This year’s Mad Cool Festival started off on the back foot – Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill’s broken one, specifically. The “Use Somebody” hitmakers pulled out of the festival, often billed as Spain’s answer to Coachella, in May after Followill was rushed to surgery, having shattered his heel in a “freak accident” while playing with his children.
Enter Muse, the rock stalwarts who swooped in to save the first night of the three-day festival in Madrid’s Iberdrola Music arena. Frontman and conspiracy-theorist-in-chief Matt Bellamy proves he hadn’t lost flair for revving up a crowd, brandishing his guitar like a chainsaw as he slides up and down the frets through a repertoire of gargantuan rock hits including “Supermassive Black Hole” and “Time is Running Out”. At one point, huge flames shoot upwards out of the back of the stage. Elated screams intensify.
The group of Devon boys aren’t the headliners anybody planned for. But they are the unrelenting electric shock crowds needed after a day plagued by tech blackouts, which had seen indie pop girl Gracie Abrams plunged into silence midway through “Mess It Up”. The Gen-Z favourite handles the sound system’s surrender to 37 degree heat with gusto – encouraging her word-perfect fans to sing along to an acoustic rendition of “That’s So True” before closing out with infatuation anthem “Close to You” as the mains power kicked back in. Topless godfather of punk Iggy Pop isn’t so forgiving when he suffers the same fate minutes later – dropping his mic on the floor and dragging his skinny jean-clad legs off stage until normal order resumes. Still, as he belts out “The Passenger” at sunset, glitches become a distant memory.
Day two sees Alanis Morissette remind Olivia Rodrigo fans that she was the headliner’s blueprint. As Morissette breezes through “You Oughta Know” and “Hand in my Pocket” you can hear the generations of female artists she inspired: Rodrigo, Kelly Clarkson, and the likes of Avril Lavigne included. She’s vocally faultless, keeping crowd work to a minimum, merrily spinning around the stage in circles from left to right as a mixed audience of middle-aged dads and teenage daughters screech out “it’s like raaaaiiiiin” in the full-throttle throes of “Ironic”.
Then comes Vermont singer-songwriter Noah Kahan, a man cheerfully aware just how far his vulnerable folk ballads are from usual Friday night dance party material. “I’m here to wipe the smile off your face tonight,” he laughs, clutching his acoustic guitar. Sure enough, his imminent hits “Call Your Mum” and “You’re Gonna Go Far” reduce the buzzing crowd to tears. “Spain, my parents are divorced!” he announces, midway through “All My Love”. There’s no such thing as oversharing here and Kahan’s candour provokes an enjoyable mass catharsis.
Mad Cool’s final night belongs entirely to Rodrigo. Spanish fangirls do not play around and, when gates open eight hours before the GUTS singer-songwriter’s 11pm set, swarms of Converse-wearing teens leg it across the astroturf to secure themselves a space at the barrier. They’re nonetheless game when Jared Leto and Thirty Seconds to Mars take to the stage, the aforementioned frontman and Hollywood star stepping out in baggy white robes, with crinkly Jesus-like brunette waves and what appear to be Charli XCX’s sunglasses.
There is a strong sense that Mad Cool is a cross-generational festival. One afternoon, you can ping-pong from watching TikTok favourite Benson Boone somersault across the main stage to Jet, performing the 2003 banger “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”, a matter of metres to the right. Tech blowouts aside, the site is phenomenally organised, with frequent water stations, room to move, air-conned dance tents and short toilet queues, so fans can meander around without worrying they could be on the brink of collapse. The atmosphere is overwhelmingly welcoming, regardless whether you know all the lyrics to every set.

Yet, when it comes to Rodrigo, fans – young and old – do. They could chant along while standing on their heads blindfolded. The crowd screeches from “Obsessed” to “Bad Idea Right?” to “Love Is Embarrassing” in a flurry of joyful mayhem. Girls scream into each other’s faces while Rodrigo high-kicks, head-bangs, and crawls along the stage followed by an underfloor camera. “Are you still with me Madrid?” she yells into a huge red megaphone Abrams could have used on the Thursday. But of course they are: hell or high water, these guys aren’t going anywhere.