Download 2026

[kitatus]

7 minutes ago, chatty said:

Live music as a whole has probably never been in a better place with how much they can sell tickets for and the amount of people going

In theory yes, but in reality, a lot of the rising cost is the rising cost it takes to put on something like this and the greed of monopolies such as Live Nation having an iron grip on the industry. The theory is solid but if you chase the money, I'm sure the artists are earning less than ever and the cost to pull off these shows is crazy high. Then you've got the big cheese on-top making mad stacks whilst the people below barely have enough. Just a theory though!

[chatty]

10 minutes ago, kitatus said:

In theory yes, but in reality, a lot of the rising cost is the rising cost it takes to put on something like this and the greed of monopolies such as Live Nation having an iron grip on the industry. The theory is solid but if you chase the money, I'm sure the artists are earning less than ever and the cost to pull off these shows is crazy high. Then you've got the big cheese on-top making mad stacks whilst the people below barely have enough. Just a theory though!

They must be making enough otherwise they'd surely just sack them off. 

 

Same with Spotify etc, you'd assume at the amount they are given a stream and how much that effects physical or direct sales that they would bin it but for the biggest artists I think they make a sh*t load. It's the kid to lower bands that suffer. 

[MasterHand]

26 minutes ago, kitatus said:

As a general rule, headliners at Download normally have exclusivity, so they can't play their own show in the UK X amount of time before or after Download.

Hi. I see. That’s a good point. 
 

It’s very interesting to see how Download Festival will go. I hope it is slightly different to the other festivals in Europe for 2026 so far. I’m monitoring Sweden Rock too. I thought they would announce tomorrow but heard nothing. 
 

Are Five Finger Death Punch a possibility to be a headliner? 2026? 

[kitatus]

3 minutes ago, chatty said:

They must be making enough otherwise they'd surely just sack them off. 

 

Same with Spotify etc, you'd assume at the amount they are given a stream and how much that effects physical or direct sales that they would bin it but for the biggest artists I think they make a sh*t load. It's the kid to lower bands that suffer. 

Again, I think the theory makes sense but in reality if you're not on Spotify these days, where are you? Just like with venues; if you're not playing Live Nation venues, where are you really playing? The options are slimmer than you think. It's not so easy for a band to put a middle finger up to the market leaders.

 

In terms of Spotify, you could argue Youtube music, Apple music, physical media - all pale in comparison. I think last I checked Spotify had almost 700 million users, Apple music at number 2 with 140 million and it gets lower and lower from there.

 

It's why historically people are against monopolies, because you end up in these kinds of situations where bands are forced to do it because it's the the only avenues available to them in order for them to remain relevant / make their money but because it's all funnelled to a handful of places, those places are in total control of how, when and if those bands get their rightful earnings.

[RedJosh]

9 hours ago, alexs7 said:

However (despite selling out the Ally Pally date) Their arena dates have not sold well at all, when I last checked Manchester had so many seats left and it's probably the same for the others.

Come on. They've shifted well over 20k tickets at Co-op Live and sold out Nottingham as well as Ally Pally. I'm not saying they are going to headline this year, but to say that they haven't sold well is silly. If a band shifting 20k+ tickets for a singular arena date isn't good then...

[DomDom1984]

1 hour ago, chatty said:

When did having big headliners become a thing as festivals used to just book a load of bands up and have them scattered about the day and it didn't mind. 

 

Even in the 90s you had the likes of Ash, Carter USM, Youssou Ndour, Skunk Anansie headlining Glastonbury and whilst bigger at the time I doubt they were huge draws. 

 

The Charlatans, Travis, Porno for Pyros headlining Reading/Leeds though their headliners seem a bit more consistently bigger than Glastos. 

 

Melanie, Taste, Tiny Tim, Richie Havens at IOW. 

 

Maybes some of these were huge at the time but I don't think so. 

 

Wouldn't put Travis in there. They were absolutely massive in that short time they were topping bills all over the place. If Bad Omens had that size now, they'd comfortably top DL. 

[alexs7]

46 minutes ago, RedJosh said:

Come on. They've shifted well over 20k tickets at Co-op Live and sold out Nottingham as well as Ally Pally. I'm not saying they are going to headline this year, but to say that they haven't sold well is silly. If a band shifting 20k+ tickets for a singular arena date isn't good then...

