Many more acts are set to be announced in the coming weeks
Next year, Limp Bizkit, Guns N’ Roses, and Linkin Park will be headlining Download Festival 2026. Other featured acts include Bad Omens, Cypress Hill, Trivium, Architects, and more. Check out the full list of all the acts confirmed so far for 2026, plus a link to purchase passes.
Limp Bizkit being names headliners for Download Festival 2026 is very bittersweet. The band recently just released a brand new single called “Making Love to Morgan Wallen” on September 12. It became the band’s first No. 1 hit since the release of their 1999 staple “Re-Arranged.” The all-new “Making Love to Morgan Wallen” topped Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart, as well as Alternative Digital Song Sales, and Hard Rock Digital Song Sales. It is the first time Limp Bizkit have topped any of these charts specifically.
To date, “Making Love to Morgan Wallen” has been streamed nearly 3 million times in the United States alone, and garnered nearly 700,000 radio impressions. The single sold 2,000 digital downloads for the week ending on September 18, the official audio has amassed over 2.5 million views on YouTube. It is their first new piece of material since their 2021 comeback album Still Sucks, and it is reportedly the lead single from the band’s forthcoming seventh album.
However, the group’s recent success has been overshadowed by the death of bassist Sam Rivers. Rivers died on 19 October at the age of 48, the band confirmed. He had been battling some health struggles over the last few years, and and received a liver transplant back in 2017.
Last month marked 25 years since Limp Bizkit released their smash hit album Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. The release became a commercial phenomenon, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 1,054,511 first-week U.S. sales—then the biggest opening for a rock album in the SoundScan era—and held No. 1 in week two as well. In Canada it opened at No. 1 with nearly 100,000 first-week units. In the U.K., the album climbed to No. 1 in January 2001, part of a rare “chart double” with “Rollin’” topping the singles list the same week. Within months the set raced to multi-platinum status in the U.S., ultimately certified 6-times Platinum by the RIAA, with multi-platinum awards in other territories.
The single “Take a Look Around” powered European charts and earned the band a GRAMMY nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 43rd Annual GRAMMY Awards, while “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)” became an MTV era staple; its high-flying video—shot partly atop the World Trade Center—won Best Rock Video at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. Later radio drivers “My Way” and “Boiler” extended the album’s footprint well into 2001.
Guns N’ Roses are currently trekking across Latin America as part of their massive on-going world tour. The run includes stops in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and more, wrapping up on 8 November.
Over the summer, Guns N’ Roses headlined Firenze Rocks in Florence, Italy, Rock for People in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, and Wacken Open Air in Wacken, Germany.
While more live shows are always a good thing, fans are certainly hoping that the band put out a new album soon. The band’s last proper studio outing was Chinese Democracy. Their sixth album, it was finally released on November 23, 2008 via Black Frog/Geffen after various lineup shifts and label issues. Prior to that, the last Guns N’ Roses album of original material was their massive double album Use Your Illusions I and Use Your Illusions II, released in September of 1991.
In 2021, Guns N’ Roses came out with a new EP Hard Skool. It was the first time in 28 years that vocalist Axl Rose, guitarist Slash, and bassist Duff McKagan collaborated together on new material together. The trio was accompanied on the new studio effort by the current members of the GNR lineup, which is completed by guitarist Richard Fortus and drummer Frank Ferrer, as well as keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese. The EP also features “Absurd,” a re-worked track from the Chinese Democracy sessions, as well as live recordings of the band’s ‘91 power ballad “Don’t Cry” and “You’re Crazy” from their seminal debut LP Appetite For Destruction. Released back in August of 2021, “Absurd” was the first new Guns N’ Roses song in 13 years.
In late 2023, Guns N’ Roses released their latest single, “The General.” The track is a B-Side to their previously released track, “Perhaps.“ Both songs are available on the 7″ vinyl version through Geffen. They are the band’s only new pieces of recorded material in the last 15 years. The previously released “Perhaps” was originally conceived during the Chinese Democracy recording sessions in the early 2000s.
Fans can order a vinyl copy now HERE. To commemorate the release, the band has also put out a “Perhaps” merch line which includes a t-shirts, a hoodie, a long-sleeve shirt, and a Magic 8-Ball.
Linkin Park are still in the midst of their massive From Zero World Tour. The run, which started in 2024, marks the bands return with new vocalist Emily Armstrong (Dead Sara). Last November, the band released their first new studio album in 8 years – From Zero. Achored by the hit single “Heavy Is the Crown,” the album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and hit No. 1 in several countries around the globe.
Passes are available HERE