Later today (July 4), Open\u2019er will be transformed into a pop paradise with Jennie<\/a>, Jade<\/a>, Addison Rae <\/a>and PinkPantheress<\/a> all due to perform. But Friday\u2019s line-up was a celebration of brooding goth rock as The Cure <\/a>returned to Poland for the first time in four years. And they weren\u2019t alone in bringing delectable emo to the masses either, with Slowdive<\/a>, Just Mustard<\/a> and Ethel Cain<\/a> turning heartache into something more euphoric with the help of thousands of excitable fans. Not your thing? How about Martin Garrix<\/a>\u2019s pyro-fuelled EDM or a disco launch party for Madonna<\/a>\u2019s \u2018Confessions II\u2019<\/a>. Here\u2019s everything that went down on day three of Open\u2019er Festival.<\/p>\n The Cure remain the kings of majestic misery<\/p>\n Review Cliches To Avoid #1: festival bands cannot change the weather. The sun has never specifically come out for \u2018T-Shirt Weather\u2019 by Circa Waves<\/a>, nor does the thermometer bend to the will of Glass Animals<\/a>\u2019 \u2018Heat Waves\u2019. If they could, The Cure would play in perpetual mist. But even Robert Smith had to wonder, when the heavens opened over Open\u2019er Festival. \u201cI knew we shouldn\u2019t have done \u2018Prayers For Rain\u2019,\u201d he said with a smirk, as the downpour added a touch more drama to the sunshine emo of \u2018Boys Don\u2019t Cry\u2019.<\/p>\n A soggy ending, however, couldn\u2019t sink the dark joys of the previous two hours. Of late, The Cure have been bookending their main set with lengthy atmospheric cuts from recent album \u2018Songs Of A Lost World<\/a>\u2019 but for Open\u2019er, they instead chose \u2018Disintegration\u2019 tracks. A glorious, glacial \u2018Plainsong\u2019 opened the set in a cascade of melancholy glory \u2013 as it should for every set by every band ever \u2013 and \u2018Disintegration\u2019 closed it, the ultimate example of The Cure\u2019s big squeal-rock beasts. In between came not so much songs as movements. \u2018Pictures Of You\u2019, \u2018High\u2019 and \u2018Lovesong\u2019 set things off in a stratospheric bliss state. \u2018Burn\u2019, \u2018Fascination Street\u2019 and \u2018Alt.end\u2019 formed an intense funk goth interlude. \u2018Push\u2019, \u2018In Between Days\u2019 and \u2018Just Like Heaven\u2019 some mid-set light relief and \u2018Charlotte Sometimes\u2019, \u2018Play For Today\u2019 and \u2018A Forest\u2019 a throwback to the band\u2019s proto-gothic era.<\/p>\n Every Cure gig is unique, of course, and this one boasted a rare trip back to 1996\u2019s \u2018Wild Mood Swings\u2019 album<\/a> in the shape of a haunting \u2018Treasure\u2019 and a scorching \u2018Want\u2019. But the regular hit-heavy encore, even as the rains descended, was the night\u2019s true delight, as \u2018Lullaby\u2019 crept in with pincers out, Smith shimmied through the vampish disco of \u2018The Walk\u2019 while\u00a0 \u2018The Lovecats\u2019 and \u2018Friday I\u2019m In Love\u2019 brought the sun out \u2013 inside, at least.<\/p>\n Ethel Cain wielded alt-pop like a weapon<\/p>\n Since the release of her 2022 debut \u2018Preacher\u2019s Daughter\u2019, Ethel Cain has been the world\u2019s most-unlikely popstar. That record, a twisting concept album about faith, betrayal and liberation, made her the first transgender artist to reach the top ten in the Billboard 200 chart and earned her a passionate fanbase who connected intimately with a fantastical gothic tale that was rooted in painful reality. However, Ethel Cain real name Hayden Anhed\u00f6nia) said she \u201cstruggled<\/a>\u201d with the success. Last year, she released experimental 90-minute EP \u2018Perverts\u2019 that was full of dark ambient soundscapes and oppressive drone music that felt like she was trying to shake-off her more casual fans while second album (and \u2018Preacher\u2019s Daughter\u2019 prequel) \u2018Willoughby Tucker, I\u2019ll Always Love You\u2019<\/a> is reportedly the end of this era for Ethel Cain<\/a>.<\/p>\n At no point during her joyous, hour-long set at Open\u2019er Festival did Anhed\u00f6nia look uncomfortable with the screaming fans that had packed out the huge Tent Stage. \u201cAre you ready?\u201d she asked before launching into breakout hit \u2018American Teenager\u2019, a shimmering, \u201880s synth-pop coming-of-age anthem. Later, she held the mic out to amplify the already deafening sing-along and encouraged the crowd to jump together.<\/p>\n From there, she gave a warm introduction to the knotted world of Ethel Cain. The sprawling \u2018Perverts\u2019 was cut back to a sleek mash-up of the title track, \u2018Punish (Demo II)\u2019 and \u2018Thatorchia\u2019 that felt experimental but never exclusionary, while the one-two of \u2018Willough Tucker\u2019 cuts \u2018Nettles\u2019 and \u2018Dust Bowl\u2019 offered delicate, dreamy escapism alongside devastating heartache.<\/p>\n She still does things her own, defiant way though. The ominous \u2018Ptolemaea\u2019 saw the stage bathed in blood-red light while the video screens captured Anhed\u00f6nia screaming \u201cmake it stop\u201d through multiple phone cameras, making pop adoration look like a found-footage horror. But there was nothing but euphoria for the closing run of \u2018Gibson Girl\u2019, \u2018A House In Nebraska\u2019 (\u201cOne of my favourites \u2013 if you know it, sing along\u201d), \u2018Crush\u2019 and \u2018Thoroughfare\u2019, as both Anhed\u00f6nia and the crowd found hope and togetherness in those pained alt-rock songs. If this is the slow-burning funeral of Ethel Cain, she\u2019s going out on a high.