Review: Adelaide Laneway Festival 2025 @ Bonython Park 15/02/25
In 2025, Laneway Festival served as a reminder that one-dayers that cater to the masses can indeed be a success.
Words by Zara Richards // Photos by Mhari Dougal
Laneway Festival @ Bonython Park 15/02/25
It was a cool 25 degrees in Adelaide when the beloved touring festival rolled into the city, inviting 25,000 punters to its new home of Bonython Park on February 15. And why wouldn’t a fat chunk of Greater Adelaide’s zillennial population be there? It was, of course, the state’s only opportunity to experience Brat summer in all its hedonistic glory. Three-time Grammy-winner Charli xcx shifted the zeitgeist with her mess-coded sixth studio album BRAT, a record that this generation, whose world is in constant turmoil, understandably latched onto. Laneway’s announcement that the popstar would exclusively headline the 2025 iteration of its festival sent the antipodean fanbase into pandemonium – a fact made obvious by the teems of 20-somethings turning out in neon-lime outfits to celebrate the momentous occasion from when gates opened on Saturday.
I’ve been internally debating whether it mattered that a sizable portion of the festival was there for one obvious reason. For the better part of a decade, I’ve been attending Laneway, and as Australia continues to see one-dayer (and even weekend) music events collapse in the current environment, it’s a relief there’s a festival that’s still cracking industry codes and finding ways to attract new audiences. However, the 2025 lineup was also heavily internationally skewed, with Skeggs and RONA. the only two Australian acts playing the Adelaide event outside of locals Twine, Divebar Youth and Pines. Does this matter? Is this a problem? My gut says yes (particularly as Australian acts continue to struggle in the charts despite the quality output). But Laneway is now one of the only ways for Australian youth to experience live music in a festival setting – a gateway for young people to go to more gigs and explore their native scenes.
Adelaide’s own DIVEBAR YOUTH served as an access point to Australia’s music scene. Despite being the third act of the day, the artist’s set was busy and continued to attract festival-goers whose ears were piqued by his impressive, genre-blind back catalogue. Likewise, local noise-rock quintet Twine, this year’s triple j Unearthed pick, garnered a crowd enthused by their tight-knit experimentation and feedback-laden sound.
It’s possible music discovery is still the heart of Laneway’s operation (even if it was only afforded to those who made the 1:40pm start time). However, it could be argued that the event’s roots of platforming rising indie (and often Australian) artists have evolved into prioritising whoever is dominating digitally. Alas, the rest of the day still offered an opportunity for attendees to fall in love with artists they’ve never seen before. Soul-soaked Oliva Dean was one such example: the British singer-songwriter delivered a flawless performance, twirling about the stage as she effortlessly moved through her nostalgic-tinged, hit-heavy set. Another highlight was Eyedress (also on his debut Australian tour and sporting a bright green BRAT tee), who packed out the Everything Ecstatic tent with punters interested in their sprawling synth sound. I also can’t remember the last time I saw a crowd as fervent as those turned out for rising hip-hop duo Joey Valence & Brae. Bodies heaved in unison to the two-piece’s bass-heavy tracks, arms (and phones) air-born for the majority of the set.
Laneway exclusive acts Clairo and beabadoobee delivered captivating sets, albeit the crowd being in earshot of the distant beat of dubstep-meets-UK garage act Hamdi. The response to Barry Can’t Swim’s performance felt unusually quiet, even though the Scottish-born producer’s delivery was euphoric. He moved seamlessly between his set-up and keyboard, deftly playing his light-filled tracks live. A particularly magical moment was when Dublin’s Jack Loughrey – aka SomeDeadBeat – was invited on stage to perform his spoken word verses on ‘Deadbeat Gospel’. Spine-tingling, to say the least.
For the most part, crowds behaved. Manoeuvring between the stages proved to be an arduous task, wait times for food crept close to an hour and toilet queues were long. But the punters seemed at peace with these standard crowd control issues. However, etiquette seemed to leave the chat as the festival inched towards its headline set. Charli xcx’s imminent presence was when the prodding, elbowing and shoving started, sections of the crowd attempting to squish closer to the barrier at the cost of those around them (even one punter loudly proclaimed it was a ‘boss move’ to shove hard to get the position they wanted). Typical yet unfavourable.
Regardless, Charli xcx proved why the world is enamoured with her. With nothing but a spotlight, she left jaws slack with her stage presence. She’s cheeky yet commanding, confident yet vulnerable all at once, her raw talent alone enough to send the Adelaide crowd into a frenzied mess. And mess is exactly what she embraced as she bounded about the stage, rolled on the ground and even shook her arse over the camera (all while singing, no less). ‘Von dutch’, ‘Club classics’ and ‘365’ dripped in indie-sleaze (even though most of the crowd was too young to recall such a pivotal time), ‘Girl, so confusing’ was a cathartic release of energy and the Billie Eilish remix of ‘Guess’ invited a flawless audience sing-a-long. Emotion peaked when the British star performed surprise track ‘Party 4 U’, the crowd almost still in awe when ‘Track 10’ provided another chilling moment. The euphoric 60 minutes was wrapped with a performance of Charli xcx’s breakout track ‘I Love It’, the singer even admitting she couldn’t believe she was still performing the song some 13 years later.
You can’t fault Laneway Festival’s operation. Twenty years on, the event has earned its reputation for being one of Australia’s most successful. Each act billed, individually, was outstanding – no performance was off-beat, and this year felt like a major success. But when you zoom out, it’s hard not to consider if Laneway’s MO in 2025 is reaching zapped, digital-first attention spans. Perhaps that’s what needs to happen in order to get the next generation to love live music. Let’s just hope they stay on board for the next one.
