Nos Alive finds the joy in looking back

Fast forward to 2024, and the Lisbon-based event remains a jewel in the Mediterranean city's crown with a lineup that calls back to that first edition and nods to the '90s: Pumpkins and Pearl Jam are here again, with The Breeders along for the ride. There's a pop-punk farewell with Sum 41, and leftfield pop's brightest stars (Aurora, Ashnikko) alongside a platform for the sizzling local talent lined up to ingratiate foreign onlookers into feeling a part of the music-loving Lisbon community.

Angled at Portuguese locals, if you're heading there for a specific act, or happen to be in the vicinity - it's perfect. For music lovers looking to discover something bright and new, you'll also be enamoured with the local talent but the offerings don't stack up as much compared to monstrous beasts like Glastonbury, or even our own mid-sized fests. Fortunately, its water-side location is a short train ride from Lisbon city centre, and a five-minute walk from the nearest beach.

There's no doubt there's pride radiating stronger than the overbearing Mediterranean sun. From the Portuguese president who digs deep into the crowd for Pearl Jam's set, to the press conference where the promoters and directors reel off a multitude of reasons why NOS Alive has become a mainstay of Portugal's festival season, it's clear this is a big part of the culture without creating a diet-version to appease potential foreign guests.

Also giving Essex a run for its money with the lovingly spread plastic grass across the concrete harbour it posts up at every year on the Alges riverside, it's also sustainable. With bins aplenty, unlike UK festivals, traipsing around the grounds rarely feels like taking a stroll through the local dump. Instead, there's due care and attention paid to giving the site and its punters the best time possible.

Laid out to make everything as easy as possible; a mainstage with a view from any direction, additional stages tucked away to avoid any throngs – including the second largest, the Heineken stage – side streets to make getting about a snap, and more than enough bright and dazzling distractions to keep even the most absent-minded wanderer (me) occupied, there's plenty to see if you're willing to get involved. It's also worth a cursory look into the comedy tent which, although in Portuguese, can offer a glimpse into the levity and similarities to our own UK festivals. However, be ready for the fear of being roasted in Portuguese to quickly run through your mind before retreating to a safe space.

Thursday's awakening from Southend's Nothing But Thieves (only their second time playing Portugal) provides an eager crowd with an equally eager band, and gifts the festival one of two Pixies tracks from the weekend (cherries on a throwback cake). Beyond this, as local acts fill the WTF Clubbing stage including the riotous noises of Conjunto Corona with a balaclava-sporting member spirit pouring across the front row, it's all eyes on the mainstage as Smashing Pumpkins and a particularly joyous-looking Billy Corgan bestow a jam-packed set of classics and new tracks that passes thrillingly into the night.

Friday unduly carries on festivities. Stepping out into the arena with the 8 pm sun ferociously radiating, as Ashnikko's bass rumbles throughout the ground and into the tips of your teeth, the wicked coastal wind ensures that no sensory experience is left untouched. With a packed-out Heineken tent playing host to Scandi-pop starlet Aurora, it feels like two ends of the spectrum taking flight. Is Ashnikko the Wario Aurora? Later, taking the place of Tyla, who cancelled her recent run of festival appearances, Arlo Parks segues the energy from volatile to studious ready for the night's headliner, Dua Lipa.

It's a "cherry on the cake" day Lipa says nonchalantly, alluding to her two sold-out Wembley Stadium shows announced earlier. Enough hit songs to breezily pack out a headline slot, it's the in-between moments that properly lend their weight to her ascension. "For those you that can see me," she emotionally signs a message to any deaf-on lookers in a beautiful moment that, beyond any chart-rampaging banger, certifies Lipa as a pop star for the people; no messy drama, no reliance upon self-lore or countless versions, it's a noble cause of bringing music to people. Dua Lipa delivers pop songs. A bonafide fact now inscribed in the bricks of time, but it's her commitment to the art that pushes her to the top of a very difficult hill to climb. Her ascension completes itself with tonight's headline set rounding out her Summer tour in Lisbon with the crowd in the palm of a beckoning hand.

The Breeders blow the cobwebs from the mainstage for the final day. With a set that showcases the quartet's eternal "give-a-fuck" vibe, it's not until the latter half when "Canonball" and Pixies cut "Gigantic" make an appearance that the day kicks off proper.

After pop-punk veterans Sum 41 bid farewell to their final EU festival on their current break-up tour (expertly showcasing their seasoned status as crowd pleasers; Pyro! Confetti balloons! Sparks! Large inflatable devil!) it comes time to settle in for the evening. Proving themselves the ultimate vibes band, Khruangbin ease the eager sold-out Saturday crowd in the Heineken tent, where earlier the blues-riffs of Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats boogied the afternoon away.

But Saturday is all about Pearl Jam. Rounding off their own EU run too in Lisbon, they come packing hits and deep cuts galore, with their two-hour set proving why the Seattle band retain such a devoted fan base. Kicking off their encore with a singular Vedder and a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine", it's hard not to pair this rare outing with the breaking news of a failed assassination attempt on Trump. As Vedder, with a cautiously frail voice, says that it's "Sad, upsetting, terrifying to cancel shows," on the back of their cancelling the last couple of weeks of their run, before cracking into a fiery cover of Neil Young's "Keep On Rockin In The Free World" and into eternal closer "Yellow Ledbetter". "Miss you already" Vedder says as they leave the stage, the echoes of which bandy around the hillside houses rounding off another notch in the NOS belt.