Saturday, Mad Cool 2025, Madrid • Festivals • DIY Magazine

As the gates open for Mad Cool’s last full day of music - not counting Sunday’s inaugural Brunch Electronik programme - it’s immediately clear that, today, there’s only one name on everybody’s lips. Scores of tweenage girls are literally sprinting across the site, homemade signs in hand, to secure a close-as-possible spot to the main stage, ready to forego all else for their idol - and Olivia Rodrigo isn’t even on for another six hours. It’s an anticipatory, feverishly excited atmosphere, and one which is joyously inescapable; everywhere, there are merch-clad ‘Livies’ intent on having the night of their lives.

And there’s also a similar - if smaller-scale - fervour to the sizable crowd gathered before the festival’s third stage for girl in red. The Norwegian alt-pop mainstay is greeted by a sea of banners and ear-piercing enthusiasm, particularly as she introduces 2018 single ‘girls’ with a brief yet poignant tale of how its writing helped reconcile herself with her sexuality (“I’m a L E S B I A N,” she spells out for those yet unacquainted). If screaming is the thread that weaves throughout today’s performances, then FINNEAS’ set on the Orange Stage continues to deliver, his breezy, summery songs - which perfectly match the sun-drenched arena - punctuated by deafening yells every time he points, moves, or attempts to dance.

For those Olivia fans who haven’t opted to chain themselves to the main stage barrier, this evening’s golden hour slot offers an opportunity to get a different, more left-of-centre dose of pop-rock courtesy of the inimitable St Vincent. Indeed, as Annie Clark surveys the sunlight-bathed crowd gathered here, she herself acknowledges some of the most youthful faces peering back - young girls who, by our reckoning, will go home tonight with more than one set etched in their memories. Flitting between a sort of manic pixie persona (all air kisses and soft coos) and a sexually-charged vaudeville player, her erratic movements are suggestive of both ecstasy and agony, the alternative visionary presents her latest opus (2024’s ‘All Born Screaming’) with the conviction of one for whom - even at a foreign festival - artistic compromise is never an option.

Like Kaiser Chiefs yesterday, and St Vincent before them, Glass Animals’ presence on Mad Cool’s smallest outdoor stage seems like something of an underplay; beyond the core mass of people who’ve positioned themselves front and centre for the former DIY cover stars, reams more watch tonight’s feel-good set from afar, sipping cervezas sat down. Led by human Duracell Bunny Dave Bayley, the band understand that this pre-headline slot is essentially a mood-setter for the night ahead, and accordingly bounce through a set that (quite literally, in Dave’s case) dances from peppy indie to neon-hued, atmospheric electro-pop with ease. Humble and endearingly awkward as they are, it’s sometimes easy to forget that Glass Animals are masters at making their close-knit fan community feel seen; but then you spot an errant pineapple or Pokémon plushie aloft in the crowd, or hear the screams that greet viral smash ‘Heatwaves’, and remember: this is a band who’ve (accidentally) harnessed the influence of internet in-jokes to their great advantage - and everyone else’s great delight.

And so, to the main event. For someone who’s never had this many eyes on her - following her triumphant turn headlining Glastonbury just a few weeks ago - Olivia Rodrigo is anything but phased. Bounding onstage as the closing bars of The Go-Go’s ‘We Got The Beat’ fade out, she stands at the intersection between pop idol, rockstar, and modern-day Disney princess: an artist of both style and substance who, if there’s any justice, is standing on the brink of Taylor Swift-level world domination. Though she’s still only two albums in, the strength of her songs is such that tonight’s setlist feels, essentially, like a greatest hits compilation: any of ‘vampire’, ‘bad idea, right?’, ‘love is embarrassing’, or ‘driver’s license’ are easily encore-worthy, but here they’re nestled mid-performance, each somehow raising the bar - and the decibels of this word-perfect crowd - to even more dizzying heights.

Much like Glasto, the show makes use of a few choice set pieces - an underfoot camera and, later, a scaffold rig/megaphone combo - but Olivia has no need for fluffy concepts or props: she only has to play ‘All I Want’ (a High School Musical soundtrack cut that rarely gets a live airing) for fans to feel they’ve witnessed a capital-M Moment. Because what she and her all-female band deliver isn’t just glitter and giddy euphoria: it’s statement-making inspiration for a whole new generation of girls who, through her music, feel empowered to be really, REALLY loud. To paraphrase OlRod’s own words: she knows her place, and this is it.