Highways Festival 2026 Night 1 Review
Highways, the little brother of Country 2 Country, returned last night at the Royal Albert Hall, giving us another blast of non-stop country music for five hours, late into Friday night.
With a songwriter's round featuring Alyssa Bonagura, Bec O'Malley and Dave Lofts, followed by Jack Van Cleaf's set, Highways was off to a fine start before one of the upcoming names in country music took to the stage.
Kaitlin Butts is making waves in the country music scene. A star feature as the mean girl in Ella Langley's Choosing Texas music video has meant that Butts has even more eyes on her, and alongside her band, she brought some expert vocals to the stage and a lot of new music. Perhaps the standout was an unreleased track - "Never Really Mine". If any song is going to grab your focus straightaway, it's one where the first line is "Big tits, big lips". Clever and sad, it's a song about when you're with a man with a wandering eye and should definitely be on your playlists when it comes out in just two weeks. We had the opportunity to speak to her this week so check that out here!
But what was notable at Highways was the relaxed vibe, and everyone remained seated for the whole night in anticipation of Jon Pardi. Hats and shirts adorned with his name were aplenty in the red velvet arena, and when he arrived on stage, I was expecting the whole crowd to jump up. What happened was bizarre to say the least, with everyone sitting down for Pardi's first song, "Honkytonk Hollywood". This didn't feel right, and not like a country music festival where you need to be up and dancing.
However, my fears were short-lived, as in typical British fashion, the mention of tequila ahead of his smash hit, "Tequila Little Time", got the whole crowd up in an instant, where they remained for the remaining hour and a half. My last time seeing Pardi was in 2024 at the Grand Ole Opry. For me, Highways oozes the Opry, whether it's the grand venue of the Albert Hall or those on stage using their time well to really sell themselves as acts. Personally, it was great to hear him play again and took me back to one of my favourite Nashville memories. The Californian native played some of his biggest hits in what is the 10th anniversary of Pardi's breakthrough album "California Sunrise". Pardi is releasing a special edition of the album this year in honour of it, and the standout moments of the night came as the show closed, where he played his big songs from the album, "Head Over Boots", "Dirt on My Boots" and a personal favourite, "Heartache on the Dancefloor".
It set us up nicely for tomorrow, where we get to enjoy some more time with Carly Pearce, Corey Kent, Tigirlily Gold and Clover County.
With a songwriter's round featuring Alyssa Bonagura, Bec O'Malley and Dave Lofts, followed by Jack Van Cleaf's set, Highways was off to a fine start before one of the upcoming names in country music took to the stage.
Kaitlin Butts is making waves in the country music scene. A star feature as the mean girl in Ella Langley's Choosing Texas music video has meant that Butts has even more eyes on her, and alongside her band, she brought some expert vocals to the stage and a lot of new music. Perhaps the standout was an unreleased track - "Never Really Mine". If any song is going to grab your focus straightaway, it's one where the first line is "Big tits, big lips". Clever and sad, it's a song about when you're with a man with a wandering eye and should definitely be on your playlists when it comes out in just two weeks. We had the opportunity to speak to her this week so check that out here!
But what was notable at Highways was the relaxed vibe, and everyone remained seated for the whole night in anticipation of Jon Pardi. Hats and shirts adorned with his name were aplenty in the red velvet arena, and when he arrived on stage, I was expecting the whole crowd to jump up. What happened was bizarre to say the least, with everyone sitting down for Pardi's first song, "Honkytonk Hollywood". This didn't feel right, and not like a country music festival where you need to be up and dancing.
However, my fears were short-lived, as in typical British fashion, the mention of tequila ahead of his smash hit, "Tequila Little Time", got the whole crowd up in an instant, where they remained for the remaining hour and a half. My last time seeing Pardi was in 2024 at the Grand Ole Opry. For me, Highways oozes the Opry, whether it's the grand venue of the Albert Hall or those on stage using their time well to really sell themselves as acts. Personally, it was great to hear him play again and took me back to one of my favourite Nashville memories. The Californian native played some of his biggest hits in what is the 10th anniversary of Pardi's breakthrough album "California Sunrise". Pardi is releasing a special edition of the album this year in honour of it, and the standout moments of the night came as the show closed, where he played his big songs from the album, "Head Over Boots", "Dirt on My Boots" and a personal favourite, "Heartache on the Dancefloor".
It set us up nicely for tomorrow, where we get to enjoy some more time with Carly Pearce, Corey Kent, Tigirlily Gold and Clover County.