In partnership with Open’er Festival
Words: Mark Beaumont and Ali Shutler
Festivals used to be the exclusive playground of iconic rock bands and superstar DJs. True to its legacy, Open’er Festival 2026 has featured plenty of those, with Calvin Harris, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Florence & The Machine and The xx delivering impeccable headline sets at Gdynia-Kosakowo Airfield.
But over the past few years, pop titans have proved that the slick, infectious genre can just as easily command a feral field as it can a plush arena – and the final day of this year’s Open’er Festival was a full blown takeover from the best and brightest megastars around. JENNIE and Addison Rae dominated the Main Stage, PinkPantheress and Jade packed out the huge Tent Stage while Peggy Gou and Horsegiirl delivered the perfect afterparty. Here’s what went down during the last day of Open’er Festival 2026.
JENNIE is the future of pop
Zara Larsson’s ‘Lush Life’ was well on its way to becoming the unofficial sound of summer at Open’er 2026. The glorious track was the highlight of Larsson’s sun-soaked set on the festival’s opening day, and the song has been blasted from the main stage’s impressive speakers between every act since. JENNIE made a last-minute claim for the crown on Saturday night though, with her joyous remix of Tame Impala’s ‘Dracula’. “I think you’ll know this one”, she smirked, as thousands of fans got down to the vampiric indie banger. It was just one highlight in a set full of them.
As a solo artist, JENNIE’s released one album (the bold, self-assured ‘Ruby’) and only performed a handful of her own headline gigs, but the BLACKPINK star knows exactly what she’s doing. From the apocalyptic intro video and strutting, self-love anthem ‘Filter’ to the closing rap-riot of ‘Like JENNIE’, her headline set at Open’er Festival was a progressive pop masterclass from an artist comfortable going it alone.
There were moments that crossed over into BLACKPINK territory. ‘Mantra’ was a sugary rap-pop banger, complete with slick dance breakdowns and a ultra-hooky chorus while arty, high-concept videos about identity and belonging split the set into different chapters. Fans lined the front barricade with handmade signs, countless more waved their baby pink lightsticks. Still, instead of covering recognisable songs from her day job in one of the biggest K-pop groups going, JENNIE performed three unreleased solo tracks. A risky move at a festival, but when they sound as good as the shimmering ‘Lock It Down’, the soaring drama of ‘Heaven’ or ‘Less Than A Lover’s funk heartbreak, why wouldn’t you? “I can’t wait to share this new music with you soon,” she teased, already gearing up for the next era.
Across the set, there was a sense of newfound freedom. She partied with the front row for the defiant shrug off of ‘FTS’ and seemed to relish getting vulnerable with those unreleased tracks. The set veered between squealing rock ‘n’ roll guitar riffs, urgent dance beats and tender ballads without ever getting lost. “It means so much to be here, I don’t know how to put it into words,” JENNIE said before a party-starting final third that featured the swaggering ‘ExtraL’ and the empowering dream pop of ‘Starlight’. “’I’ve got to come to Poland more,” she smirked, with the crowd chanting her name before the riotous ‘Like JENNIE’. We’re thinking the exact same thing. (AS)
Open’er Festival 2026. CREDIT: Zachod Plonka
Addison Rae delivered a love letter to shameless pop excess
Addison Rae’s ascent from viral TikTok creator to pop megastar has been unapologetically rapid. She released her first proper single ‘Diet Pepsi’ in the summer of 2024 and, less than two years later, has played Wembley Stadium with Lana Del Rey, teamed up with Charli XCX for the ‘Brat’ remix album and had her own Coachella set interrupted by Olivia Rodrigo.
Last year’s debut headline tour was universally praised (“effortless euphoria from a pop icon-in-waiting” NME’s Rhian Daly wrote in a four-star review) but Rae has stepped things up once more with this summer’s festival run. “I don’t want to get emotional but my life has changed so much since I started this tour,” she told the crowd at Open’er during the final show of her ‘The Fame And Glory Tour’. “I have a lot of fun up here – I hope you can tell,” she added with a smirk.
And there was a sense of playful pop maximalism to the entire hour-long set, which featured high-energy dance breaks, trust falls, pyro, costume changes and a stage that twisted from underground club and cabaret circus to swinging playground. A flurry of red confetti was unleashed during the second run-through of her debut single, as Rae and her dancers told the crowd to go about their business while they took some photos. “I don’t ever want to forget this day.”
