Vodafone Paredes de Coura 2026

As your mortal coil pushes 40 it certainly gets harder to go up and downhill for four days straight. You’ll start giving up on the idea of partying until closing time. You’ll curse the dubious choices of headliners and how late some of your must-sees are playing. You’ll also curse how early some of your must-sees are playing because it’s 30+ every single day. You’ll decide you don’t have to watch every single show of the festival even if you should because you’re working. You’ll slap your head in disbelief when you notice your gel insoles are too worn out and it’s too late to order new ones, you’ll search for keywords like “metatarsal pads”, you’ll bring your own pillow and fan to your accommodation (yes, you last pitched a tent in 2007). You’ll still end up with a neck strain. And as soon as you leave you’ll start making plans to come back the next year because no matter the lineup, the amount of kids smoking cigarettes like this isn’t the year 2026, the diminishing amount of friends making the trip as they get even older than you, the weather, or the amount of dust in your lungs, there is no place like home.

Trying to reduce four days (actually, seven) of a festival with upwards of 70 shows to a top 10 is always a tough endeavour. Shoutout to several acts that didn’t quite make the cut below but deserve a mention: Terraplana, Kurt Vile, Horsegirl, Wet Leg, CMAT, Show Me the Body, Hetta, Patrick Watson, Aldous Harding, or Hermanos Gutiérrez (saying their 11pm slot was some unfortunate scheduling is an understatement). But here’s our top ten:

Greg Freeman

It’s hard to win over an audience in a country where your record sales are likely still in the two digits. It’s extra hard when way too many groups are meeting for the first time as they arrive on site (please go meet somewhere other than the first couple of rows, buddies), when there’s an eclipse happening, and, well, when you’re mostly playing new tracks. Turns out those new tracks are perfect. The Aussies at the barricade were wired.

Underworld

Underworld? More like what an underwhelming setlist, right? That was the only thing holding their set back from being near the top of our list, because the visual show alone was worth the trip, and so was (obviously) the song everyone was waiting for. The only headliner worth the label that was pasted on them.

Sérgio Godinho

A show that wasn’t billed as a headline set – especially with its 6pm slot – but was produced like one. A stellar, star-studded (Manuela Azevedo, Samuel Úria, Ana Lua Caiano, and more) celebration of one of the biggest names in 20th century Portuguese songwriting. While he’s still alive. Opening this space on the lineup to celebrate the living was one of the best ideas this festival’s team ever had. Even António José Seguro, the recently elected President of the Republic, showed up side-stage for a very deserved homage.

University

One thing I didn’t miss about the festival was having to wait until 4 am for a rock band to take to the stage. That’s DJ territory. Sorry. Was it worth it, though? Absolutely. University were a breath of fresh air after a couple of sets of dubious taste and substance. The trio from Crewe isn’t playing Xbox on stage anymore; instead, they brought some much needed fast-paced, no-nonsense, guitar-bass-drums mathy emo to moshpit-hungry kids.

Dame Area

In the last few years, the after-movie shown after the last show of the main stage would be accompanied by giant Vodafone-coloured bouncy balls being launched off the balcony of the press area. Then they’re passed around the festival grounds in a festive mood, until ultimately meeting their fate being loudly popped at the after-hours set. It didn’t happen this year, but it would have been fun to see that contrasting with the dark, industrial, martial beats of Dame Area, in a show that felt less like a celebration and more like the continuation of the dark atmosphere brought forward by Prostitute, who played the same stage earlier (read on below). Couldn’t complain as I was completely entranced and ready for a very late night sarrabulho.

5. Friko

Oh man, straight up indie rock can be so nice. If you were around at the time, it can make you feel like it’s 2005. But it’s 2026 and there are internet connected mobile phones everywhere, and it’s increasingly rare that a webzine writer will convince you that some weird-ass album by a troupe of seven unwashed French Canadians is worth listening to. Friko come from the south side of the border (and thankfully they look like they enjoy daily showers) but they’ll bring that feeling back for you. Sometimes they sound like a young Conor Oberst fronting mewithoutYou, sometimes they sound like nothing you’ve heard before. Sometimes they’re anthemic, sometimes they sound urgent, sometimes they go “screw it, here’s a stellar version of New Order’s “Ceremony”” and above all they’ll never leave you bored.

