Forest Fest 2026Emo, Co Laois★★★★☆ Madness were comfortably the most entertaining of the headline acts at this year’s Forest Fest, closing the three-day event with their trademark blend of bangers, brass and slapstick, delighting a capacity crowd whose many fezzes and other party hats captured the feel-good mood of the weekend.There were few signs of growing pains at the festival, whose move to a larger site at Bee’s Wing Farm on the outskirts of Emo in Co Laois comfortably accommodated 16,000 festivalgoers, 4,000 more than last year.Linking a string of classics such as Our House, My Girl’s Mad at Me, Night Boat to Cairo (hence fezzes) and the sublime It Must Be Love, frontman Suggs entertained the crowd with the easy patter of a used-car salesman, Lee Thompson on saxophone providing a comic foil.“What do Heineken know that we didn’t?” Suggs asked the crowd, raising a cheer as he pointed out that the beer tent signs sported the green and red colours of Mayo, the new All-Ireland football champions.Towards the end of the set he brought fellow veteran Bob Geldof back on stage to hail him as “a force of nature”. The Boomtown Rats had played a set earlier to mark their 50th anniversary, their now white-haired frontman delivering hits such as I Don’t Like Mondays and Rat Trap with the energy of old. If there is only so much Rat your palate can take, there were five other stages to choose from, including the new Kickin Up Dust country stage. The Wonder Stuff provided a decent alternative on the Village Stage but The Specials Ltd on the Perfect Day Stage were a surprise delight, a tribute act with one surviving member from the originals, a feast of ska that also served as the perfect warm-up for Madness later.One of the only grumbles of the weekend was when the large screens showing the All-Ireland final switched to footage of Feeder as they started their set on the main stage. Singer Grant Nicholas looked bemused as the crowd erupted at news of Mayo’s win, a feeling matched when he dedicated a song to Noel Fitzpatrick, the Supervet. Sweetly, he dedicated another song, High, to his father. Earlier, Mary Coughlan had played a solid set on the Village Stage. “I never thought I’d still be doing this at 70 but sure f**k it,” she said, a sentiment one suspects was shared by many of the performers at Forest Fest, which could equally be called Nostalgia Fest, such is its appeal to music lovers who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s. Sunday night closed with a Queen tribute band on the main stage but the real energy was with The Complete Stone Roses, brilliant closers for the second year in a row, and Black Grape. Forest Fest began and ended with tributes to Manchester bands. Friday afternoon got off to a great start with The Smiths cover band These Charming Men. It may be a heretical thought but they captured the original sound of the band more effectively than Johnny Marr at his recent Iveagh Gardens gig.[ Cover bands: The serious business of pretending to be someone elseOpens in new window ]Friday was packed with tribute acts who delivered what festivalgoers want – the greatest hits – in a way that sometimes seems beneath the original acts. Highlights were Harvest (Neil Young), The Classic Beatles, Walk the Line (Johnny Cash) and Rattle and Hum (U2). Bruce Foxton delivered the best of The Jam with his new band. Echo and The Bunnymen at Forest Fest26. Photograph: Brian Bastick The Undertones and The Charlatans were also on top form but Ian McCulloch, lead singer of Friday night headliners Echo and The Bunnymen, was far from it, seeming to lose his way more than once in the middle of a song and breaking off to deliver an incoherent monologue that took in James Brown, a guitarist, someone in the crowd and whatever you’re having yourself. Having first seen them in Belfast in 1984, they were the only disappointment of the weekend. The words of their hit song Rescue seemed prophetic: “Won’t you come on down to my rescue? Things are wrong, Things are going wrong, Can you tell that in a song?”The Hoosiers performing at Forest Fest. Photograph: Rocket Science Media Irwin Sparkes, lead singer of The Hoosiers, Saturday’s main stage opening act, joked: “It’s unusual to start with a headliner,” but the band went on to show the others how it’s done. They might look like The Wiggles in their matching double denim with colourful patches but they delivered a fun, upbeat set, reminiscent of Mika, that brought the crowd to life. The Frank and Walters followed. “I didn’t expect a big crowd this early,” said lead singer Paul Linehan, but they earned their audience with a great set including After All and a fine cover of Kraftwerk’s The Model.“It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine,” wrote P.G. Wodehouse, but Scottish band The Fratellis captured the sunny mood of Saturday afternoon with a superb set including a cover of Baccara’s Yes Sir I Can Boogie, the beach balls bouncing around the crowd epitomising the buoyant mood.Fellow Scot Lloyd Cole was also in top form, tempting fate perhaps with his song Forest Fire, while his outfit, seemingly a white safari suit, seemed more suited to Jungle Fest. But with songs such as Perfect Skin, Lost Weekend and Are You Ready to be Heartbroken, we can forgive him. And he can laugh at himself. “The reference to me being naked at the end of that song, that was me being naked in 1989,” he reassured the crowd.Glasgow’s Deacon Blue were another treat, energised by the chemistry of husband and wife Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh. “Hydration break,” Ross shouts at one point, swilling some water before spraying it in the air. Highlights were Real Gone Kid, Dignity and The Great Western Road.James performing at Forest Fest 2026. Photograph: Rocket Science Media Saturday’s headliners James eventually delivered after a slow, dirge-like start, hitting the heights with Sit Down and She’s a Star. Singer Tim Booth complained that he’d been given the wrong set list. Some in the crowd felt the same way. We like to mix it up so it’s like a fresh theatrical performance every night, he explained. Which is fine. Nobody wants the predictability of panto, but doesn’t mean the first scene should be like Ibsen meets Beckett.