Forward Marching Into Forwards Festival 2025

We are few weeks from Forwards Festival and I’m still soaring. Floating, holding onto every sweet memory, glittering and shimmering in my mind. The entire weekend was a beautiful chaos of shared smiles, stepping over peoples legs and thumping bass, feeling it

through every bone in my body.

Whatever you’re feeling, you leave it at the gates of Forwards. In a little pile by the security checking your bags and you don’t pick it up again when you leave either. Leave it behind, leave it for better things, for music that makes your heart sing and your mind clear. You don’t need to worry about anything that’s been weighing you down and to be honest, a lot has been weighing me down. I’m not too sure why I’d been feeling so sad last week but I didn’t remember after Saturday or even Sunday. Nothing mattered, it was just me, whoever I was with and the music that traveled through my body and onto the grass under my pink ballet flats (please stop hating on me, I thought they were cute!!).

Forwards Festival was a weekend of people drinking moth cans like they were going out of fashion (I fear that was me on the Saturday) and the sun covering everyone like a warm blanket — people beelining for the welfare tent where they were running out of suncream (“hey, are you finished with that? W ait … is that factor 50?!”).

The entire ground the festival made its home on, transformed into a wonderland, each area a portal into a new adventure. From important talks in The Information Tent, to kids running around in the Kid’s Area, there’s something for everyone, no matter if you’re toddler or adult sized! The air buzzed with a joyful hum that followed you everywhere and reflected off of everyone’s sunglasses.

As the afternoon sun dipped lower on Saturday, the energy in the park shifted, transforming the daytime buzz into an electric hum as Barry Can’t Swim took over the W est Stage followed by Orbital on the East. T wo iconic electronic musicians, each carving their own path in the industry for different reasons.

However, my highlight of Saturday was Ezra Collective on the West Stage.

The energy became a physical force as soon as they stepped on stage. The Downs wasn’t just filled with people — it was a part of the collective, shaking from the sheer force of everyone dancing. Inches cider in hand, my hands covering my eyes from the sun, I danced my way through their set with my friends (old and new) around me, feeling like I was invincible by the time they left the stage and I went back to the Guest Area, my bones literally buzzing from the energy of being around everyone.

The energy that Saturday was perfectly matched by Sunday’s soulful sweep. Kind of. The day was a dream sequence of my favourite artists, one after the other. Fabio&Grooverider and the Outlook Orchestra started the day as they meant to go on. A series of songs that took you through the years of garage, jungle and DnB, the crowd moving as one and me, unbelievably, being shown in 4K on the big screen. Texting Taiye in caps lock asking if (“HE REALLY SAW THAT?!”) before making my way backstage to the press tent, giggling the whole time … because of course I’d be on the big screen, right?! A fleeting moment of pure joy that didn’t stop until I was in the passenger seat of Taiye’s car on the way home, trying not to fall asleep.

Then came the ethereal Olivia Dean, an artist I have admired for years. She always has a way of saying things that make you feel so deeply, you just never know how to explain. My voice might have vanished, but I sang (or croaked) along to every single word, smiling at everyone around me. Honestly the best day of my life! Olivia Dean isn’t just a sound, she’s truly a feeling … and boy was I feeling a lot. She completely shut down the stage with a soulful performance that felt like a quiet storm of emotion, you know the ones I was talking to you a little about earlier?

From there, Nia Archives exploded onto the stage, stepping in for Doechii, but you would never know she wasn’t on the initial line up. “I’m going through a break up and this is actually really healing,” Nia tells the crowd halfway through her set and although I’m not currentlygoing through a breakup, I had never felt something more deeply. Musichelps all, it really does, doesn’t it? Lifting up every single member of that crowd, while simultaneously lifting herself up, everyone danced and jumped … hands in the air or in my case, my camcorder held up high; trying to capture every single moment so it wouldn’t just become a moment in time, but something I can show my friends when I got home or my mum on holiday (“look, this really happened … and I was there!”). Finally, Jorja Smith closed off Sunday evening with music meant to be danced too! Her voice was a perfect send off to a weekend filled with so much joy.

It was truly an insane weekend, shared with new faces, who honestly felt like old friends by the end of it all. I know I’m going to miss them for the next year, until we are all reunited again under sunshine and Bristol skies, ready to do it all again. Maybe next time I won’t wear ballet flats to dance to Nia Archives, or hey, maybe I will!

WRITTEN BY MEG IVY BRUNNING

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TAIYE OMOKORE AND IVY IVP