4. Westside Cowboy

It’s never easy to be the band opening the main stage of a festival. It’s hot and attention levels are at their worst. But this is Westside Cowboy, a band that’s pretty much ready to headline a festival in the next couple of years on the back of a hype that brought them from opening for the likes of Geese and Black Country, New Road to a major label record deal. There’s a bit of both these bands on their live show (including the sharing lead singing duties of the latter) but they never sound derivative. Their debut LP It Goes On was just released and it deserves your attention.

3. Carolina Durante

It’s also never easy to open the main stage of a festival in any other day, especially when the temperature hovers above 30. Clearly on the last leg of their Elige Tu Propia Aventura album cycle, Carolina Durante takes to the stage – an office themed stage – to the sound of the Office theme song. It’s not even 5pm yet, it’s scorching hot, half of the audience consists of Spaniards who were anything but napping, and the lads are flying through their discography at neck breaking pace (“Joderse la vida”, “Tomé café”, “Monstruo” – complete with the sticky note “monster” stage invader as seen here). Temazos a mansalva. How is it possible that they’re still leaving hits like “Cayetano” unplayed? How many absolute bangers do these guys have? They didn’t even need to go the extra mile, but the middle part of the show features invited trumpet, violin, viola, and cello players. They probably didn’t need to go the extra mile for a 5pm show in Portugal, but they did. Next time they’re around they will certainly be the biggest band in the peninsula, and they’ll be totally deserving of a prime time slot. We’ll be there.

2. Prostitute

Dear western left-leaning artists. We all know where your sympathies lie regarding any conflict between what you deem a “Western” country and a non-western country. You don’t need to parade flags of foreign countries around (never your own!) and constantly remind audiences that you support the side that you think is “correct” for that quick dopamine hit when you get feedback from the audience.

Now, Prostitute are a political band. Provocative, too. Their name and lyrical content probably disqualify them from playing a sizeable part of the world, including where some of their members have roots. They’re not trying to cater for the most anodyne person in the audience. Definitely not trying to be the next Coldplay. I mean, these folks from Michigan are playing some very noisy rock music here. But, like their vocalist says the first time he addresses the audience, “we’re here to dance”. Not to lead feel-good chants that “prove” you’re “one of the good guys”, I would add. They were there to play what was, by far, the best show of the last day of the festival. The bass is swinging, the guitar is either hypnotising us with Levantine melodies or piercing our ears with some This Heat circa Deceit shredding. The industrial synths they brought along aren’t quiet either. Given the fact that the Thundercat show at the main stage felt like watching paint dry (it was some nice paint, though!), it’s no wonder the crowd was going wild. If there was an artist worth buying a Saturday day ticket, that was Prostitute. Go see them.

1. Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band

Very on brand (and very telling about the festival’s young demographics) that my favourite show was also the worst attended one, at least from the ones I saw. Davis and his Roadhouse Band were sandwiched at dinner time between the two proper headliners of the day, attracting mostly the real heads. These Americana-laced indie rock songs are long and winding (the only track on their catalog that’s under 4 minutes is a reprise of a longer song…), which often doesn’t sit well with a more, let’s say, “relaxed” festival-goer mindset. The Roadhouse Band ripped through a selection of tracks off Davis’ both post-State Champion records, without his pedalboard (thanks to American Airlines), but with the mighty and underrated Styrofoam Winos on board. “Do you think M.I.A. also has to tune in between songs?”, asks Davis at some point. I would have rather tuned into a Winos makeshift show backstage instead of whatever was going on at the main stage later that evening: certainly one of the worst shows I’ve seen there.

Hell, even seeing Dionysus hitting the urinal (for the less initiated, this is a real song reference) is a better use of my time than seeing the likes of M.I.A. or Kneecap on stage again. More Winos, fewer gimmicks and train wrecks, would be my request for next year. Which will be my 20th anniversary on holy ground. If KLM – the formerly great Dutch airline that will cease to provide free sandwiches even though they charged me almost 600 euros for an Amsterdam – Porto trip – doesn’t let me down or something. See you between 18-21 August 2027.