Charli XCX Makes Highly Anticipated Return To Laneway Festival Alongside Stacked 2025 Lineup

“I couldn’t be happier to be here with you guys, I swear to god. This is the real shit. The important shit.”

- Charli xcx, on stage at Laneway Festival NZ

Freshly crowned Grammy Award winner Charli xcx has made her highly anticipated return to Laneway Festival, performing alongside a world-class lineup featuring British bedroom pop rock icon Beabadoobee, the eternally charming Clairo, dance floor euphoria expert Barry Can’t Swim, NYC’s hottest new band Fcukers, and many more.

On one of Auckland’s finest summer days, Laneway Festival’s class of 2025 performed in front of a sold-out crowd of 30,000 music fans, all coming together to experience an expertly curated day of music. With music discovery at its core, over a third of the Laneway Festival lineup performed for the very first time in New Zealand, making it a huge day of festival debuts.

It was the first time that Aotearoa’s angels got to feel the rush of Charli xcx’s career-best record in a live setting. A masterclass in stage presence, Charli xcx closed out Laneway Festival’s Good Better Best stage with the bratty pop abandon she’s known for. Meanwhile, Northern Irish dance music duo BICEP debuted their mind-bending new AV DJ show CHROMA for the first time in this part of the world.

Djo – the project of multi-talented musician/actor Joe Keery – played his first Trans-Tasman shows and treated fans to a sampling of a new track ‘Gap Tooth Smile’ from his forthcoming album. British neo-soul star Olivia Dean was a crowd favourite in the early afternoon, saying to a sea of adoring fans “I just found out that ‘The Hardest Part’ went Gold yesterday in New Zealand yesterday. I’ve never had a song go gold. Thank you for making me gold.”

Hip hop’s most energetic new arrival, Joey Valence and Brae, turned up the dial to 100 with their soon-to-be infamous punk tactics. Australia’s favourite sons, Skegss, returned to the Laneway Festival stage and some of Aotearoa’s finest emerging artists, RNZŌ, Vera Ellen and Elliot and Vincent, gave us a taste of the future of New Zealand’s music scene.

Laneway Festival co-founder Danny Rogers says “Today marks a truly historic day for New Zealand’s music scene. Laneway Festival NZ began with the intention of bringing the most vital acts to Aotearoa and within the past 15 years, it’s evolved into a world-class event doing exactly that. The team behind Laneway Festival, all of whom are passionate music fans, have delivered something that Jerome and I are proud to say exceeds even our wildest dreams. A huge thank you to the incredibly dedicated teams, both past and present, the phenomenal artists, and of course, the fans whose support brings it all to life.”

For Australian fans, the show has only just begun. Up next are a string of sold-out shows in Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne, followed by the final two Australian dates in Adelaide and Perth.

Full lineup:

Charli xcx *
Beabadoobee * — Clairo *
Barry Can’t Swim * – BICEP present CHROMA (AV DJ set) *
Djo* — Remi Wolf – Olivia Dean
Eyedress – Joey Valence & Brae – Skegss
Hamdi – Fcukers – Julie* – 2hollis
Elliot & Vincent – RNZŌ – Vera Ellen
* Only playing at Laneway Festival

About Laneway Festival

Laneway Festival first started as a street party in Melbourne and over 20 years of evolution has grown into one of Australia and New Zealand’s most beloved touring festivals. Known for having its finger on the global pulse of the music industry, Laneway Festival has developed an impressive track record of bringing the world’s hottest breakthrough artists to Australia and New Zealand for the first time, establishing the festival as an international signifier of essential music.

© Scoop Media