Bristol festival Forwards has announced that Lorde will be headlining this year. Find all the details below.
The Kiwi singer-songwriter is set to top the bill at the city’s Clifton Downs on Friday August 28, following her slot at London’s All Points East the previous weekend.
READ MORE: Lorde live at Glastonbury 2025: a celebratory start to her new era
She’ll be joined in Bristol by various opening support acts, led by musician and Stranger Things star Djo (aka Joe Keery).
The rest of the line-up consists of New York singer-songwriter Audrey Hobert (who appeared on NME‘s 50 best songs of 2025 list with ‘Sex And The City’), former NME Cover star and BRITs Critics’ Choice nominee Rose Gray, Australian artist Esha Tewari, and Bristol-based producer, vocalist and DJ Grove.
Lorde’s gig at Forwards will take place the day before the start of the main 2026 festival, which is also held at Clifton Downs across Bank Holiday Weekend (Saturday August 29 and Sunday August 30).
The rest of the line-up for this year’s Forwards is due to arrive in the coming months, according to organisers.
Tickets for Lorde’s date go on general sale at 10am GMT this Friday (February 6) – you’ll be able to buy yours here. Alternatively, fans can access a pre-sale at the same time on Thursday (February 5) by signing up here.
The singer’s 2026 tour schedule also includes slots at Madrid’s Mad Cool, Lisbon’s NOS Alive and New York City’s Governors Ball. She’ll headline the Edinburgh Summer Sessions in August, too.
Lorde brought her 2025 ‘Ultrasound’ world tour to the UK and Ireland last November in support of her fourth album, ‘Virgin’. She played two shows at The O2 in London as part of the trek, where she was joined onstage by Stranger Things‘ Sadie Sink.
Lorde live at Glastonbury 2025. Credit: Derek Bremner for NME
In a four-star review of her first night in the capital, NME wrote: “The intimate feeling that Lorde creates doesn’t just extend to a crowd voyeuristically watching her from afar […]
“She finds ways to bring everyone together, whether telling the London audience how ‘special’ we are for making her feel free and at home when she spent months in the city while making ‘Virgin’, or uniting the arena in cheers as she subtly nods to Palestine during ‘Team’, the stage lights turning green, white and red. ‘We are a network of bodies,’ she tells us after. ‘Don’t forget it now’.”
‘Virgin’ landed at Number 24 on NME‘s 50 best albums of 2025 list, where it was hailed as “a fierce rebirth for Lorde”. The single ‘Man Of The Year’, meanwhile, appeared at Number 16 in our 50 best songs of the year rundown.
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