Ok I will admit I checked again today and they shifted alot more tickets than when I last checked.

 

I do apologise 

[OllieJ77]

There’s been way too much discussion on if Bad Omens will headline or not next year 🤣🤣🤣 can we all agree they aren’t headlining but at some point in the future they will please and move on.

[OllieJ77]

2 hours ago, MasterHand said:

Hi. I see. That’s a good point. 
 

It’s very interesting to see how Download Festival will go. I hope it is slightly different to the other festivals in Europe for 2026 so far. I’m monitoring Sweden Rock too. I thought they would announce tomorrow but heard nothing. 
 

Are Five Finger Death Punch a possibility to be a headliner? 2026? 

Zero chance on that. Maybe if they hadn’t pulled out like a week before in 2023 they’d have better a better shot but I imagine Download would want to book them in the main sub / second stage headliner slot again and get the date out of them prior to booking to headliner but that’s my logical guess. The other factor is theyve not been booked for any other festival and no rumours about them.

[losing43]

Foo Fighters teasing show(s) - ‘about to take flight’ on their IG. Not sure how likely for DL, but it’s the calibre of band they should be booking

[Spiral_Low]

9 hours ago, OllieJ77 said:

There’s been way too much discussion on if Bad Omens will headline or not next year 🤣🤣🤣 can we all agree they aren’t headlining but at some point in the future they will please and move on.

Im not a Bad Omens fan at all, but you banged on for ages about T1P, who would be a terrible headliner, so aren't really one to complain lol.

[Andre91]

44 minutes ago, Spiral_Low said:

Im not a Bad Omens fan at all, but you banged on for ages about T1P, who would be a terrible headliner, so aren't really one to complain lol.

Twenty One Pilots are miles bigger than Bad Omens, though. 

[northernangel]

How do you arrive at a point of whether someone should headline or not based on then being bigger lol? 

 

Dua Lipa is bigger than both, get her in. The Weeknd is too, grab him in. Hell go and get The 1975 as well!

 

It's festival suitability and while I don't have interest for them, Bad Omens are 110% more suitable for Download than 21P are, have or will ever be. They aren't ready yet though.

Edited October 17, 2025 by northernangel

[ThatDazFella]

I'd take options 1, 2, 6, 16 in an ideal world:

1. Blink 182, Ghost, Guns N Roses
2. Blink 182, Ghost, Limp Bizkit
3. Blink 182, Ghost, Linkin Park
4. Blink 182, Ghost, Nine Inch Nails
5. Blink 182, Ghost, Parkway Drive
6. Blink 182, Guns N Roses, Limp Bizkit
7. Blink 182, Guns N Roses, Linkin Park
8. Blink 182, Guns N Roses, Nine Inch Nails
9. Blink 182, Guns N Roses, Parkway Drive
10. Blink 182, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park
11. Blink 182, Limp Bizkit, Nine Inch Nails
12. Blink 182, Limp Bizkit, Parkway Drive
13. Blink 182, Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails
14. Blink 182, Linkin Park, Parkway Drive
15. Blink 182, Nine Inch Nails, Parkway Drive
16. Ghost, Guns N Roses, Limp Bizkit
17. Ghost, Guns N Roses, Linkin Park
18. Ghost, Guns N Roses, Nine Inch Nails
19. Ghost, Guns N Roses, Parkway Drive
20. Ghost, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park
21. Ghost, Limp Bizkit, Nine Inch Nails
22. Ghost, Limp Bizkit, Parkway Drive
23. Ghost, Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails
24. Ghost, Linkin Park, Parkway Drive
25. Ghost, Nine Inch Nails, Parkway Drive
26. Guns N Roses, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park
27. Guns N Roses, Limp Bizkit, Nine Inch Nails
28. Guns N Roses, Limp Bizkit, Parkway Drive
29. Guns N Roses, Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails
30. Guns N Roses, Linkin Park, Parkway Drive
31. Guns N Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Parkway Drive
32. Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails
33. Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Parkway Drive
34. Limp Bizkit, Nine Inch Nails, Parkway Drive
35. Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails, Parkway Drive

Left out Foos and AC/DC as I think they would just do their own stadium shows. 

