Audrey HobertElectric Arena, Electric Picnic★★★★★
Audrey Hobert starts her set towering above her band in a trench coat. She has a hands-free mic strapped to her cheek and is playing the guitar. She’s not moving around a lot, but the 27-year-old doesn’t need to do much more: she has the audience where she wants them.
Originally set to play the smaller Rankins Wood stage earlier on Saturday, Hobert has been bumped up to an early-evening Electric Arena slot, to which a noticeable wave of fans have been making their way.
You may not have heard of Hobert yet, but she has plenty of entertainment-industry connections, including through her father, Tim, a writer and producer for Scrubs, The Middle and other TV shows.
She developed her music career writing songs with Gracie Abrams for The Secret of Us, the latter’s 2024 album, as well as on Abrams’s single Minibar, from this summer.
Hobert began releasing her own music last year, with her single Sue Me and its subsequent album, Who’s the Clown.
If this set is anything to go by, she doesn’t need her famous friends to make an impact. After the first song she strips off her trench coat to reveal a yellow raincoat – very in keeping with the weekend’s unsettled weather.
Electric Picnic 2026: the crowd for Audrey Hobert on Saturday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 
Electric Picnic 2026: Audrey Hobert on the Electric Arena stage on Saturday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
She’s likens the crowd before her to that at Coachella – a far cry from Stradbally but, as a comparison, perhaps not the worst shout when you see the number of people who’ve come to see her. And, during her songs Phoebe and Silver Jubilee, among others, the audience are giving it plenty to sing them back to her.
Before Sue Me, Hobert plays snippets of Let It Be, You Oughta Know, One Dance and, in a nice nod to the Irish heritage she mentions having, The Script’s Hall of Fame.
Hobert can hold the stage. Whether egging on the crowd or galloping from one side of it to the other, she’s not afraid to make it her own. Her softer vocals contrast well with the often heavy-indie-meets-pop, rock-meets-synth-pop sound. Her music feels like that of a more upbeat Phoebe Bridgers.
Judging by what she gets done in a 45-minute set, Hobert is one to watch.
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