In partnership with Open’er Festival
Words: Mark Beaumont and Ali Shutler
Open’er Festival prides itself on being the biggest and most diverse festival in Poland and day two of the 2026 bash certainly lived up to that promise.
After a loved-up first day saw Florence + The Machine offer communal catharsis, David Byrne delivering forward-thinking art-pop and the continuation of Kneecap’s rowdy, outspoken victory lap, Open’er Festival’s second day delivered an even more eclectic mix of pop titans and cult heroes.
On Thursday (July 2), punters could check out performances from Halsey, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Calvin Harris and a live orchestra performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 – and that was just the main stage. Elsewhere, Open’er Festival offered the post-punk fury of Idles, Renee Rapp’s heartfelt alt-pop, the progressive rap of Audrey Nuna and a gloriously maximalist ‘Main Pop Girl’ drag show, complete with slick choreography, glitter and a killer playlist. Here’s what happened on day two of Open’er Festival 2026.
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds found love in a hopeless place
“Get ready for love” screamed Nick Cave before he and The Bad Seeds launched into their rowdy gospel punk track of the same name. The band’s last European run was in support of 2024’s ‘Wild God’, an album that celebrated the freewheeling excitement and camaraderie of this motley crew of musicians, whereas their main stage set at Open’er Festival was a potted run-through of their impressive discography. Tracks from twelve of their albums made an appearance during the two-hour set, with Cave delivering crossover hits (‘O Children’, ‘Into My Arms’) and fan-favourite deep cuts (‘Hiding All Away’, ‘Rings Of Saturn’) with the same visceral passion. “We don’t have much time so we’re just going to go bang, bang, bang with the songs,” he explained before a thundering ‘From Her To Eternity’.
It’s no secret that Nick Cave’s music explores the darker side of life. He creates twisting songs about death, crumbling faith, isolation and the imminent threat of both spiritual and physical annihilation but live, those haunted musings are transformed into anthems of defiant positivity. ‘The Mercy Seat’ was a thrashing, bone-shaking hunk of alt-rock transcendence, the delicate, slow-burning beauty of ‘Carnage’ was all new beginnings and dreamy optimism.
Nick Cave spent the set desperately trying to get as close to the audience as possible, clutching outstretched hands and encouraging them to use their voices to create something beautiful together. “No, you saved me,” he told one fan holding up a sign thanking Cave for his life-preserving music.
There was a giddy sense of chaos to the whole thing though. Cave imitated a train for the raucous ‘Train Long-Suffering’ and was a growling monster for the moody ‘Tupelo’. Microphones, drum sticks and violin bows were regularly sent flying while the menacing ‘Red Hand Red’ was turned into a rowdy chant-along before the piano-driven ‘Into My Arms’ closed out the band’s two hour sermon on bloodied, bruised love with a tender ode to belief in other people. (AS)
Calvin Harris raved in the rain
Considering the nation’s historic political fortitude, Poland can handle the odd rain rave. And as the heavens bucketed down upon the post-Cave crowds, Calvin Harris wasn’t going to let Open’er’s spirit sink. “Poland, I wanna see you jump!” he bawled like a drill sergeant doing leg day. “I wanna hear you sing!” he yelled like a Scottish Simon Cowell on meth. “I wanna see absolutely everybody with their hands in the air right now!” he ordered, as if about to rob Gdynia of all the party vibe it’s got.
Mopping off his mixer with a towel as if it was really connected to electricity showed true dedication to the conceit of the live festival dance experience – this was mix-for-mix the exact same set this writer saw at Isle Of Wight two weeks ago – but as the first of the year’s DJ headliners (Martin Garrix and Peggy Gou close out subsequent nights) Harris certainly brought the steam, lasers, pyro and almighty whomps to lift the site from soggy to ecstatic, with the help of some disembodied divas. Florence’s backing tape vocal hoisted the pumping advert rave of ‘Sweet Nothing’, Dua Lipa’s floated seductively over ‘One Kiss’, Ellie Goulding’s elevated the Friday night pub-club sounds of ‘I Need Your Love’ into something close to a remote event.