[OllieJ77]

2 hours ago, Spiral_Low said:

Im not a Bad Omens fan at all, but you banged on for ages about T1P, who would be a terrible headliner, so aren't really one to complain lol.

Hahaha that’s jokes. I wasn’t the only one who was talking about them mate, but yeah I suppose I did defend them. I also wasn’t saying it was directly you saying too much about Bad Omens excessively just in general a lot of them chat 👍

 

 

Edited October 17, 2025 by OllieJ77

[OllieJ77]

2 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Twenty One Pilots are miles bigger than Bad Omens, though. 

Shush can’t bring that band up again or you’ll get told off 🤪🤪 

(you are correct though they’re much bigger 🤣)

[andyrhodes24]

If we get Foos I’ll be buzzing but I can’t not see them doing stadiums instead.

 

Weirdly had a dream last night the top of the Opus was this and I was chuffed:

 

Limp Bizkit > Bad Omens > Electric Callboy

Ghost > Volbeat

Linkin Park > Papa Roach

[Spiral_Low]

2 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Twenty One Pilots are miles bigger than Bad Omens, though. 

Bigger amongst general population maybe, but amongst the Download crowd nope. 

[Spiral_Low]

14 minutes ago, OllieJ77 said:

Hahaha that’s jokes. I wasn’t the only one who was talking about them mate, but yeah I suppose I did defend them. I also wasn’t saying it was directly you saying too much about Bad Omens excessively just in general a lot of them chat 👍

 

 

Its fine my post was in jest 🙂 I don't take this forum too seriously! 

[OllieJ77]

11 minutes ago, Spiral_Low said:

Its fine my post was in jest 🙂 I don't take this forum too seriously! 

Yeah I assumed as much! Hence my reply to Andre’ comment 🤣 good to have a bit of banter otherwise we’d all be boring f**kers!!

[Siddey1994]

We’re not doing this again surely 😂 Twenty One Pilots are massive with the Download crowd. Why do people struggle so much to admit when they’re just out of the loop? I didn’t have a fecking clue who Bad Omens were until recently and they’ve gotten massive! Mark my words, if 21P got booked they would go down extremely well. It’s not happening, but to write them off in future is silly talk.

[Siddey1994]

And if I get a single notification from the two naysayers I’m personally lobbying Live Nation to book them as headliners every year, so behave! 😂

[Marka23]

15 hours ago, MasterHand said:

Hello,

 

my first post. I’ve been monitoring for awhile on this forum and decided to join in. 
 

It’s first time I’ve bought a ticket to a festival without actually knowing any bands on the bill. Usually I know who’s playing but wanted to do something different.

 

anyway, I was thinking about these as headliners:

 

Friday - Deftones

Saturday - Ghost

Sunday - Linkin Park

 

I still think System of a Down or My Chemical Romance could headline. Simply because they are in the UK that month and I don’t see other plans on their schedule. Would Def Leppard also be a possibility? Is it possible for Evanescence to finally have a shot at the headline slot? 
 

As for the other acts over the weekend on other stages: Perturbator, Nova Twins, Megadeth, In This Moment, Halestorm. Dare I say Yungblud to make an appearance over the weekend?

 

look forward to talking. Less than a month to go!

 

 

Def Leppard, Deftones, MCR and System are all ruled out due to having tours next year 

[Marka23]

5 hours ago, losing43 said:

Foo Fighters teasing show(s) - ‘about to take flight’ on their IG. Not sure how likely for DL, but it’s the calibre of band they should be booking

It's for shows in Brazil 

[OllieJ77]

27 minutes ago, Siddey1994 said:

We’re not doing this again surely 😂 Twenty One Pilots are massive with the Download crowd. Why do people struggle so much to admit when they’re just out of the loop? I didn’t have a fecking clue who Bad Omens were until recently and they’ve gotten massive! Mark my words, if 21P got booked they would go down extremely well. It’s not happening, but to write them off in future is silly talk.

We aren’t we’re just joking with each other. Let’s all just move on 🤣