Here are seven big things that happened at Hellfest 2026.
The festival took place in Clisson, France from June 18 through 21. The four-day event featured Iron Maiden, Limp Bizkit, Bring Me the Horizon and the Offspring as its headliners, with additional performances from Deep Purple, Volbeat, Bad Omens, Papa Roach, Rise Against, Alice Cooper, Megadeth, Anthrax, The Pretty Reckless and many other artists.
As we do with nearly every other big rock and metal festival that takes place around the world, we’ve compiled a list of some of the biggest things that happened over the four days so that fans who weren’t able to attend are up to speed on what transpired at the event.
1. A Huge Ozzy Osbourne Statue Was Unveiled at the Entrance (And They Had a Tribute)
Hellfest attendees were greeted by a massive statue of Ozzy Osbourne at the front entrance, which was created by French artist Philippe Pasqua and stood six meters tall. Sharon Osbourne thanked the festival for recognizing her late husband in such a grand way, though she was unable to attend the unveiling of it due to a hospital trip that she didn’t elaborate on.
The festival also held a special tribute to the Prince of Darkness during its first night that was completed with a fireworks show. See fan-filmed footage below.
Ozzy Osbourne Tribute (Hellfest 2026)
2. Breaking Benjamin’s Set Was Their First-Ever Performance in France
Breaking Benjamin played an 11-song set the first day of the festival and it marked their first-ever live performance in France [via Setlist.fm]. One might think that a band that’s been around for decades would have certainly played several tours in Europe by now, but perhaps the reason they haven’t is due to frontman Ben Burnley‘s intense fear of flying.
The frontman traveled by boat to make it to Europe for the band’s tour. In an interview with Jesea Lee, he admitted that he’s not too thrilled about the boat travel either.
“I’m really in the wrong profession. And I don’t like traveling or speed in any way. I don’t like going fast. I certainly don’t like being high… So I’m not that comfortable with [the ship] either. It’s just you pick the lesser of the evils, kind of thing,” the vocalist explained.
3. Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos Joined Bring Me the Horizon Onstage
Bring Me the Horizon headlined Hellfest Thursday night and brought Lorna Shore vocalist Will Ramos out for a song during their 15-track set (see their full setlist here). Shore joined the group for the Sempiternal song “Antivist,” which BMTH frontman Oli Sykes typically invites a member of the audience to come up and sing.
“Be nice to him, even if he’s shit, alright,” Sykes sarcastically said to the crowd.
Ramos took the lead on a good portion of the song, with Sykes joining in a bit later on before they performed the rest as a duet.
See a video of the performance below.
Bring Me the Horizon featuring Will Ramos, “Antivist” (Live at Hellfest)
4. Sepultura’s Set Was Their Last-Ever Performance in France
Contrary to Breaking Benjamin’s set, Sepultura‘s performance on June 19 was their last-ever show in France. The group is currently in the midst of their farewell tour, with their final concert taking place this November in their home country of Brazil.
They played 11 songs during their Hellfest set, which featured special guests including Alissa White-Gluz and members of Crypta, Kreator and Megadeth during the instrumental song “Kaiowas.” They ended the performance with a shortened version of “Roots Bloody Roots” [via Setlist.fm].
5. Cavalera Conspiracy Had to Cancel Their Set Following Bus Crash
Max and Iggor Cavalera‘s group Caverla Conspiracy had to pull out of the festival the day they were set to perform (June 20) due to a bus crash that fortunately was not as serious as it could’ve been. They were set to play Sepultura’s Chaos A.D. in full during their show.
They shared a statement on social media the day of their scheduled set:
Cavalera regretfully are unable to perform today at Hellfest due to an unforeseen accident yesterday. We are very grateful for the driver’s skills at preventing what could have been a deadly bus crash. The band is devastated to not be able to bring Chaos AD to this great festival and to the French fans. We hope to be able to return with our Chaos in the future. X Max & Iggor
Cavalera Conspiracy received numerous supportive comments from fellow rockers including Anthrax’s Scott Ian, Alissa White-Gluz, Roberto “Ra” Diaz, Roy Mayorga, Dirk Verbeuren and some others.
Their next show is set for tomorrow night (June 23) in Sweden. See all of their upcoming dates on their website.
6. Charlie Benante Had to Sit Out Anthrax’s Set Due to Injury
Charlie Benante had to sit out his set with Anthrax due to an injury he recently sustained. Thus drummer Darby Todd filled in for him at the festival and will continue to do so for a handful of the band’s upcoming shows.
Todd previously filled in on drums during Anthrax’s May 23 show at Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece, but Benante was able to return for all of their performances through June 18.
“I wanted to let everyone know that I unfortunately injured my right hand and, following my doctor’s orders, I’ll be sitting out a handful of shows from June 20 through July 4 to give it the proper time to heal,” Benante wrote in a post on social media on June 20.
“I’m incredibly grateful that Darby Todd will be stepping in behind the kit for these dates and helping keep the shows rolling while I recover.”
See the full post below and photos of Anthrax’s performance from the festival underneath.
7. It Was Hot as Hell
Hellfest sounds like it would be a hot place, but the temperature was apparently so high at certain points of the weekend that the organizers had to issue alerts and actually prohibit people from drinking alcohol on June 21 in order to prevent attendees from becoming overly dehydrated.
“Following the red heatwave alert and recommendations from the prefecture, your safety is our priority. As such, alcohol consumption will be restricted this Sunday at the festival,” one of the alerts read [via Reddit].
Alcohol consumption wasn’t completely cut off, but the bars were mandated not to sell any hard liquor and there was a strict limit on beer and wine sales.
Additionally, the festival alert advised parents against bringing minors to the festival on Sunday. According to some reports on social media, the grounds at Clisson reached nearly 104 degrees Fahrenheit during the day.
Read the full alert, as shared by a fan on Reddit, below.
Find out what other rock and metal festivals are happening the rest of 2026 in the gallery below.
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Gallery Credit: Chad Childers, Loudwire
