Friday at Hinterland Music Festival 2026 began with another full day of music lying before us. The lineup would move from atmospheric pop and shoegaze through some of the weekend’s most intense performances, and deep into the next morning with electronic music on the Campfire Stage.
Part of Hinterland’s appeal is that there isn’t really a bad way to experience the festival. The stage sits at the bottom of a natural bowl, creating beautiful sightlines from the surrounding hills, even if getting back up those hills can occasionally feel like its own journey. Blankets are spread across the grass with plenty of room to relax, while those wanting to be closer can usually work their way toward the pit without spending the entire day defending a spot.
That relaxed atmosphere extends to the crowd. Fans may arrive devoted to one particular artist, but they are just as willing to make room for new arrivals and give unfamiliar names on the lineup a chance. With only one main stage, everyone experiences the same lineup together, and Friday gave that crowd plenty to discover.
Saint Avangeline
Saint Avangeline, whose Hinterland appearance marked her first-ever festival performance, opened the day with a quietly theatrical set. An oversized Garden of Eden-inspired backdrop, complete with roses, an apple tree, and a serpent, created plenty of visual drama without requiring the performance itself to become oversized.
That restraint carried into the music. Saint Avangeline’s rich, expressive vocals provided much of the drama, with a delivery and darkly romantic aesthetic that inevitably brought Lana Del Rey to mind. Songs including “Blood You Shed,” “Gardener of Eden,” and “Lilith” showed off those vocals while fitting naturally into the world she had created onstage.
Wisp
Wisp followed with a deliberately understated set. Natalie Lu used a patient stoicism, allowing the music to provide force as emotive vocals sat against layers of distorted guitar. By the time Wisp reached “Black swan” and “Your face” to close the set, Lu’s vocals were nearly engulfed by the guitars, yet somehow never disappeared beneath them.
SOFIA ISELLA
SOFIA ISELLA brought pure intensity to our Friday afternoon. Songs including “The Doll People,” “Everybody Supports Women,” “Cacao and Cocaine,” and “Above the Neck” took on a harder edge live, with ISELLA spending much of the performance just feet from the crowd.
By the final stretch, she was down at the barricade singing directly with fans, reaching into the crowd, and stopping to hug them.
Eventually, even the barricade wasn’t close enough. Before attempting to crowd surf, ISELLA asked how many people knew what crowd surfing was. The question drew a huge response from GA and a considerably less convincing one from VIP. After hearing the difference, she informed VIP that she would be going the other direction because VIP was going to get her hurt. Then she launched herself into GA.
It was funny, but it also captured what made the performance work so well. Nothing about ISELLA’s set felt particularly guarded. The physicality, the rawness of the songs, and her willingness to throw herself quite literally into the audience made the entire performance feel unpredictable even if you already knew every word.
It has made a strong argument to be one of our favorite sets of the year!
Paris Paloma
Paris Paloma arrived at Hinterland with her second album, The Fatal Flaw, approaching, and much of the set looked ahead. “Stem the Flow,” “Good Boy,” “Miyazaki,” “Good Girl,” and “Pre-Raphaelite” all appeared during the afternoon, giving the crowd a substantial preview of the record while staying rooted in the themes of gender, power, art, and identity that have long shaped her writing.
The set ultimately returned to the song that dramatically expanded her audience in the first place. For the closing “labour,” Paloma invited SOFIA ISELLA back to the stage, bringing together two artists whose work often confronts similar themes of gender, power, and identity. After ISELLA’s explosive performance earlier in the afternoon, seeing the two share the stage became one of Friday’s most memorable moments.
MUNA
MUNA may still operate firmly within pop and rock, but those lines felt considerably harder around the edges at Hinterland. Guitars hit harder, and even the brightest moments had bite.
That urgency felt particularly appropriate as MUNA worked through material from their newly released album, Dancing on the Wall. “It Gets So Hot,” “Dancing on the Wall,” “Wannabeher,” and “Mary Jane” represented the band’s newest chapter, while songs including “What I Want,” “Number One Fan,” and “Anything but Me” connected it to the increasingly confident pop that built their audience in the first place.
Themes of empowerment and identity ran throughout the set, but the added weight gave those songs a different kind of force live. Still sleek and polished like on their records, MUNA landed with considerably more edge at Hinterland.
Lorde
By the time Lorde took the stage, Friday’s persistent rain had taken some of our personal willingness to fight through a crowd for the perfect spot. The conditions had also created an unexpected fashion trend around the grounds as increasingly cold and wet fans descended on the merch stands in search of another layer. Before long, Mumford & Sons sweatshirts seemed to be everywhere.
Fortunately, Lorde’s performance was built to feel big from anywhere on the grounds.
Much of the production used light, shadow, video, and contrast to transform the stage. At times, performers became little more than silhouettes against enormous blocks of light. The relatively simple approach created a sense of massiveness without overwhelming the performance at its core.
The set reached across Lorde’s catalog, pairing newer songs including “What Was That,” “Broken Glass,” “Man of the Year,” and “David” with music stretching back to Pure Heroine. Unsurprisingly, “Royals” produced one of the night’s biggest singalongs, but when Lorde descended from the stage to get closer to fans for the closer, “Ribs,” she created the memory that most will take home. Wherever you happened to be watching from, thousands of voices carried across the rain-soaked grounds.
Campfire Stage
Ninajirachi
Back at camp, a little time in the car with the heater running to knock out the chill from the rain meant unfortunately missing the opening Campfire Stage set. But there was one artist we were determined to make it back for: Ninajirachi.
Her addition to the Hinterland lineup had been particularly exciting after we discovered her Nashville date earlier this year late enough that resale tickets seemingly required a personal loan. Layered up and (temporarily) dried off, we made our way back down the mountain for this late-night set.
What we found at 12:30 in the morning was a crowd that somehow looked like it was just getting the day started. Ninajirachi’s high-energy electronic set turned the Campfire Stage into a packed, communal dance floor, with hands in the air and bodies seemingly in constant motion, culminating in a massive singalong to her hit, “Fuck My Computer.” (Yes, we know that sounds cliche, but check out the reels we posted to Instagram if you don’t believe us!) For an hour, it was difficult to find anyone standing still.
That might have been impressive at any festival. It was especially impressive after a full day at Hinterland, hours of rain, and temperatures that had already sent plenty of people searching for whatever dry layers they could find. Yet none of that seemed to matter. For an hour, everyone just danced!
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