Some plans are flexible. These are not.
Lowlands has just dropped its first names, and this year, the lineup already hint at a more leftfield festival than usual. For once, there’s no need for panic, as tickets are still on the table, instead of going through a 20-minute-sellout frenzy. God bless.
The first names lean more alternative and adventurous than their usual rock-forward cast. The roster balances international heavyweights and local gems. Obvious non-negotiables include Blood Orange, Lorde, and Tyler, The Creator, and SOMBR. Add JPEGMAFIA, Cobrah (one of our former cover stars) and the energy sharpens quickly. Local names like New Wave, SMIB (celebrating their 10-year anniversary), S10, and rising hip-hop star Milolaathetlukken ground the weekend close to home.
Taking place from 21–23 August in Biddinghuizen, Lowlands once again spans the full musical spectrum: from high-energy punk and alternative rock to hip-hop, electronic experiments, and dreamy pop. From headline moments to under-the-radar sets worth rearranging your entire day for, these are the acts we’ll be cancelling plans for — happily.
Blood Orange
Blood Orange in 2026 is Dev Hynes at his most intimate. He might need no introduction, but this is your reminder that this would be the moment to hear his latest album live, Essex Honey (2025), a raw and personal record about leaving, returning, and grief. The tender record is a mix of the sounds of Frank Ocean and Bon Iver, and the voices of collaborators like Lorde and Caroline Polachek are all hovering around him. Hearing him live will be like stepping into his diary. We’ll be standing close, hiding the fact that his presence will immediately unravel us.
Cobrah
Cobrah’s our favourite Swedish pop dominatrix. Known for in-your-face, erotically charged club bangers like Brand New Bitch and Mami, she’s now exploring what happens when the femme fatale shows a little vulnerability. From Stockholm sex clubs to Berlin stints and a past cover shoot with us, her music is sexier than ever. Get ready for headbanging in latex!
Tyler, The Creator
Tyler, The Creator is living proof that mainstream doesn’t have to mean boring. The playful architect of eras like Flower Boy and North West–approved style muse operates in worlds that feel as tightly orchestrated as a Wes Anderson frame. What started as provocation has sharpened into a rare creative freedom where he does exactly what he wants, and everyone else adjusts accordingly. Sonically, he slides between alternative hip-hop, jazz rap, neo-soul and West Coast lineage: creating recognisable tracks characterised by intense basslines, menacing beats, screams, and a soft synth bridge. We can’t wait to see his deliberately goofy energy and stomp to his bone-chilling bass in bleacher anthem Sticky.
Geese
Geese feel like the band you’d find in a basement show before anyone else did. They’re the latest in a line of freakishly charismatic New York rock kids, born in Brooklyn from high‑school jam sessions. They’ve been turning heads with nervy post-punk albums like Projector and 3D Country, and then Getting Killed pushed them into that next tier of “bands everyone’s talking about”. Come for jagged guitars, cathartic sing‑alongs, performative male final boss energy (we know what you like okay!)… but mainly for 23 y/o old soul Cameron Winter, their frontman, to see his glowup in real time.
Lorde
Effortlessly relatable Lorde exists in her own timeline. Every era arrives exactly when it’s supposed to, soundtracking collective, angsty feelings we didn’t yet have language for. From teenage alienation to grown-up disillusionment and vulnerability, she’s built a catalogue that rewards patience, devotion, and repeat listens. Take Pure Heroin’s (2013) ad infitum teenage moodiness that follows us way beyond that phase, up until Virgin’s (2025) ode to exposed transformation and exploration. We’ll be there losing it, together with thousands of other people, at the same lyric at the same time.
JPEGMAFIA
JPEGMAFIA makes rap that is loud, abrasive, funny, uncomfortable and always five steps ahead of the discourse. His beats warp through trap, noise rap, vaporwave, and experimental hip-hop, carrying the eight of his experiences and the world he’s reckoning with. Safe to say we cant wait to be overstimulated and sweaty in his presence.
Bassvictim
The London duo, Maria Manow and Ike Clateman, have been shaking up electronic music with their self‑dubbed basspunk: bass-heavy beats that blend dubstep, glitch, grime, and industrial dance punk into indie-sleaze coded bangers. They exploded out of South London with singles like Canary Wharf Freestyle before debuting their album Forever in 2025. Part of a long lineage of vocalist girlfriend + producer boyfriend duos (we’re thinking Crystal Castles, Snow Strippers, Somewhere Special), Bassvictim are as famous for the chaos behind the scenes as the chaos on the tracks: Instagram stories filled with relationship beef, anxiety riddled texts, and everything in between. Come for a 2000s electroclash revival; leave with a love-hate relationship to their internet-fueled thermonuclear energy.
Nia Archives
Someone finally turned jungle music into a private diary you can dance to! The Bradford-born, Leeds-raised producer/DJ has been at the forefront of the post-2020 jungle and drum & bass revival, turning rolling breaks and deep bass into something both energetic and introspective. Whether she’s playing to packed rooms or soundtracking late-night spirals, her music hits hardest when you’re dancing with your eyes closed.
2Hollis
2Hollis, the bleach-blond former theater kid turned rapper, producer, and singer, also known as Godboy, is what happens when the internet gets to design a frontman. Emotionally volatile, genre-fluid, and dressed like a Hedi boy filtered through Rick Owens, he makes music that swings between hardstyle EDM, blissed-out Porter Robinson–coded dance-pop, Opium-era angst, and sexed-up rave-rap bangers. He thrives on pretty-boy photoshoots and maximalist emotion, blurring the line between performance, persona, and feed-scroll obsession. Come if you’re already part of the foaming-at-the-mouth, hyperonline fanbase — or if you’re curious to see what happens when a crowd, a mosh pit, and the algorithm all collapse into one.
ADÉLA
Slovakian pop star Adéla makes pop like someone who’s studied it obsessively: which she did. The raunchy star is (surprisingly?) a disciple of Hannah Montana, but with pastel pink hair, bleached brows, and choreography so raunchy it practically files a harassment lawsuit against your expectations. “Sex on the Beat” is the blueprint: she simulacra-orgasms in front of a shrine to pop royalty, then launches into aerobics atop a dude in an office uniform and eyepatch. Go see her to witness a rising pop star mid-ascent.
And, FYI, here’s the rest of the lineup, alphabetically, for planning your Lowlands pilgrimage:
2hollis, ADÉLA, Amyl and The Sniffers, Ana Frango Elétrico, Antoon, Bassolino, Bassvictim, Blood Orange, Buraka Som Sistema, Chloe Qisha, Clipse, Cobrah, DIKKE, Dijon, Dove Ellis, Durand Bernarr, Eefje de Visser, Fcukers, Floating Points (live), Geese, Guilt Trip, Hermanos Gutiérrez, IJSLAND, JPEGMAFIA, Keo, Kneecap, Ko Shin Moon, LEISURE, Lorde, Major Lazer, Maribou State, Maruja, Milolaathetlukken, New Wave, Nia Archives, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Nu Genea Live Band, Nusantara Beat, Pale Jay, Parcels, PRESIDENT, Ravyn Lenae, Richie Hawtin DEX EFX X0X, S10, Skye Newman, SMIB, SOMBR, sor, SPEED, Steel Pulse, Turnstile, Tyler Ballgame, Tyler, The Creator, Violent Magic Orchestra, Voices From The Lake, Wunderhorse
Get your tickets here.
