Duran Duran deliver a joyful set of hits at Cruel World music festival in Pasadena

In its first two years, Cruel World, which celebrates mostly the new wave, goth and post-punk music of the ’80s, would close out its day in Pasadena with darker stuff.

Morrissey malingered magnificently as the headliner in 2022. Siouxsie was a keening Banshee in 2023 in a performance delayed a day by the threat of lightning at the Brookside at the Rose Bowl festival grounds.

This year, with bands such as Blondie, Interpol, Adam Ant, and Simple Minds also on the bill, the headliner experience was something altogether diffferent.