From busking to Glastonbury – Dea Matrona rocking up on the big stage

From busking to Glastonbury – Dea Matrona rocking up on the big stage

7 May 2025

FROM busking on the streets of Belfast to music’s biggest stage, two local women make their Glastonbury debut next month.

Orláith Forsythe and Mollie McGinn – otherwise known as Dea Matrona – announced the exciting news on their social media accounts last week with the caption “Pinch us! See you on the Avalon Stage.”

This year’s festival will see headliners The 1975, Neil Young and Olivia Rodrigo perform on the iconic Pyramid Stage in Somerset across five days.

Orláith and Mollie will perform on Wednesday, June 25, in the Field of Avalon, where Downpatrick’s indie-rock band Ash will also make a festival comeback two days later.

Orláith Forsythe and Mollie (both 25), began performing together when they were both pupils at Assumption Grammar School in Ballynahinch around a decade ago. 

Hailing from Dundrum and Carryduff respectively, the two became friends when they were asked to sing together in a school talent show and clicked with their shared passion for Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles.

They soon began busking together and a wave of support began through their viral busking videos. 

In early 2017, the girls started playing gigs in smaller pubs, weddings and functions as a cover band and after finishing their studies at Assumption in 2018 they decided to take a year out to pursue a full-time job making music.

It was the right decision it seems, as three years later they went on to win two awards at the NI Music Prize 2021, including Best Single for ‘Stamp On It’.

They have written and self-produced all of their catalogue to the present day, and chose to turn down a record deal for the release of their debut album For Your Sins.

The album was released in 2024 and hit Number One on the UK Independent Album Breakers, and has been described as “an intoxicating blend of indie pop and rock with superb sophistication,” with influences from Fleetwood Mac, HAIM, The White Stripes and Arctic Monkeys.

The duo said the album was “a record about trying to find ourselves and failing over and over again, until we realised that part of the fun of being in Dea Matrona is that we’ll never really know who we are or what we want to say.”

They have been going from strength to strength since the album release, supporting both Sheryl Crowe in and Shania Twain at UK festivals last summer and most recently opening for The Corrs in the Royal Albert Hall in March this year.

They even appeared in a cameo role in BBC Drama Blue Lights last spring, where they can be seen playing in a bar during the last scene of series two.

The success just keeps on coming for Dea Matrona – after playing Glastonbury in June the group will be supporting legendary band The Darkness on their European tour this autumn. 

You can follow Dea Matrona on social media – @deamatronaband.