Metal festivals
14 festivals still to come with Metal on the bill, carrying 137 of the 261 Metal acts we track. Every act has a page: which festivals they play, what time they go on once the festival says, and what they sound like if the name is new to you.
Metal on a festival stage is built around volume and low end you feel in your sternum before you parse the riff. Guitars get tuned down, drums are miked to hit like artillery, and vocals range from clean and soaring to a low growl that takes a few songs to decode if you are new to it.
These acts cluster in late afternoon and after dark, when the lights can do their work. Expect a pit that opens in the middle of the crowd and closes between songs, plus a wide ring of people who just stand and watch. Earplugs are worth having. The edges of the field stay calm.
Metal festivals in 2026
Every bill still ahead of you with real Metal on it, deepest first. A festival needs at least 2 Metal acts to be here, so one stray booking on a bill about something else does not count.
Who carries Metal this season
The Metal acts booked the most in 2026. Go to more than one festival and you have probably seen a few of them already.
Die SpitzAustin's instrument-swapping all-women punk-metal wrecking crew, where everyone plays everything and it all lands at full force.
DeftonesThe band that dragged heaviness toward dream-pop: Chino Moreno's croon-to-scream over guitars tuned for atmosphere as much as impact.
P.O.D.'Alive' and 'Youth of the Nation' are the calling cards of San Diego's nu-metal survivors, whose positivity stayed intact through every scene cycle.
Sullivan KingPlays guitar and screams over his own dubstep, the metal/bass crossover taken entirely seriously, pits and drops in equal measure.
A Day To RememberThe pop-punk/metalcore hybrid blueprint, with mosh-call breakdowns and sugar-rush hooks in equal measure, delivered with beach balls, confetti cannons, and total arena confidence.
Kublai Khan TXTexas hardcore at its most punishing, with mosh calls that carry a message and a low end that treats subtlety as a character flaw.
Underoath'They're Only Chasing Safety' to now, metalcore's restless innovators, reinventing loudly in every era, and the reinventions keep landing.
AtreyuOC metalcore originators bring 'Lip Gloss and Black' nostalgia with new-era polish, from a band that helped write the genre's melodic playbook in the first place.
Black Label SocietyZakk Wylde's biker-metal brotherhood has pinch harmonics for days, Sabbath-weight riffs, and guitar solos treated as main events.
BodysnatcherFlorida beatdown with no interest in subtlety, where grief and rage are compressed into two-minute assaults, as heavy emotionally as it is sonically.
All 261 Metal bands, who is on tour, and who to know →
Metal festivals: common questions
What festivals have the most Metal in 2026?
Sonic Temple 2027 (70 Metal acts), Welcome to Rockville 2027 (61 Metal acts), Rock am Ring 2027 (21 Metal acts). We count the acts on each published lineup rather than going by how a festival bills itself, so this is the depth of the actual Metal booking.
Where can I see Metal live in 2026?
14 festivals still to come have Metal on the bill. The next is Warped Tour Orlando 2026, November 14–15, 2026 at Camping World Stadium Campus, Orlando, FL, with 12 Metal acts playing.
Which Metal artists are playing the most festivals in 2026?
Die Spitz (9), Deftones (6), P.O.D. (6), Sullivan King (6), A Day To Remember (5). Counted per festival across the whole season, finished bills included.
How many Metal acts are playing festivals in 2026?
261 Metal acts appear on the lineups we track, across 14 festivals still to come. Each one has a page with its dates, stages and set times wherever the festival has published them.
Other genres
EDM 529Indie 496Alternative 453Rock 390Pop 365Punk 317Hip-Hop 309Folk and Americana 287House 267Country 252R&B and Soul 226Hardcore 135Techno 134Dubstep and Bass 124Bluegrass 99Latin 96Jazz 76Emo 66Shoegaze and Dream Pop 62Trance 52Psychedelic 47Reggae and Dancehall 37Blues 32Drum & Bass 32Hardstyle and Hard Dance 22