The extremely extra show included nods to the pop greats that have come before Addison Rae. ‘I Got It Bad’ pulled heavy inspiration from Britney Spears’ ‘Hit Me Baby….’, the grinning doom of ‘Fame Is A Gun’ channelled Lady Gaga at her most cutting and the dreamy nostalgia of ‘Diet Pepsi’ could easily have been plucked from the world of Lane Del Rey. But it’s hard to think of another musician around who’s doing pop spectacle this shamelessly. The whole show was a deliciously over the top romp through lust, heartache and club escapism, led by the genre’s new ringmaster. The ascent has only just begun. (AS)
Open’er Festival 2026. CREDIT: Czyzewski
JADE introduced Poland to the posi-power of Little Mix
“Jade! Jade! Jade!” Little Mix-mania had clearly reached the Baltic Sea. Ten minutes before Jade raced onstage and burst into ‘IT Girl’, flanked by two dancers in white track-suits, the Tent Stage was howling her name almost as loudly as they lost their proverbials to every single one of her Polish-language “thank you”s.
With her solo career flying, Jade was overwhelmed by the loud Slavic love. “Am I an honorary member of Poland now?” she asked as if angling for an EU passport, and whatever the hell she meant, Open’er was ready to rubber-stamp it.
This early in her solo career – debut album ‘That’s Showbiz Baby!’ is less than a year old – there’s still a sense of discovery to Jade the solo artist. Over the course of her hour-long set there was Rebel Jade, potty-mouthed and flicking the bird through defiant power-pop tunes ‘FUFN (Fuck U For Now)’ and dedicating Little Mix’s Latin pop bite-back tune ‘Wasabi’ to all her haters: “I hope you feel seen”. There was Vulnerable Jade, revealing that the Supremes-sampling ‘Before You Break My Heart’ and fuzzpop favourite ‘Angel Of My Dreams’ were about the “trials and tribulations” of being a woman fed through the music machine. There was Sex-Crazed Jade, encouraging us to explore our “freaky shit” on the soft-centred disco of ‘Fantasy’. And there was Dutiful Salesperson Jade, devoting a whole medley to ravey extra tracks from the album’s ‘The Encore’ deluxe version as if contractually obliged.
But at the core was Inclusive, Fan-Pleasing Jade. “In Homage to the Little Mix girls”, she treated the faithful to a five-minute blast through snippets of Mix songs including ‘Touch’, ‘Shout Out To My Ex’ and girl-power banger ‘Salute’. She cast a stained glass LGBTQ+ flag onto her stage screen for a resonant ‘Church’, declaring “everybody’s welcome in the church of Jade”. Ten thousand or so evangelists can’t be wrong. (MB)
PinkPantheress threw a hardcore dance party
Contrary to one of her more random recent TV appearances, PinkPantheress was no weakest link on Open’er’s final day bill. It was ten deep outside the Tent Stage by the time she shimmied onto the bare bones of a stage set in a scarlet minidress, hugging her shoulders and cooing into her microphone set to the softest ever autotune.
Draping her velvet vocals and candyfloss raps over ambient dance pop tones and drum ’n’ bass beats, she made for a very modern take on Sade – a soft-edged voice for the times. There were moments, when her taped backing vocals shrouded hers closely, where she seemed to sink into her music until it subsumed her. Come ‘Just For Me’, she was wandering the crowd barriers handing out roses. Yet the key to her live appeal was the element of surprise. The way she’d suddenly yelp “STOP IT!” or “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?” at otherwise delicate moments. The way ‘Pain’ emerged from a crackling classic soul piano intro, and the final ‘Illegal’ ended in a sped-up Smurf party at which everyone ascended. Unexpected rave, reggaeton or even Riverdance segments enlivened quieter bits and, most startling of all, at the end of ‘The Aisle’ she was proposed to by two dancers simultaneously. She said yes to both, only to find herself the spare wheel in the subsequent three-way.
Her skill is to straddle both the hard and soft-core, able to drop vulnerable dream-pop melodies about existential angst over drill-intense beats on ‘Reason’, and play both the breathless romantic on ‘Romeo’ (complete with a Germanic techno prelude) and the mecha-disco queen on ‘Stars’ (“You’re all welcome to my nightclub!”). And shaming exes, of course, as is the modern pop sport: ‘Break It Off’ and ‘Boy’s A Liar Pt. 2’ both got the crowd bouncing along in sisterhood solidarity. This purring, prowling panther has bite. (MB)
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