Download Festival have announced that Limp Bizkit, Guns N’ Roses and Linkin Park will headline the event in 2026.
The rock and metal festival is returning to Donington Park in Leicestershire from June 10 to 14 next year for its 23rd edition, and they have confirmed that all three of their huge headline acts will be playing their only UK shows of 2026 at the festival.
A host of other names have also been announced for the event, including Bad Omens, Cypress Hill, Tom Morello, Trivium, Halestorm, Pendulum, Mastodon, BABYMETAL, Architects, The All-American Rejects and Feeder.
Also on the bill will be Electric Callboy, Ice Nine Kills, Black Veil Brides, Drowning Pool, Bush, Periphery, Ash, The Pretty Reckless, letlive., P.O.D., Static-X, Spineshank, Dinosaur Pile-Up, RØRY, Magnolia Park, TX2, AS IT IS, Story Of The Year, Sleep Theory, Melrose Avenue, Those Damn Crows, Hollywood Undead, Scene Queen, Dogstar, We Came As Romans, Mammoth and Kublai Khan TX.
Tickets are on sale now and you can find yours here.
Watch the full movie and secure your tickets to #DLXXIII now 👉 https://t.co/T6AaJIyfmu
— Download Festival (@DownloadFest) November 3, 2025
Nu-metal veterans Limp Bizkit will be headlining Download for the first time on the Friday night after playing a memorable set at 2024, while Guns N’ Roses will be topping the bill for the third time on the Saturday night. Linkin Park, meanwhile, will headline for the fifth time, albeit for the first time since the arrival of new lead singer Emily Armstrong in 2024.
Download Festival 2026 line-up so far:
Limp Bizkit
Guns N’ Roses
Linkin Park
Ankor
Architects
As Everything Unfolds
AS IT IS
Ash
BABYMETAL
Bad Omens
Behemoth
Black Veil Brides
Blood Incantation
Bloodywood
Boundaries
Bush
Catch Your Breath
Cavalera
Corrosion Of Conformity
Cypress Hill
Decapitated
Die Spitz
Dinosaur Pile-Up
Dogstar
Drain
Drowning Pool
Ego Kill Talent
Elder
Electric Callboy
Feeder
Gatecreeper
Halestorm
Headwreck
Hollywood Undead
Holywater
Ice Nine Kills
Imminence
Ivri
James And The Cold Gun
Kublai Khan TX
Lake Malice
Lakeview
Landmvrks
Last Train
Letlive.
Lowen
Magnolia Park
Mammoth
Mastodon
Melrose Avenue
Mouth Culture
Nasty
Native James
Nevertel
P.O.D.
Palefeace Swiss
Pendulum
Periphery
Pussyliquor
Rain City Drive
Return To Dust
RØRY
Scene Queen
Self Deception
Set It Off
Silent Planet
Slay Squad
Sleep Theory
Snot
Social Distortion
South Arcade
Spineshank
Spitting Glass
Static-X
Story Of The Year
Sweet Pill
Sweet Savage
Tailgunner
The All-American Rejects
The Plot In You
The Pretty Reckless
The Pretty Wild
Thornhill
Those Damn Crows
Thrown
Tom Morello
Trivium
Tropic Gold
TX2
Unpeople
Vianova
Wayside
We Came As Romans
Zero 9:36
Last month, Limp Bizkit confirmed that they would be carrying on with their upcoming tour dates despite the death of their founding bassist Sam Rivers.
Rivers passed away on October 18 at the age of 48 after a cardiac arrest and frontman Fred Durst described him as “not just our bass player – he was pure magic”, adding: “The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound.”
As for Guns N’ Roses, Slash recently cast doubts on the band ever playing the Las Vegas Sphere, calling it “not really rock and roll friendly”. He did, however, hint at the possibility of new GNR music on the horizon, saying “everybody is thinking about it”.
As for Linkin Park, their world tour is ongoing, supporting the release of 2024’s ‘From Zero’, their first record since the passing of frontman Chester Bennington and the introduction of Armstrong as lead singer.
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 earlier this year 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.”
