Øya, Oslo review – Joyous festival with enough heart to bring even Robert Smith to tears

Robert Smith, frontman for The Cure, even shed a tear during a captivating ‘Just Like Heaven’ - (Raphael Pour-Hashemi)

In recent years, Oslo’s Øya Festival has faced opprobrium. Since 2024, its parent company Superstruct Entertainment has been receiving investment from private equity firm KKR, which also holds some unrelated investments in Israeli companies. In a country that prides itself on humanitarianism – in which corruption and scandal are vanishingly rare – this was a fairly sustained controversy that peaked last summer, with calls to boycott the festival. This year the mood has cooled somewhat, Øya having partnered up with Amnesty, and the wealthy petro-state’s citizens seem content to fly Palestine flags.

For a festival often punctuated by storms, it’s apt that the line-up is stuffed full of moody, dramatic acts. On Wednesday night, The Cure, those emperors of goth and pop, headline the main stage. The Crawley group have an incomparable catalogue of hits to play with, and deliver a sprawling set that even sees Robert Smith shed a tear during a captivating rendition of “Just Like Heaven”. Their set lasts two-and-a-half hours and spans more than four decades, including their early post-punk era, a stint as funereal doomsayers, and the synth-pop of their commercial peak. They save most of the bangers for the 10-song encore: “Lovesong”, “Lullaby”, “The Lovecats”, “Friday I’m in Love” and “Boys Don’t Cry” all ensue. Eschewing tight jeans these days for roomy combat trousers, Smith is leaning into his late sixties, but what remains constant is that voice: crystalline and pained and cracked only when he allows it. Seldom have I seen him more joyous.