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Gender parity has been a hot topic in festival lineups for years, and while Mad Cool festival already has a long history of championing female talent, its 2026 edition took it a step further. Matching efforts from other promoters, like Primavera Sound’s notable all-female headlining trio in 2025 or Olivia Rodrigo‘s recently announced all-female nonprofit music festival, Daisy Chain Fields, Mad Cool let women take the reins for the second day of the festival.
Irish pop-country star CMAT was in charge of warming up the crowd as the first act of the night on the Orange stage, putting on a pared-down show with her crew, all clad in skirts, that was a perfect mix of humour and vocal prowess. CMAT, an acronym for the artist’s name Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, was a splendid display of irreverence with crowd interactions galore. The summer heat didn’t stop her dancing and jumping. She even shouted out Olivia Rodrigo before “When a Good Man Cries”, in reference to her cover of the track.
Wunderkind Reneé Rapp took on the main Region of Madrid stage to a legion of fans. She closed with viral hit tracks like “In The Kitchen”, “Tummy Hurts” and “Snow Angel” before ending on a cheeky note with “At Least I’m Hot,” off her 2025 album “Bite Me.” As the sun began to set, New Zealand pop royalty, Lorde, put on an experimental and raw show using EKG electrodes that monitored her cardiac vitals as part of her visuals. The 29-year-old performed songs like “Royals”, “Team”, and “Ribs” from her debut album “Pure Heroine”, as well as standouts from her latest album, “Virgin”, before ending with her feature on the remix of Charli xcx‘s “Girl, so confusing.”
One of the most anticipated acts of the night was Swedish pop princess Zara Larsson. She brought her technicolour world of dolphins and hibiscus flowers to the Spanish capital. Making her grand return to Mad Cool after four years, Larsson arguably deserved a bigger stage than Orange’s second in command. She kept the energy positive and bright with tracks like “Symphony,” “Lush Life” and, of course, “Midnight Sun” (twice) as the sun began to set. Larsson definitely takes the home run for best live arrangements, interpolating elements from other remixes and songs, like “Looking for the Hoes” by Sexyy Red and the seminal “Tokyo Drift” by Teriyaki Boyz.
Jennie, who rose to fame as a member of BLACKPINK, turned up the heat during her first solo appearance in Spain. Jennie’s stage was theatrical with Euphoria-esque hazy visuals custom-made for each song. The star sang three unreleased songs and delighted fans with live renditions of standouts like Tame Impala collaboration “Dracula”, The Idol‘s “One of the Girls”, originally with The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp, as well as the vast majority of her first solo album “Ruby.” Marking her return to the festival since 2022, the honour of closing the day went to Florence + The Machine. The show was akin to a religious experience, with leading lady Florence Welch gracing the stage barefoot in a flowy dress to perform from her new album Everybody Scream and career-defining tracks like “Dog Days Are Over” and the Candi Staton cover “You Got the Love.”
While women stole the show on Thursday, that’s not to say there was a shortage of male talent. Teddy Swims and Charlie Puth also drew massive crowds and the festival lineup featured standouts like Foo Fighters, Moby, Kings of Leon, and more. However, dedicating a full day to spotlighting female talent was a bold move that paid off. Truly, the only worry for attendees was keeping heatstroke at bay, as CMAT joked during her set, and manoeuvring around the small but pesky schedule overlaps here and there. Every year, Mad Cool tries to reinvent itself with new stage configurations, new acts, and a broader scope. A decade in, the formula seems to be working better than ever.
photography. Javier Bragado + Luis Carbonell
words. Sara Delgado
