Forbidden Fruit festival review: Lorde magnificent for Irish debut at Kilmainham
Lorde performing at the Forbidden Fruit Festival at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin. Picture: Kieran Frost/Redferns
In the video to her 2021 single Solar Power, Ella Yelich-O’Connor – aka New Zealand pop goddess Lorde – celebrates the sublime joy of a heatwave by dancing on a tropical beach. Those conditions were not quite recreated on the second day of Forbidden Fruit festival, which unfolded at Royal Hospital Kilmainham against a backdrop of brooding clouds and where rained on and off (mostly on) throughout the afternoon.
But Lorde was determined to bring the sunshine and by the end of her first ever Irish performance the swirling weather was vanquished, a sell-out crowd basking in imaginary rays.
This was a balmy high point as the two-dayer returned after a 36-month absence (thanks to you know what). Forbidden Fruit has always been a highlight of summer music and a gateway to festival season. An urban fest with evocative views over Dublin and without the need to slum it in a tent, it has a track record in championing new talent (Fontaines DC blew off the shutters in 2019) while imaginatively blending genres.
This year, the titanic electronica of Saturday headliners Bicep was juxtaposed with Lorde’s escapist pop on Sunday. The bill also celebrated Irish voices, with Dublin rapper Kojaque an early afternoon highlight on opening night.
Sunday had meanwhile delivered rubbish weather and the empathically wonky grooves of The Avalanches, the Australian duo blending crate-digging samples with fine-tuned melancholy. As the drizzle did its worst, the audience warmed to their simmering Antipodeon angst.
Lorde attracted a huge crowd and seemed genuinely struck by the enthusiasm swirling about Kilmainham along with the rain. She had brought bells and whistle production, revolving around a sort of high-concept staircase atop a representation of the sun.
There was lots from the Solar Power album, a fan-dividing exploration of solitude, new-age cults and 20-something spiritual growth (she recently turned 25). But because this was her first Irish show she was happy, too, to repurpose the evening into the greatest hits revue.
It was a reminder of just how much beautiful uncanniness her songbook contains. Green Light was an irresistible bop sprinkled with relationship blues; Homemade Dynamite highlighted both her eclectic dance style and rapping ability; Ribs, written when she was 15, was a powerful tribute to the fleeting intensity of adolescent friendship. And when she performed Royals, her 2013 number one, the venue burst into the largest mass singalong of the weekend.
“The sun is out, it’s been too long,” Kojaque had declared Saturday, during his rewarding post-teatime set (after which some audience members had departed early to attend the Billie Eilish concert at 3Arena).
Twenty-four hours later, as Lorde rocked Kilmainham, the sun had vanished and yet the message was the same. It had been too long and it was a delight both to welcome back Forbidden Fruit and to finally witness Lorde walking on water among her Irish worshippers.
