Taking place from July 7 to 9 in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, Nos Alive festival celebrated its tenth year in 2016 with a line-up that was stronger than Ronaldo’s thighs. A much-photographed neon sign on the site, which is close to the city and beside the river Tagus, suggested ‘It was all a dream’ – but we have the pics to prove it wasn’t.
A festival with a bit of sunshine is all the excuse most people need to revert to cave-man fashion.
Two Door Cinema Club played late on Friday night after Radiohead had finished, and they drew one of the biggest crowds of the festival to the Heineken Stage.
Here are some flags. It looks sunny, doesn’t it? That’s because it was.
Foals performed in face-melting temperatures, but still attacked their set like terriers. Before a sprawling ‘A Knife In The Ocean’, frontman Yannis Philippakis told the crowd, “If you’ve got it, I suggest you smoke it now.” Sage advice, as always.
Years & Years rocked up looking like they’d rushed in straight from the gym and – on their first ever visit to Portugal – won themselves a heap of new fans. Frontman Olly Alexander was a bit taken with it all. “This is the most beautiful place I think we’ve ever played,” he said.
Us Brits may be Brexiting this Euro wonderland, but these two still had a message of peace for NME’s cameras. Unless they were gesturing to someone behind them.
This bit of the festival was a load of balls. In a pit! A ball pit! What could possibly be more fun than that?
Punk poet and ‘bard of Salford’ John Cooper Clarke appeared on the Jardim Caixa Stage, where he had to do the second half of the poem on the preceding page from memory.
This chap was one of the people operating the drones that fly around filming the festival from above. It’s the future Muse warned us about, and it’s brill.
And the prize for the most Instagrammed thing on site went to… this Notorious B.I.G.-referencing piece of neon loveliness. LIKE! In second place, and popular for the many Brits in attendance, was the sausage cart named Willy. Imagine that.
