated to an almost Hitchcockian sound, and beautifully scored the early afternoon.
When first examining the line-up of the Bristolian festival, the aspect that caught my eye the most was the sheer range of genres and artists appearing on such a stacked poster. No two sets embody that: running from a reworked electronic-turned-classical set straight to Goldie. The charismatic producer/DJ bounded onto stage, and the energy emitted from his set was just infectious. Natalie Williams later joined him for classic tracks like Inner City Life, which had the whole crowd moving, and his 45-minute set absolutely flew by.
Returning to the East Stage, I caught Maribou State, who, again, got absolutely everyone moving and drew a huge crowd. The band recently explained that they were taking a hiatus to ‘reset’ and consequently people were trying to make the most of seeing the talented artists before they take a break. The sun was in full blaze at this point, and their sun-drenched set was perfect.
Meanwhile, The Itch took to The Arches. It was full by the time I got there and the band hadn’t even started yet. Almost reminiscent of LCD Soundsystem-style electronica, I can see them really making it big in the next few years; they really seem to let loose when performing, and it’s so immensely refreshing to see.
Next up, I was then lucky enough to see Joy Crookes for a second time. My first time was at a small, intimate venue in Brighton, so seeing her play a packed-out festival set was definitely a completely different experience, but a great one. Around halfway through her set, the rain started, but neither Joy nor the audience let it deter them. Her silky smooth vocals glided right across the field and she even debuted a couple of brand new tracks, including Not In Love, which she said would be released soon — I can’t wait to hear the studio version.
Massive Attack’s Tricky took to the East Stage next and the overcast weather definitely added to the edginess and grungy feeling his set supplied. Joined by Mitch Sanders and an incredible backing band, Tricky himself seemed distant during the set, although the final track seemed to bring him back into the moment. Full of headbanging and heavy, grating instrumentation, it was the perfect closer.
My guest and I grabbed some food during Self Esteem’s set, but could see all the theatrics from where we were standing. She really puts on a show, even though her music isn’t necessarily to my taste. The attention to detail she involves during her shows — from the choreography and her outfits to the staging decisions — makes her sets headline-worthy.
I headed down to the East Stage around half an hour early to ensure I got a good spot for Wet Leg’s set, and ended up only a few rows from the barricade. Their hour-long headline was drenched in smoke and included highlights from both their albums.
Opening with fan favourite catch these fists and, with a number of great tracks from their latest project moisturizer (including CPR, a track where frontwoman Rhian Teasdale dances with an old-school phone wrapping around her), I (along with the rest of the audience) was singing along to every song. At points, the crowd seemed even louder than the singer herself.
My only wish would be that they would update the setlist a little — I saw them headline at Green Man Festival last year and the setlist was the same, so I would have loved to have heard some of my personal favourite tracks like don’t speak, pokemon or even their latest track from the deluxe version of moisturizer, hi from me. However, it was still one of my favourite sets of the entire festival, and I had the most amazing time.
TEMS closed out the first day of Forwards with her afrobeat and R&B-influenced tracks, and drew an absolutely huge crowd. She even walked down to the barricade during Found and sang with a fan. The stage design for her set was incredible, acting as a sunset against the pitch-black sky that drew over as the day came to a close.
Day two began with Anaiis. Opening up the East Stage on the final day of the festival, the slower-tempo tracks really helped to ease me into the second day of Forwards, and she had such great stage presence. She was wearing an absolutely stunning outfit, and she was very complimentary of the other artists sharing that same stage later on in the day.
I then headed over to catch Liim’s set. The Harlem-based rapper/singer put on a great show, encouraging the crowd to come closer and really engage with his music. Giving the audience the backstory behind each song and making everyone laugh between tracks gave his music a charm that can only really be relayed live. Even a minor microphone malfunction didn’t stop him from giving the performance his all. He’s become a new artist I’ve found myself listening to since discovering him at the festival.
Princess Nokia was by far one of the sets that stood out to me the most throughout the weekend. Her stage presence is undeniably authentic and, within the first few minutes of her coming out on stage, she was already at the barricade interacting with everyone. The rain started pouring during her set, but she kept the energy up the entire time, and this was one of the most fun sets I had the pleasure of witnessing this entire weekend.
She wasn’t afraid to get political either (exactly what we want to see!), condemning the far right along with the American political landscape. Her set was honestly just iconic, and it will stick with me for a long, long time. She rounded off her set with Spit before dancing (insanely well, may I add) to a jungle track and coming to the barrier once again to say goodbye. Now that’s how you end a set in the pouring rain.
From that amazing set, I ran to see Viagra Boys, who also ended up being one of my favourite sets of the weekend. I’d been meaning to catch them live for a while, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Opening with Man Made of Meat, the energy was undeniable and, when they brought out the one and only Amy Taylor of Amyl and the Sniffers (who were playing a set later that night), you could feel the buzz from the crowd.
They performed their live debut of In Spite of Ourselves by John Prine and Iris DeMent, and this kind of quirky, comedic track works excellently with both bands’ humour and slightly comical styles overall. Such an excellent pairing, and both bands complement each other well, so it was great to have them featured on the same line-up.
A quick break at one of the bars situated around the site then led to me ending up back at The Arches stage to catch their final performer of Forwards: Jamz Supernova. Known for her shows on 6Music, she’s another performer I’ve always been interested in seeing. She understood what the people needed perfectly and the uptempo rave-adjacent tracks were the perfect way to close out that stage for this year.
Perhaps the band I was most looking forward to at the festival, Amyl and the Sniffers, did an absolutely incredible job of closing out the East Stage. Amy Taylor emerged onto the stage in a dazzling bright red bikini before the band exploded into song behind her.
Playing crowd favourites like Hertz, Chewing Gum and Tiny Bikini (a very fitting track considering her amazing outfit), the intensity in the crowd was so profound — it was something almost indescribable. In the section I was in, it was wonderful to see so many young girls at the front, clearly inspired by the frontwoman’s outlandishness and charisma — it was really something special.
As soon as the last note rang out from what was probably my highlight of the weekend, I ran to catch the final performer, Little Simz.
Again, thanks to Forward’s excellent planning, just as I was running over to the West Stage, the lights dimmed and Little Simz’s set began — and what a set it was. Opening with Thief, you could feel the ground shake under the audience jumping, and the rain held off for the first half of her set, but amplified the latter half.
Playing mainly tracks from her latest release, Lotus, she displayed what it’s really like to hone your craft, as her set was incredibly polished with clear graphics for each track, corresponding lighting and ensuring that each member of the band got their own moment to showcase their solo talent.
I can’t think of a better way to shut off the festival. Simz encouraged people to dance and jump, which soon had the exhausted festival crowd riled up just in time for Venom, when the crowd went ballistic. I can’t even begin to describe what it felt like being in that crowd; it was just perfect.
She played my personal favourite track from Lotus — Only — and had the crowd singing the lyrics back to her, perhaps the best moment of the festival for me. Closing Forwards Festival with Gorilla (a staple in her setlist) was the best way to go out and, with my ears still ringing from the sheer volume of that masterpiece of a set, I made my way out of the festival.
That was my first time attending Forwards Festival, and what a pleasure it was. The range of performers and artists (and weather, I suppose) is applaudable, with a real focus on female/female-fronted bands, which is still shockingly sparse to see across other lineups.
