McFly Forest Live Thetford 2026 – A Loud, Joyful Start to the Forest Season
McFly played Forest Live Thetford 2026 kicked the whole Suffolk series off in the best way possible…
With some awesome concert photography from Blanc Creative
On a warm Wednesday night at High Lodge, the band opened five nights of music in Thetford Forest with a set that was loud, fast and properly fun, and we were down the front for it.
This was year 14 on site at Forest Live for Blanc Creative, and it was one of the most enjoyable opening nights we have shot.
Here is what the night was actually like, the full setlist, and a look at the photography we came away with.
The night Forest Live turned 25
Forest Live is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2026, and Thetford got the honour of the opening headline slot. McFly were the first band to walk out onto the High Lodge stage this year, ahead of a run that also brings Nile Rodgers and CHIC, Fatboy Slim, Snow Patrol and UB40 featuring Ali Campbell to the same forest over the following nights.
If you have never been, High Lodge is a special place to watch live music.
The stage sits in a clearing with pines on every side, the light fades slowly through the trees during the early sets, and by the time the headliner arrives you are watching a full production light show against a wall of forest. It is a very different feeling to an arena, and it suits a band like McFly who play to the crowd rather than at them.
The band came on at around quarter past nine and played for roughly eighty five minutes.
Twin Atlantic were the main support and Remember Monday opened the night, which turned out to matter later on.
The McFly Forest Live Thetford setlist
Here is the full setlist from the night:
- Where Did All The Guitars Go?
- Land of the Bees
- I Wanna Hold You
- One For The Radio
- I’ll Be OK
- Star Girl
- Transylvania into Lies
- Obviously
- Room on the 3rd Floor
- Everybody Knows (plus medley)
- Happiness (with Remember Monday)
- It’s All About You
- Shine A Light
- Red
Encore:
- Forever’s Not Enough
- Five Colours in Her Hair
It is a clever running order. Opening on Where Did All The Guitars Go? and Land of the Bees plants the flag straight away that this is McFly the rock band, leaning on their Power to Play era, before the early hits start landing one after another.
By the time Star Girl and Obviously arrive, the whole field is singing. The mix was pretty diverse, but with an emphasis on the younger generation and a perfect night out with the family.
What we shot from the pit
The opening run is where the photography really comes alive, and it is the part we focused on. The first few songs are when the band have the most fuel in the tank and the light is at its most dramatic, with stage lighting cutting through the dusk and smoke rolling across the front.
Danny Jones spent most of the early set in a blue jacket and sunglasses, working the front of the stage and pulling faces straight down the lens.
He is a gift for a photographer because he never stops moving and he plays up to the camera without it ever looking forced. We came away with frame after frame of him mid-shout with the white guitar slung low.
Dougie Poynter was the other story of the night through the viewfinder.
In dungarees and tattoos, throwing himself into the air with that green bass, he gave us some of the strongest action shots of the evening.
There is one of him fully airborne, legs apart, arm raised, that sums up exactly how animated this band still are more than twenty years in.
Tom Fletcher and Danny shared more than one moment leaning into the same space, guitars almost touching, grinning at each other. Those small interactions between band members are often the photos that people connect with most, because they show the relationship rather than just the performance. Harry Judd was locked in behind the kit driving the whole thing along, the McFLY backdrop lit up behind him.
What struck us most was how tight and how loud the band actually were. This is not a nostalgia act going through the motions. The guitars are real, the harmonies land, and the new material sits comfortably next to the old singles. From a photography point of view, an energetic and confident band gives you far more to work with, and McFly gave us plenty.
The Remember Monday moment on Happiness
The standout surprise came during Happiness. Remember Monday, who had opened the whole night, came back out to join McFly on stage for a guest appearance, and the crowd lifted for it. It is the kind of moment that makes a one off show feel like a one off show, and exactly the sort of thing you want to have a camera ready for.
We stayed down the front through to that point in the set, which meant we caught the band at their most energetic and the guest spot that the Thetford crowd will remember from this particular night.
Twin Atlantic and Remember Monday
Credit to both support acts for warming up a forest full of people. Remember Monday, fresh from representing the UK at Eurovision, opened the night and clearly won over a lot of the field early on, which is partly why their return for Happiness landed so well
Twin Atlantic brought the Scottish alt rock muscle as main support and bridged the gap nicely between a pop opener and a guitar driven headline set.
A strong support bill matters for the photography too. By the time the headliner walks out, the crowd is already up for it, and that energy reads in every frame you shoot from the pit.
Shooting live music at High Lodge
Forest Live at Thetford has been part of our calendar for fourteen years now, and nights like this are the reason. The combination of a band that performs for the camera, a venue with genuine atmosphere, and a crowd that is fully invested gives you the conditions for live music photography that actually means something.
McFly set the bar high for the rest of Forest Live 2026. On this evidence, the forest is in for a very good week.
If you run an event, manage an artist, or work with a venue and you want photography that captures the night as it really felt rather than a set of safe stage shots, that is exactly what we do.
You can see more of our concert and live event work across the site, and if you have a show coming up in Norfolk or further afield, we would love to hear about it.