Indeed, as AI-able as Harris’s hitmaking formula might be, live he turned up the dial to spine-shaking effect. His John Newman collab ‘Blame’ was built on planet-cracking beats and warp speed house. ‘Summer’s monumental thump of a chorus could have upturned Ibiza. ‘Where Have You Been’, featuring Rihanna interpolating Johnny Cash’s ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’, sounded like it was taking place in a rave cathedral. His remix references were impeccably floor-filling too: Faithless’s ‘Insomnia’, Florence’s ‘Spectrum (Say My Name)’, The Chemical Brothers’ ‘Hey Boy Hey Girl’. By the time he counted in Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’ with a metronomic swing of the arm, the rain had given up trying to dampen the night and the rave gods had prevailed. (MB)
Idles unleashed the fury
It was clear from the looks on their trauma-strewn and frequently terrified faces that the barrier line of pop-rap poppets who’d decided to get down the front early for Reneé Rapp had no idea what they were letting themselves in for. They were all up for performers latching onto Olivia Rodrigo’s babydoll nightie trend, but perhaps not a walrus-moustached vagrant wearing a bright pink one while wrestling a transparent guitar around like a feral wildcat. Bottle blonde singers, great, but does this buff bearded example have to yell in their faces about “racist c***s!” and lead the crowd in a chorus of a “new British national anthem” called ‘Fuck The King’? And as for the crowd packed behind them, well, there wasn’t much idle about this lot…
“You’d better go home and stream our album, you fucking beautiful people,” said Joe Talbot, having encouraged his crazed tentful of actual fans to give them some breathing room. That, however, was the full extent of Idles’ accommodation of the pop crowd tonight. Their tight hour was all crushing, hi-octane filth punk, sweaty crowd-surfing and ardent political sloganeering on monarchy and fascism (not keen), immigration and Palestinian freedom (big fans).
The bare-knuckle dynamics of ‘Never Fight A Man With A Perm’ was a pub fight for the ears. ‘The Wheel’ a grinding mutant ‘Ant Rap’, ‘Mother’ repurposed to attack Poland’s fascists rather than Britain’s Tories. While guitarist Mark Bowen was out leaping in the crowd and getting the front row to hold up his guitar so he can hit it with a stick, Talbot was the tub-thumping ringleader, swinging his microphone around as if catching Nazis in the teeth by the dozen, starting ‘Dancer’ mid-headstand and introducing the mariachi punk ‘Divide And Conquer’ as “a song about how much I hate the British government”.
It’s heartening that, five albums in, Idles can still shock and stun new audiences, but also that they can so enthuse far-flung faithful ones. Lowlife jig ‘I’m Scum’ prompted a mosh for the ages and a furious ‘Danny Nedelko’ – their best song and arguably the greatest punk track of the past ten years or so – pushed the tent to such euphoric heights that Talbot and Bowen were inspired to sing a chorus of ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ to each other at the end. They closed with a particularly rabid and slavering ‘Rottweiler’, Bowen declaring “if we could play here every night we definitely would”. Citizenship assured. (MB)
Halsey proved they’re a true rock ‘n’ roll star
Halsey is still best known for their sugary crossover alt-pop radio hits, but her ‘The Girl In The Tower’ tour is a loud, defiant celebration of Halsey the rock god. Her set on Open’er Festival’s main stage started with a blast of Nine Inch Nails’ iconic ‘Closer’ as a palette cleanser, before she launched into her own, furious ‘Nightmare’. The snarling lyric “I’m tired and angry, but somebody should be” acted as the foundation for her fiery, hour-long set.
There were menacing industrial beats for the title track to 2021’s Trent Reznor co-produced ‘I Am Not A Woman, I’m A God’ while the sci-fi rave-rock of ‘Experiment On Me’ ended with guttural death growls. The stage was lit ablaze for the self-destructive ‘Gasoline’ and even poppy hits ‘Closer’ and ‘Colors’ were given headbanger-friendly reworkings.
Still, just because they were pulling from the heavier side of their discography, doesn’t mean Halsey did away with arena spectacle. Described as “a ceremony” rather than a straightforward festival set, they leant into dark, fantastical storytelling for the three-act show, which was divided into chapters ‘The Mother’, ‘The Maiden’ and ‘They’re Raging At Me’. A journey through frustration, liberation and self-empowerment, Halsey was chained up for the snotty punk growl of ‘Dog Years’, played a beat-up baby blue guitar for the scuzzy new wave of ‘You Asked For This’ and threw herself about the stage while singing songs of pain, hurt and defiance.
By the end of the set, the tower had burnt down and Halsey was left with a [fake] bloody nose as she performed the searing, Evanescence-inspired ‘Lonely Is The Muse’. “I didn’t know what to expect from this,” they admitted. “But this is fun.” The crowd, too, clearly loved the swaggering guitar anthems as diehard fans and freshly-converted moshers pogoed, screamed and raged as one. (AS)