Parkland and pine forests set the scene for the intimate Lisbon festival, where local DJs and 4/4 rhythms took centre stage and after parties spilled out into the city.

The final weekend of June 2025, and southern Europe is sweltering. Record-breaking temperatures dominate headlines, weather apps ping out emergency alerts, and even in the UK, images beamed in from planet Glastonbury are awash with scorched earth and faces much the same. In Lisbon, where the mercury tips 40°C on Saturday, the usually bustling Praça do Comércio is uncharacteristically – almost eerily – quiet.

A relief, then, that LISB-ON takes place in the shaded refuge of Jardim Keil do Amaral, a park located in the city’s Monsanto district. Though only a short taxi drive or shuttle bus from Lisbon’s heart, the psychological leap feels much greater. It helps that LISB-ON remains acutely sensitive to its environment: branding is kept relatively low-key with the emphasis squarely on sustainability, and its idyllic atmosphere is helped by the fact that two of its three stages are tucked away at the end of meandering dirt tracks through the pine forest. The other, the main stage, makes use of the park’s own sprawling amphitheatre with views over the 25 de Abril Bridge. On paper, it’s a city festival, but it’s a rural festival in spirit – and it has aura.

Unlike previous years, where international icons such as Jeff Mills and Moodymann have proved key focal points, for this edition, its eleventh, the programming feels more evenly spread, low-key even. Still, arriving through the gates after sundown on Friday, the impact of the main stage is undeniable – the embrace of the amphitheatre – home to gigs by international touring pop stars when not occupied by boutique festivals – feels all encompassing but never overwhelming. We’re greeted by Paramida holding the crowd in her thrall with a posed strain of deep house and techno. It captures perfectly the languid mood of many of the fashionable attendees, most of whom are local, and a good portion of whom are dancing behind the Love On the Rocks label head on the vast stage. However, it’s the other stage, imaginatively titled – brand klaxon! – the Discover Carlsberg Stage, which feels the most inviting and urgent – and this is generally the rule throughout the whole three days. On Friday, Berlin-based Cinthie commanded the packed dancefloor with 90s-flavoured house that skewed just the right side of ripe (finishing her set with So In Love with You by Duke was a grin-inducing highlight). Lisbon’s own Kaeser, a name unfamiliar to this reviewer, but who draws a huge, densely packed crowd of locals, was likewise a revelation, cutting through the humid evening air with techy body groovers.

Pleasingly, Portuguese DJs are well represented throughout – something that carries through to the after parties at central Lisbon club Ministerium, whose fluid line-ups are kept secret to tempt the loyal diehards. In the early hours of Saturday, the Lake Stage sees Lisbon residents Solid Funk and Salbany go back-to-back for a set of bracing nails techno. They seem to egg each other on, techno as progressive overload, daring one another to push the kick drums into nosebleed territory – thrillingly at odds with the sylvan surroundings.

This harder-faster sensibility sets the tone for the Lake Stage throughout the festival. Vertiginous BPMs, head-cleaner dynamics and wiggy visuals courtesy of the neat, cube production design of the stage make it something of a spectacle. But there are breaks in the storm clouds: on Saturday, DJ Pete essays a dubbier take on roiling, moody techno which feels a little less brain-breaking than the night before, while Daria Kolosova brings the cloistered mood of Berghain to the pine forest, mining a vein of chasm-deep rollers.

By Sunday, the final day, there’s a subtle but perceptible shift in mood – crowds are smaller and more relaxed, and the absence of a main stage gives the festival a low-key, more intimate atmosphere. The mood is met by the negative space and rich texture of Raresh, Rhadoo and Petre Inspirescu on the Lake Stage, who, accompanied by visuals by Dreamspec, usher over-stimulated brains into a pleasant state of hypnosis. But truly, the night once again belonged to the smaller stage, where a back-to-back set from Dutch DJ duo Parallelle and Syrian musician Mâhfoud became a masterclass in summoning easygoing, soul-laden energy – even as the crowd’s stamina flagged. It didn’t hurt that Mâhfoud’s own track, It’s Hot, with its teasing sax and warm pads, felt like the very definition of post-festival afterglow. The smiles behind the decks serve as a good reminder that LISB-ON, for all its organisational prowess and no lack of ambition, is really underwritten by community values. Sure, if you’re looking for a roll call of underground stars or cutting edge sounds blowing up the discourse, LISB-ON will probably leave you craving a bit more light and shade to break up the unstinting 4/4 – but that would be to miss the point. LISB-ON does things its own way, at its own pace, and asks you to join, or not. It’s quite hard to resist.