<\/p>\n Slowdive were out of this world<\/p>\n Had a storm in heaven grounded flights out of Stansted? Was their tour bus stuck getting out of the ghost dimension? Were there celestial bodies somewhere refusing to align, no matter how hard the roadies hit them? The shoegazers of Gdynia had time to ponder the aching absence of Slowdive before a wormhole finally opened in the stage-wide screen and spewed forth Reading\u2019s waftiest \u2013 sighing and scorching in equal measure, fractals up the wazoo. With Rachel Goswell resplendent in a feather crown and guitarist Neil Halstead making excuses about \u201cthings falling off the stage\u201d, the resurgent shoegaze icons wasted no time in tearing space-time a new one.<\/p>\n \u2018Catch The Breeze\u2019 poured from the PA, first as a gothic space echo, then a fire in limbo. \u2018Crazy For You\u2019 \u2013 essentially \u2018Magma On The Dancefloor\u2019 \u2013 swept in like a diving angel spilling dance beats from burning wings. \u2018Souvlaki Space Station\u2019 chimed back at us meagre humanoids from some deep space grooveathon. And the strongest intoxicant taken by anyone involved in this review by this point was the pizza baguette van\u2019s hydrochloric hot sauce.<\/p>\n Music\u2019s modern aura has undoubtedly come around to Slowdive\u2019s way of melting these days, and it\u2019s wonderful to see a band once maligned as pretentious and indulgent by Mega City Four fans become accepted as iconic dream-pop architects thirty years (and one reunion) on. \u2018Sugar For The Pill\u2019, from 2017\u2019s self-titled comeback album, sounded today like the perfect Netflix sync track, with its gorgeous gliding guitar lines and xx-like spaciousness. \u2018Kisses\u2019 had enough goth pop groove to warrant authentic mention alongside today\u2019s headliners The Cure. And \u2018When The Sun Hits\u2019 was welcomed as a genuine classic: a melodic ice storm that, for a few moments of its intense noise maelstrom, made you wonder if organisers had mistakenly opened Open\u2019er\u2019s disused runway to air traffic again.<\/p>\n Just Mustard triumph at Polish debut<\/p>\n There\u2019s always been a delicious tension to Just Mustard\u2019s experimental noise rock. On their 2018 debut \u2018Wednesday\u2019, the Irish five-piece toyed with the extremes of loud and quiet shoegaze, while their 2022 follow-up \u2018Heart Under\u2019 was a snarling, menacing affair that resisted the overwhelming black hole of total misery.<\/p>\n New album \u2018We Were Just Here<\/a>\u2019 is a desperate search for joy, influenced by playing huge shows with The Cure. \u201cThey made us want to write more songs for people to dance and sing along to \u2013 to have a discernible melodic core,<\/a>\u201d singer Katie Ball told NME last year.<\/p>\n That new, upbeat outlook was obvious when the band took to Open\u2019er Festival\u2019s \u2018Flow Stage\u2019. The kicked off their first ever show in Poland with \u2018Seven\u2019, a searing, emotionally-charged blitz of poetry and pulsating rhythm that sounded like The Smiths covering Nine Inch Nails. A string of older tracks followed \u2013\u00a0 \u2018I Am You\u2019, \u2018Deaf\u2019 and \u2018Frank\u2019 \u2013 that saw the band comfortable with their musical extremes, Ball\u2019s haunting vocals cutting a path through angular guitars and ferocious post-rock drums.<\/p>\n The closing trio of \u2018We Were Just Here\u2019 songs was Just Mustard at their very best though. \u2018Dandelion\u2019 featured Ball and guitarist David Noonan trading optimistic lyrics over euphoric beats, \u2018Pollyanna\u2019s bewitching vocals and twitching groove did battle with droning guitar slashes and the album\u2019s title track took the crowd through urgent dance, shimmering electro-pop and aggy post-punk before finishing with a chaotic, cathartic instrumental breakdown.<\/p>\n It was an electric 40-minute set, with all the jagged pieces of Just Mustard\u2019s sound coming together to create something abrasively beautiful. It\u2019s little wonder The Cure loves them, but now Just Mustard can add the crowds of Open\u2019er Festival to their growing list of adoring fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In partnership with Open\u2019er Festival Words: Ali Shutler and Mark Beaumont Open\u2019er Festival 2026 has something for everything.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69,38],"class_list":["post-510372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/OPENER_2026_THE_CURE_CZYZEWSKI_DSC04000.jpg\")
The Cure at Open\u2019er Festival 2026. CREDIT: Czyzewski<\/p>\n![\"Ethel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/OPENER_2026_ETHELCAIN_BERTIN-13.jpg\")
Ethel Cain at Open\u2019er Festival 2026. CREDIT: Bertin<\/p>\n![\"Ethel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/OPENER_2026_ETHEL_CAIN_CZYZEWSKI_DSC05632.jpg\")
Ethel Cain at Open\u2019er Festival 2026. CREDIT: Czyzewski<\/p>\n