By Tony Sanchez (@OculosCaecos)
As June rolls around, the French metal pilgrimage returns: Hellfest 2026 is set to take over Clisson from June 18–21, 2026, for four days of unfiltered riffs, pits, and that unmistakable mud-and-beer baptism only this festival can deliver. This year’s theme, Tales From The Pit, couldn’t be more apt, because with 183 bands on the bill, spread over Hellfest’s six carnivorous stages, there’s no way you’ll dodge every genre under the metal sun. From blackened blasts on the Temple stage to punk sarcasm in Warzone, the Clisson terrain once again becomes the epicenter of heavy music culture.
Headliners this year are a mix of old-school metal aristocracy and the modern metal agenda setters you argue about in Discord threads at 3 a.m. Bring Me The Horizon throw down the opening salvo on Thursday, followed by Iron Maiden celebrating their sprawling catalog on Friday, Limp Bizkit bringing that nu-metal chaos on Saturday, and The Offspring rounding things off with punk-fueled mischief on Sunday. Sprinkle in Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Sabaton, A Perfect Circle, Megadeth, Sepultura, A Perfect Circle, and a bunch of bands making their Hellfest debut (about 85 first-timers, apparently the most ever), and you’ve got a lineup that’s as sprawling as it is unpredictable.
And yes, the event’s reputation for turning sunny French afternoons into a sweaty, glorious blur is backed up by numbers: with more than +180 artists and Hellfest often drawing well north of a couple hundred thousand metalheads over its four days, the scale is genuinely absurd, and that’s part of the charm. Weekend passes sold out lightning-fast on the official site, preserving that special “if you’re here, you earned it” vibe, while day-only tickets trickle out to keep the gates opening for the indecisive and the hopeful. Whether you’re dusting off your battle vest or just trying to survive a weekend in a festival that feels like it’s welded itself to your core, Hellfest 2026 is shaping up to be another chapter in the kind of loud, unhinged history only the Hellfest crew seems capable of writing.
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Thursday, June 18 — Kick-Off Chaos
The festival stomps to life with an explosive opener on the Mainstages. Bring Me The Horizon spearheads Thursday’s Mainstage 1 assault, backed by Papa Roach, Breaking Benjamin, The PlotIn You, and We Came As Romans, basically the soundtrack for every late-night mosh pit story you’ll exaggerate later. Meanwhile, Mainstage 2 keeps the old-school torch burning with Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, The Pretty Reckless, Alestorm, and Mikkey Dee with friends playing Motorhead classics. Over at Warzone, punk and hardcore crews like Social Distortion, All Time Low, Shelter, Lagwagon, and Satanic Surfers will savage any spare energy you have left, while Valley, Altar, and Temple serve up stoner, prog, extreme and black metal vibes from bands like Kadavar, Igorrr, Skáld, and Borknagar.
Friday, June 19 — Maiden & Metal Titans
Friday’s agenda is what you tell your non-metal friends about when they ask why you don’t have a summer social life. Iron Maidenheadlines Mainstage 1 with a career-spanning set celebrating half a century of riffs, joined by Helloween, Ultra Vomit (because France), Accept, Queensrÿche, Sortilège, Wings of Steel, and Blackrain. Mainstage 2 gets thrasher-leaning with Sabaton, Opeth, and Sepultura stomping through classics. Over at Warzone, The Dillinger Escape Plan’s rare festival set is enough reason to miss sleep, while Valley and Temple bookend the day with a mix of doom, post-metal and pagan/black acts, Mastodon, Loathe, My Dying Bride, Rotting Christ and more fill out the bill.
Saturday, June 20 — Nu-Metal Meets Thrash
By Saturday it’s officially too late to pretend you’re saving your voice for tomorrow. Limp Bizkit commandeers Mainstage 1 with A Perfect Circle, Tom Morello, Static-X and other curveballs, while Mainstage 2 leans into classic meets thrash with Volbeat, Megadeth, Anthrax and Cavalera’s Chaos A.D. set. Warzone gets brutishly fun with Hatebreed, Kublai Khan TX, Cro-Mags and company. Meanwhile, Valley throws sludge, psych and post-show textures from Cult of Luna, Amenra and God Is An Astronaut, and Altar/Temple stack extreme metal heavyweights like Behemoth, Carcass, Deicide, Gaerea and Old Man’s Child for a deep dive into the dark side of heavy.
Sunday, June 21 — Punk Rock Finale
Hellfest 2026 goes out as it came in, loud. The Offspring close out Mainstage 1 alongside The Hives, Rise Against, Pennywise, and The Ataris. Mainstage 2 keeps the energy up with Bad Omens, Architects, Three Days Grace and Black Veil Brides. Elsewhere, Warzone reunites the punk faithful with The Adicts, Agnostic Front and Circle Jerks, while Valley serves doom and sludge (Down, Corrosion of Conformity, Acid Bath et al.). Extreme metal finishes strong across Altar and Temple with Napalm Death, Possessed, Mayhem, Marduk, Wolves in the Throne Room and more rounding out the four-day saga.
Quick numbers to flex at the bar: 183 artists in total across six stages (Mainstage 1 & 2, Warzone, Valley, Altar, Temple), and an expected crowd pushing toward ~240,000 Hellbangers over the weekend, not bad for a tiny Loire-Atlantique town turned rock city.
4 Day Passes are already sold out but you can pick up 1 Day Passes starting February 12th HERE
For all things HELLFEST 2026 go HERE