Lamb Of God, Slaughter To Prevail and Judas Priest to headline Bloodstock festival 2026; Sepultura, Bleed From Within and 20 other acts also confirmed

Lamb Of God in 2023, Slaughter To Prevail in 2025 and Judas Priest in 2025
(Image credit: Mariano Regidor/WireImage | Venla Shalin/Redferns | Chiaki Nozu/WireImage)

Bloodstock Open Air has announced more than two dozen bands for its 2026 edition, including every main-stage and second-stage headline act.

The Derbyshire four-dayer, set to celebrate its 25th anniversary from August 6 to 9 next year, is returning to Catton Park with US groove metal titans Lamb Of God, Russian-American deathcore mob Slaughter To Prevail and British heavy metal veterans Judas Priest topping the bill.

Also booked to grace the main stage across the weekend are Sepultura, who will be continuing the farewell tour they announced last year, plus Bleed From Within, Orbit Culture, Municipal Waste, Biohazard, Death Angel, Vended, Life Of Agony and others.

Meanwhile, headlining the Sophie Lancaster Stage will be technical death metal stalwarts Cryptopsy, goth metal solo act Wednesday 13, progressive metal mavens Leprous and synthwave maestro Carpenter Brut.

Nevermore, who recently announced their return following a 13-year hiatus, will also play the second stage, as will 200 Stab Wounds, Shining, The Hell, Heavysaurus and Black Spiders.

See the poster with the full list of confirmed names below.

Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe comments: “We are thrilled to return to headline Bloodstock in 2026! The UK is one of our favourite countries in the world to play and Bloodstock is one of our favourite festivals. And to Bloodstock security… I will make sure I have my pass on me at all times. See you next August!”

Early-bird tickets to Bloodstock 2026 will be available online from Monday, August 11, at 9am UK time. VIP and campervan tickets will be available from Wednesday, August 13, at 9am.

Bloodstock 2025 is currently underway, having kicked off with a warm-up day headlined by Me And That Man on Thursday, August 7. Tonight (August 8), the main stage will be headlined by US metalcore favourites Trivium. The festival announced the first acts on their 2026 lineup using video screens on site just moments ago, after Italian goth metal band Lacuna Coil wrapped up their main-stage set.

Bloodstock 2025 will continue with Machine Head headlining Saturday and Gojira headlining Sunday. Emperor, Mastodon, Ministry, Obituary, Creeper, Lowen, Lord Of The Lost and more will also perform this weekend. Early-bird tickets to the 2026 edition are available at a discounted rate on-site.

Bloodstock Open Air 2026 poster, featuring Lamb Of God, Slaughter To Prevail, Judas Priest and other metal bands

(Image credit: Bloodstock Festival)
Matt Mills
Contributing Editor, Metal Hammer

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.

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