O Days 2026 looks like a festival that has understood something essential about itself — and dares to turn it up. It’s not necessarily the most commercial names that give the programme weight, but the way the bookings speak to one another. With Disclosure, Joy Orbison, Nia Archives, Mall Grab, Buraka Som Sistema, The Dare, Swimming Paul and Tripolism, this year’s lineup points toward something clubby, precise and unusually well curated. Read on to see exactly why.
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Disclaimer: Apropos Magazine received access or a review copy. As always, we share our own impressions — unfiltered.
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Last year, we were standing at Reffen with wet shoes and were really only meant to kill a couple of hours before Justice. Those hours ended up becoming the festival itself. We stayed, disappeared into the atmosphere, and suddenly things started happening.
It wasn’t necessarily the biggest bookings that made O Days one of our summer highlights. It was the mood, the setting, the pace and the smaller electronic names that made the whole thing feel like somewhere you’d rather stay than move on from. And now the festival is back in 2026 with a lineup that, in our view, hits exactly what worked best last year. O Days has found its shape and put together a brilliant programme that looks 1:1 like a playlist from your most techno-curating friend.
O Days has something going on. Not in that inflated way, where someone calls it a “cultural meeting point” in a press release. Just genuinely. The small festival with the big impact. Because God knows there are plenty of big festivals with small impact.
The editorial team’s 9 recommendations
Disclosure (DJ set) - Saturday / Omni
Disclosure is the kind of booking that, on paper, can trigger a tiny internal eye-roll. Not because they aren’t good, but because for many of us they’ve become synonymous with that very specific 2013 feeling, when everyone with a festival wristband identity suddenly had an opinion about Latch, White Noise and whether you could “still hear some UKG in it.” If, like most people who’ve been to a party in the last thirteen years, you don’t exactly get goosebumps from yet another reminder of their old evergreens, that’s perfectly understandable.
What’s interesting is that a Disclosure DJ set in 2026 isn’t really about nostalgia in the lazy sense. It’s less about being fed a neat little greatest-hits parade and more about being reminded that they still have taste, range and a pretty well-developed sense of how to build a room. In recent years they’ve moved further away from pure festival pop and closer to something more clubby, more functional and more alive. When they now work with names like Chris Lake, and when their newer output has more speed and less polished crossover gloss, it also suggests they know perfectly well that nobody wants to stand on Refshaleøen and be served a museum set. So yes, you can be pleasantly surprised. Not because they’ve suddenly become obscure. But because in DJ format they get to be something more than just that guy from Latch.
Joy Orbison - Thursday / Orangerie
Joy Orbison is the kind of name that makes people with good taste sit up a little straighter. Peter O’Grady is from Croydon and, since “Hyph Mngo” in 2009, has been one of the most influential figures in the space between UK garage, house, dubstep and jungle. The kind of artist who doesn’t just play tracks, but feels like an entire set of references in human form. If you want to see how much of the lineup actually owes something to British club history, Joy Orbison is a very good place to start.
And the good thing about Joy Orbison is that he hasn’t become a museum piece for people who still talk about 2009 as if it were the Congress of Vienna. He still feels active in the present. His newer tracks still have that ability to sound skewed, clubby and strangely precise all at once, and tracks like “Freedom 2” with Kwengface and Overmono make it very clear why he remains relevant. This isn’t just UK nostalgia. It’s a sound that still moves, and can still hit a modern audience without losing that slightly murky, very British nerve. In other words, he’s not just someone you should respect. He’s also someone you’ll actually still want to hear at 1:40 a.m., when things are allowed to get a little darker.
Nia Archives - Saturday / Omni
Nia Archives may be the name on the poster that best turns hygge into acceleration. Born in Bradford, she works with jungle and drum’n’bass and has become a central figure in the genre’s newer wave, not least because she produces, sings and DJs with an energy that feels far more alive than just “retro revival.” She has already broken through with her own EPs and the album Silence Is Loud, and when she connects with a crowd, it’s rarely a quiet affair. This isn’t just something you nod along to. It’s something you end up sweating through.
And if anyone is still in doubt about how much live energy she actually brings, the Boiler Room Nottingham set from International Women’s Day is the obvious place to start. Boiler Room described her as the one who curated the entire lineup for the night, and that makes sense when you watch or hear the set: it’s not just technically strong, it’s also the work of an artist who seems to be having an absurd amount of fun inside her own universe.
