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.”
Not for the first time, Moby is speaking out against Donald Trump’s administration with clear frustration.
“The U.S. is collapsing under a deeply corrupt and shockingly ineffective administration,” the longtime electronic musician shared on social media. “These are unbelievably dark times.”
Moby went deeper into his thoughts through a video message, where he explained that people outside the United States keep asking Americans what is actually happening in the country.
“So many of my friends outside the United States keep asking me, ‘what the hell is happening over there?’ And honestly, we don’t even know,” he said. “The country is being controlled by one of the most corrupt, dangerous and incompetent administrations imaginable. Nobody fully understands what’s happening right now. These are very dark times in America.”
Moby joins a growing list of artists publicly criticizing Trump and MAGA politics, including Bruce Springsteen, Jack White, Eminem and Billie Eilish.
Earlier this year, Moby uploaded another statement to social media where he addressed how people should respond following the killing of Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis. “The real question isn’t whether people should feel horrified or outraged by what’s happening in the United States,” Moby explained in the Jan. 26 clip. “The question is what are we actually going to do about it?”
The musician and activist also encouraged people to protest, saying demonstrations are a constitutional right and something he believes Trump’s administration is attempting to weaken.
In the end, he urged people to vote regularly, “not only during the upcoming midterms, even though those matter, but also in every special election throughout the year.” He also encouraged supporters to “stop giving money to the scumbag corporations backing Trump and ICE. We all know who they are. Boycott them.”
His newest remarks arrive as the U.S. Justice Department unveils a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund for Trump allies who claim they were unfairly investigated. At the same time, the Strait of Hormuz remains shut down following military action launched by the U.S. and Israel against Iran in late February without approval from Congress, leading to rising gas prices across the globe.
Throughout his independent music career, Moby has earned 10 entries on the Billboard 200 along with two songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and an enormous catalog of sync placements. Overseas, particularly in the United Kingdom, he is viewed as one of the defining artists of his era. He scored two No. 1 albums there with Play from 1999 and 18 from 2002, alongside 18 top 40 singles and two nominations for Best International Male at the BRIT Awards.
Check out Moby’s newest social media post below.
