NEWS
ØYA Festival has confirmed another wave of acts for its already packed 2026 programme, with Lily Allen, TOMORA and Band Of Horses all joining the bill.
The Norwegian event will return to Tøyen Park in Oslo from Wednesday August 12 through to Saturday August 15. Back in October, The Cure were unveiled as the first headline act, while Amyl And The Sniffers were also named among the early additions.
Shortly after, it emerged that Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds would be sharing top billing with The Cure, headlining the festival as part of their European tour plans for 2026.
Further announcements followed in November, when organisers revealed CMAT, Sombr, Underworld and Lambrini Girls. The following month brought another influx of names, including Geese, Blood Orange, Mogwai and several more artists.
As 2026 gets underway, the festival team have now shared another major update to the bill. Lily Allen is among the latest confirmations and will appear on Saturday August 15, where she is set to perform her 2025 record West End Girl from start to finish. The news arrives as the singer prepares for a busy year of festival appearances and headline shows, marking a full scale return following the widely praised album.
Band Of Horses are also set to make their way back to the festival on Friday August 14. Their first ever European festival performance took place at the same site in 2006, and nearly twenty years later they will mark the occasion by playing their debut album Everything All The Time in full.
Also newly added to the bill is TOMORA, the high energy collaboration between Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers and Norwegian pop artist AURORA. The project had already drawn attention after announcing a series of live dates before being formally introduced. Last month, the duo released their first single Ring The Alarm.
Elsewhere in today’s announcement on Thursday January 29 are Marit Larsen, formerly part of global pop duo M2M, along with Norwegian singer songwriter Thomas Dybdahl, stoner rock outfit Slomosa, emerging artist Hannah Storm, Beth McBride which is the solo project of Bethany Forseth Reichberg, Norwegian folk collective Reolô and electronic group Nonne.
Tickets for the festival are available now, with further details and purchasing options accessible online.
Last year’s edition of ØYA Festival featured headline performances from Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Queens Of The Stone Age and Girl In Red. The wider bill also included Fontaines D.C., Kneecap, Wet Leg, Beth Gibbons, Lola Young, Heartworms, Kelly Lee Owens and Khruangbin.
Speaking with NME during the event, festival director Claes Olsen discussed how the team tracks emerging artists who could eventually grow into headline performers. “I like to see bands develop naturally over time,” he said. “There are a few smaller acts right now that I think are genuinely special. People always ask who the next big thing is, but you can never really predict it. When we first started talks with Charli XCX and Chappell Roan last April, headline slots were not even part of the conversation. Things just kept building from there.”
NEWS
Harry Styles paid tribute to the late David Hockney and reflected on his time in One Direction last night (June 12), as he kicked off his record-breaking residency at Wembley Stadium.
Hockney – whose painting of Styles was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in 2023 – died on June 11, aged 88, and the musician honoured him during his set by sharing a quote from the painter on the big screens.
“What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing,” the quote read. “You wouldn’t be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.”
Styles’ gig last night marked the first of 12 gigs at Wembley, which will see the star break the record for the most shows at the venue in a single tour. Coldplay previously held the record, delivering 10 gigs at the stadium last year as part of their Music Of The Spheres tour.
The London residency follows the Together, Together tour beginning in Amsterdam in May, and will be followed by stops in São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne and Sydney. He will be supported by a different artist in each city, joined by Shania Twain in London, who delivered a set of hits and new tracks from her upcoming album, ‘Little Miss Twain’.
As the sounds of Simon And Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ played over the stadium PA, Styles made his way to the stage, kicking off his set with ‘Are You Listening Yet?’, from his latest album, ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally’. Between renditions of ‘Golden’ and ‘Adore You’, he addressed the crowd for the first time, saying: “Our job tonight is to entertain you. Your job is to have as much fun as you possibly can.
“If you want to sing, if you want to dance, please feel free. Please feel free to be whoever it is you’ve always wanted to be tonight. We’ve got each other’s backs.”
Throughout the night, Styles subtly reworked some of the songs on the setlist. He dedicated ‘Taste Back’ “to all the ravers in the house”, as a snippet of Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’ was interpolated into the song, while a brief burst of Talking Heads’ ‘This Must Be The Place’ was introduced to ‘Treat People With Kindness’. During ‘Dance No More’, the pop star’s band played part of the groove from Happy Mondays’ ‘Step On’, while Styles sang a snatch of Gorillaz’s ‘Clint Eastwood’.
There were also nods to Styles’ days in One Direction early in the set. As the musician left the stage after ‘Fine Line’, the string section on stage played a medley featuring clips of the group’s hits ‘Night Changes’ and ‘History’, plus Styles’ own track ‘Falling’. After ‘Keep Driving’, he took the time to reflect on Wembley’s connections to his and the boyband’s journeys.
“Just outside of this building, just next door, is Wembley Arena, and 16 years ago, my sister brought me to London for the very first time for my X Factor audition,” he said. “So driving here today, and any time I come through Wembley, means so much to me, ‘cause right in that building next door, I was put into a band. We were called One Direction.
The Together, Together setlist features a different surprise song each night at the start of the encore. Last night, Styles treated the Wembley audience to ‘Little Freak’, taken from ‘Harry’s House’, for the first time since 2023. After the song, he spoke to the audience for the final time, saying: “I don’t know if you’ve been listening to me for a week, or a month, or a year, or five years, or 10 years, or 16 years, or whatever it is, but you have changed my life over and over again. Thank you so much for being here and allowing us to do these shows. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
“Finally, 16 years ago, my mother signed me up for the X Factor without my knowledge. I wouldn’t be here today if she hadn’t done that. She’s here today – thank you so much. You’ve changed my life, all of you.” Referencing a lyric in ‘Dance No More’, he added: “Remember – respect your mother.”
‘Are You Listening Yet?’
‘Golden’
‘Adore You’
‘Watermelon Sugar’
‘Music From A Sushi Restaurant’
‘Taste Back’
‘Coming Up Roses’
‘Fine Line’
‘Italian Girls’
‘American Girls’
‘Keep Driving’
‘Ready, Steady, Go!’
‘Dance No More’
‘Treat People With Kindness’
‘Pop’
‘Season 2 Weight Loss’
‘Carla’s Song’
‘Aperture’
‘Little Freak’
‘Sign Of The Times’
‘As It Was’
The Together, Together, London residency continues at Wembley Stadium tonight, with further dates on June 17, 19, 20, 23, 26, 27, 29 and July 1, 3, and 4. Visit here for any remaining UK tickets and check out doors and stage times here.
The gigs will see Styles donate £1 from every ticket sold to LIVE’s levy to help protect UK grassroots music venues and support emerging talent, and before Styles’ headline performance, the big screens at the venue encouraged fans to support Music Venues Trust.
The tour is in support of the star’s latest album, ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally’, which was released in March. In a four-star review, NME described it as “an album that you’ll really want to spend a lot of time with, letting all its layers envelope you”. It added: “It’s the most exploratory album of his career so far, trying out new things and steering his ship in new directions.”
Meanwhile, Styles has also curated this year’s Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre. The line-up chosen by the star includes Stephen Fretwell, Nilüfer Yanya, Orlando Weeks, Bar Italia, Dev Hynes, Jon Hopkins, Getdown Services, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Soulwax and more, as well as an intimate gig from Styles himself.
The festival kicked off earlier this week (June 11) with a performance from Los Angeles’ Warpaint, whose show was their first in nearly two years. During the gig, they shared fan favourites like ‘Love Is To Die, ‘Billie Holiday’ and ‘Disco//Very’, plus a cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’.
