Mad Cool Festival 2026 Day Two: Lorde, CMAT and Chloe Slater Take Over With Pop Firepower
Day two of Mad Cool Festival 2026 in Madrid (Thursday, July 9, 2026) belonged to pop, a sharp turn from the rock-leaning nostalgia of day one, which was headlined by Foo Fighters and The War On Drugs. According to NME's live review, the night's highlights clustered around three consecutive sets: CMAT, Chloe Slater, and Lorde.
Stage highlights
CMAT (real name Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson) opened at 6:45pm on the Orange Stage, her band dressed in CMAT-branded football jerseys reading "Dunboyne Diana," with a guitarist performing under the name "Skirt Cobain." The crowd broke into the viral dance for "Take A Sexy Picture Of Me" and danced along to "I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!" CMAT joked the set could be her last before dying of heatstroke, and read out fan signs from the stage — including one protesting that her 2025 album Euro-Country was snubbed by the Mercury Prize.
Chloe Slater played the Mahou Cinco Estrellas tent stage at 8:10pm. During "Sinking Feeling," fans up front spontaneously raised their phone lights. Her set ranged from romantic jealousy ("Harriet") to late-capitalist anxiety ("Ugly") to explicit politics: she introduced "War Crimes" as a song written in solidarity with Palestine.
Lorde took the Region of Madrid main stage at 8:30pm, mixing songs from her new album Virgin with older material like "Green Light" to strong response. The staging was deliberately stripped back, with instruments pushed to the front of the stage. Lorde wore a leather jacket studded with crisps that shot red lasers, dancing along a stage extension and addressing the crowd in Spanish. NME described the set as achieving a rare intimacy for such a large outdoor space.
Day one context
Mad Cool 2026's opening night (Wednesday, July 8) leaned on rock nostalgia with sets from Foo Fighters, Moby, The Vaccines, and The War On Drugs. Day three closes with Florence + The Machine, covered separately by NME. Full review and photos at the NME original.