Mall Grab - Thursday / Orangerie
Mall Grab is the right name if you want to be able to say “it actually got pretty wild” without lying. Australian Jordon Alexander has built a strong reputation in the space between house and techno, and for several years he’s been one of those DJs who can make a set feel raw and very precise at the same time. Not heavy in a stupid way. More like: groove, speed and that feeling that things can tilt a little without falling apart. O Days places him perfectly in the programme as a booking that can lift the energy without losing its shape.
Buraka Som Sistema - Saturday / Omni
Buraka Som Sistema may be the booking on the poster that best explains why Saturday looks so strong. This isn’t just another electronic name. It’s a group that, in its time, made kuduro, global bass and club music feel raw, sweaty and culturally explosive all at once. When you say Buraka Som Sistema, you also say “Kalemba,” “Sound of Kuduro” and that whole energy where it feels as if the body understands the music half a second before the brain does. And that’s exactly why the booking points to something real: Buraka still exists as a name that can make a lineup feel less polished and more dangerous. It suits O Days enormously.
Swimming Paul - Thursday / Orangerie
Swimming Paul is the kind of booking you can use to impress people if you’re willing to be annoying in a charming way. Paris-based producer, emotional club music, old rave melodies in a new light and a sound that keeps balancing between euphoria and melancholy. The festival itself leans into that story about him as something both nostalgic and forward-looking, and that makes sense. He’s the kind of artist who can make a field feel intimate without losing momentum. Not necessarily the biggest name of the weekend. Maybe one of the smartest to show up for.
Tripolism - Saturday / Orangerie
If you want to know which Danish electronic name actually feels like it’s heading out into the world rather than just circulating around the same three Copenhagen scenes, the answer is Tripolism. Since 2021, trio members Bryn, Fred and Ras have built strong international momentum, and the breakthrough really came with “Dope Dance,” before the debut album Absolute Dope and the Ultra signing did the rest. Their sound sits somewhere between house, disco and techno, but the crucial thing is almost that they actually have melodies and vocals you can remember. That makes them far more festival-friendly than many acts that live high on atmosphere alone and very little song.
Σtella - Saturday / Omni
Σtella is the lineup’s most elegant detour. Stella Chronopoulou is from Athens, graduated from the Athens School of Fine Arts and has by now established herself as an international indie-pop artist with both Greek roots and global reach. Her more recent material, especially Adagio, is built on nylon strings, lightly psychedelic colours and a very deliberate slowness that can be absolutely perfect in a festival setting, if you don’t want everything to be hammering away. She’s not the name that will necessarily make the most people shout. But she is exactly the kind of booking that makes a lineup better.
The Dare (DJ set) - Friday / Orangerie
The Dare is the lineup’s dirty grin. Harrison Patrick Smith is from the US and, in a very short time, has made himself known as a central figure in the newer electroclash and indie sleaze revival, both with his own tracks like “Girls” and through his work on Charli XCX’s “Guess.” At O Days he’s playing a DJ set, which suits his overall energy very well: less art-school lecture, more “now let’s knock this over a bit.” If you want one name on the poster that feels like a very well-dressed bad idea, this is your pick.
Bremer/McCoy - Saturday / Omni
Bremer/McCoy aren’t the booking that makes the lineup more rave. But they do make it more grown-up. The duo consists of Jonathan Bremer on bass and Morten McCoy on piano, and they’ve built a very special space around their slow, open and deeply warm instrumental universe. In their own bio, they describe the music as something meant to create wordless communication, calm and beauty in a somewhat harsh time. It sounds almost too neat on paper, but live it makes sense. And yes, the slightly messy side note can be allowed to live, because it’s actually true: Morten McCoy is Jens Ole McCoy’s older brother. That’s not why you should see Bremer/McCoy. But it’s exactly the kind of detail that makes a festival guide feel more human than machine-made. If, at some point during the festival, you need to remember that music is also allowed to be beautiful without being efficient, this is a very good place to go.
Conclusion without a conclusion:
If you can only take one day, we’d still point to Saturday.
Not as a scientific truth, but as the day when the festival’s identity comes into sharpest focus. Disclosure, Joy Orbison, Buraka Som Sistema, Σtella and Swimming Paul together create the feeling that O Days that day will be big, beautiful and clubby all at once. Thursday is strong. Friday has its moments too. But Saturday looks like the day when you’re least likely to go home feeling like you chose wrong.
O Days 2026 doesn’t just look like a good weekend. It looks like a lineup with an attitude. Something that dares to be a little narrower, a little cooler and a little more British in its bloodstream, without turning into an inside joke for people with far too expensive headphones. And that may, in fact, be the most promising thing about it all.
