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Review: Laneway Gold Coast 2026
- Olive McCagh
- 18 hours ago
- 6 min read
By Olive McCagh
Is it weird to say that Laneway felt like Christmas to me this year?
It’s a special day - it comes once a year, the sets are like gifts to me, getting to experience it all with my best friends. As a 20-something living in an Australian city, sure, partying and live music aren’t hard to come by. But it’s 2026 and music festivals aren’t surviving this climate - we barely are ourselves. The ghost of Splendour in the Grass haunts my teenage years… I mean, at least I was lucky enough to attend for a few years. Murmurs of Falls Festival, Big Day Out, and Livid Festival sit tight in the pockets of my older peers. At times, it can feel like there is a ticking time bomb on the back of every Australian music festival. As melodramatic as it is, when you work in the industry, sometimes it’s easier just to say it and accept it. And maybe that’s why it felt so crucial to be a part of it.
The lineup was a dream; this may be repetitive rhetoric, but it is important rhetoric. Laneway know how to book bands; the team knows how to book artists. The Australian mainstream media is drowned out by international pop artists, surf rock Australian bands and musicians that are being forced down my throat. But the lineup seemed to tick boxes for a lot of people, with sold-out shows backing this statement. They have found their niche: girls, gays and queers – the under-voiced and underrepresented, massive festivals in Australia have never catered for them like this before. Although the landscape of Laneway’s Gold Coast location failed to provide suitable accessibility for disabled people, highlighting that there is still a way to go for festivals to include everyone.
Laneway festival was born in 2005 during the same time as SITG and Big Day Out, two major festivals. They admitted attempting to book the same bands as these festivals was a loser’s game; they didn’t have the funds, resources or audience to win acts over. They had to get creative, actively seeking out who the next big thing was going to be. A resourceful tactic that has worked for them in the long game, with a loyal following whom they continue to satisfy with these lineups year in and year out.
The Australian summer festival trope is not lost on me. The Gold Coast was a switch-up to the usual inner-city hustle of the Brisbane Showgrounds. Despite the original scepticism from audiences, the charm of a coastal town bled its way into the experience. Something about getting ready with your friends, drinking at eleven am by the water, then in the passenger seat of your friend’s car, before sweating all your makeup off in the pits of Laneway stages. It’s pretty special, it’s pretty unique to where we live and the moment we are living in.
God, it was hot by the time New York’s The Dare took the stage, patrons seeking refuge under the “Everything Ecstatic” stage. I will always have an infatuation with the streets of NYC and the music that comes out of them. The Dare has been on top of his moment over the last couple of years, rising with his work on Charli XCX’s iconic Brat album, and the reputation he has made for himself as an indie sleaze party boy. His opening track Good Time rushed over the audience like a waterfall. In seconds, what felt like a graveyard soon became a sea of ecstasy. This was the moment the party really started at Laneway, the sun was inching away, the crowds had arrived, and The Dare left everything out on the stage. Between technical electronic music and satirical dance tracks, he managed to transport the audience from the grass tent of Southport Sharks to the nightclubs of New York. There was something so internet-coded about the lineup; perhaps it’s just proof of the strong influences of social media and its power over the industry. But to frame it on a positive note, the phenomenon of seeing artists in the flesh that soundtrack your phone is pretty incredible. In his iconic suit dancing with flashing lights; he was undeniably charming even through dopey songs like Girls and Cheeky. The Dare knows how to have fun and was the incredible come-up to Laneway’s headline artists.
If anything, the Gold Coast venue showcased an authentic Australian ambience, with New York City’s finest Geese taking "The Joccy" stage. In what it lacked in size, it made up for with a serene backdrop. Gumtrees danced shadows as Cameron Winter’s voice hypnotised the crowd, they seemed to wear their hype loose on their shoulders – it couldn’t weigh them down. Instead of crumbling under this pressure, their sudden fame has instead given them space to shinel. They seem almost immune to criticism, or perhaps there just plainly isn’t any to hand them. As confident guitars collided, the mass of fans listened closely to the hums of Winter’s lyricism, the rock n roll band ascended inside Australia’s bushland. It had to be a show as they had never played before.
Between the chaos of charging stage-to-stage, Laneway provided space for us to find friends, purely on chance, due to the lack of cell phone service. The beauty of this festival is often hiding in the sets we miss, the time we spend buying drinks at the bar, or in the conversations that overpower the artists on stage that we truly love.
The sunset acted as a second burst of energy, and the walls of the festival felt full as over 37 000 people clambered in. The celebration was in full swing at this point, and every member of the audience was feeding off something. Perhaps it is the cost-of-living crisis to blame, young people working so hard to afford tickets and sending it hard for the night to pay homage to their labour. You needn’t look far to find groups of friends embracing each other, proof that sometimes drunk memories are the most valuable despite being the least remembered.
Wet Leg was my favourite set of the night; don’t you just love to see women rocking out? That is exactly what they did for the entirety of their set, as the sun painted the sky a deep purple, it felt like the crowd was fully letting go. Their stage presence was iconic, the sisterhood between Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers shone through the way they share the limelight and back each other up. Once again, Laneway Festival caught a band at their career peak. Moisturizer was a highly anticipated and rated release of 2025. Although their first EP had seen tracks like Chaise Longue and Wet Dream rise to the charts, mangetout and its feature in the hottest TV show ‘Heated Rivalry’ have cemented the group as a major player in the alternative rock scene. It’s rare to see women, let alone proud Queer women in miniskirts and sexy tanks, take on main stages at festivals. Their set flowed between catchy indie charmers like u and me at home, to heavy hitters CPR and Too Late Now, it was truly a fuck you to those who have doubted their ability. Their set reminded me of a piece of feminist literature: how ‘female music’, if you dare to call it that, has never been exclusive. That would be arbitrary, backwards and furthering an unfair narrative. Feminist music has always allowed for everyone to be included, even men. Wet Leg showcased how men can be included but will not control the room and narrative, which is a crucial display of feminism.
Wolf Alice have the most incredible ability to age with the times, or more so against them. They have stood loyally beside the awkwardness of early teenage years and walked hand in hand as their audience has grown with them. A highly anticipated set from the group as they perform ‘The Clearing’ on Australian soil for the very first time. As they followed Wet Leg’s rock n roll performance, Wolf Alice brought drama, technicality and energy to the well-warmed-up Laneway crowd. The whole festival is now residing between the main stages, chewing on every guitar strum of the band. Although high-powered electric songs converted the audience into a mob, the subtle moments like The Sofa and Two Girls allowed for the crowd to breathe and embrace one another. The range of their performance was not missed; they accounted for the blossoming and deterioration of relationships, which everyone can relate to. Lead singer Ellie Rowsell’s voice made it through the haze of substances, piercing straight to the heart. Their performance of Don’t Delete the Kisses could have made the festival itself, and on the outskirts of the audience, in the fields of home, is where people danced, hugged or cried. It was another example of powerful women leading the stage intentionally as sexy, smart and strong figures.
Laneway 2026 captured the essence of what music is, making its mark, the festival leads the way in a tough market with female powerhouse headliners, and up-and-coming alternative acts. Showcasing some of the best international artists on truly Australian backdrops, the heat, sun and gumtrees paint a beautiful picture of summer fun.
