Download Festival has confirmed 12 more names for the 2026 event – including Final Fantasy 14 metal covers band The Primals.
The rock and metal festival is returning to Donington Park in Leicestershire from June 10 to 14 and will be headlined by Limp Bizkit, Guns N’ Roses and Linkin Park.
More than 90 names were confirmed for Download 2026 last year, including Bad Omens, Cypress Hill, Tom Morello, Trivium, Halestorm, Pendulum, Mastodon, BABYMETAL, Architects, The All-American Rejects and Feeder.
This morning (Monday February 23), 12 more names were announced for Download Festival 2026 alongside day splits.
A Day To Remember will headline The Opus Stage on the Sunday while Creeper, Hot Milk, Marmozets, Frozemode, Daughtry and Conjurer will also appear across the weekend alongside Annisokay, Band-Maid, Decessus, Private School, Silly Goose and Stampin’ Ground.
Final Fantasy 14’s composer Masayoshi Soken is also bringing his metal band The Primals to Donington Park for their first ever show outside of Asia. The group is made up of game developers and they play heavy versions of Final Fantasy classic anthems.
“Normally the artist onstage is the protagonist but with those shows, the player’s game experiences are the protagonists. We’re just there to light a fire towards their memories,” Soken told NME last year.
“We’re really proud of our line-up this year, and our second announcement brings further depth and diversity to DLXXIII. We have huge artists like A Day To Remember, Daughtry, Creeper and Hot Milk, as well as bringing Final Fantasy 14’s official band The Primals to Download for their very first show outside of Asia,” said Download Festival’s Kamran Haq in a statement.
“And due to popular demand, Miss World Chile – Ignacia Fernández – will be performing with her band Decessus after surprising the world with her incredible death metal vocals a few months ago.” He went on to tease “even more surprises” for Download 2026.
Weekend tickets are on sale now and you can find yours here. Day tickets will be made available this Wednesday (February 25).
Download 2025 was headlined by Green Day, Sleep Token and KoRn and also featured the likes of Weezer, Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter, The Darkness and Poppy.
Festival organiser Andy Copping spoke to NME in 2024 about the importance of creating a platform for new and emerging talent. “I’ve always wanted to do that, and you can see it in how we’ve been developing the other stages like the Dogtooth stage and the Avalanche,” he said.
“For us, it’s about giving bands the opportunity to grow. We’ve got the platform and we want to be sending a message to those guys like ‘Come and play. We believe in you and you’ve got a great opportunity here.’ Thankfully, for the most part, these bands do step up and they do deliver.”
