RADAR Festival 2026: Community, Chaos and a No-Clash Marathon of Modern Prog & Metal
Radar festival highlights the best of a prog rock weekend in Manchester with the kindest, friendliest and most welcoming community that you could find anywhere: come for the music, fronted by the likes of Skindred and Animals as Leaders, stay for the people.
Prog rock can sometimes feel a bit daunting to get into. Not so with Radar festival, the people’s festival: a welcoming community hub built out of 02 Victoria Warehouse that has made its name as an annual pilgrimage for fans in the past few years since capturing Sleep Token during their explosion back in 2023. My first edition that I attended was 2024 and I had an incredible time, enhanced by our group’s ability to just have fun and spend a whole day running about moshing dressed as nuns. The community feel Radar have doubled down on in recent years – with stalls for Games Workshop Warhammer 40k hobbyists, professional guitarists and more – not just a music festival but a festival of a community is something that Radar excels at time and time again. It has a lengthy charter designed to promote the festival as a safe event where customers, crew and artists will always be listened to if they have concerns – and they’re aware they are nothing without the community they call home.
This year’s festival Radar bill as a return to form and the fan’s most requested line-up yet. Friday is stacked – Cage Fight, with TesseracT guitarist James Monteith and long-term bassist/MC Jon Reid, tore up Bloodstock in 2025 with the additions of drummer Nick Plews and singer Rachel Aspe, on an early morning slot and I can’t wait to see them again. The wonderfully named Clt Drp pack a sound of post punk fury ready made to fit into Radar’s lineup echoing PJ Harvey and Jehnny Beth at times especially with latest single What is She For?; already featuring on star-making KEXP and hilariously pronounced as meekly as possible on BBC Radio 1. Their music invites you in with power, makes you question everything around you and yourself; and everything you knew.
Returning heroes Pintglass did an excellent double shfit in 2024 after some last-minute dropouts; known for their pioneering of the genre “geezacore” – and rising outfit Vianova, coming off a recent sold-out-in-London support tour with Novelists, look set to blow the roof off. Graphic Nature add nu metalcore to the mix, influencing the genre with electronic music designed to promote mental health awareness across their records. Rozemary also feel like an appointment band; the latest arrival to the Merseyside heavy music scene – their brutality of their riffs already putting more established bands to shame; with their instantly provocative the lies they made me believe EP. Sixth Wonder’s striking single Thorn leads the assurance of a band on the rise blending the heavy with sharp pop hooks and have been Alyx Holcombe-approved, not bad for a band with a debut EP out in 2025.
Friday Headliners Thy Art is Murder are supported by Chelsea Grin and Sikth for a resounding barnstormer of a first day designed to kick the door down. Expect day one to go HARD – Aussie Deathcore has rarely been more intense; calling to mind the likes of Whitechapel and Fit for an Autopsy which is no bad company to be in: they were the first extreme metal group to reach the Top 40 on the AIRA charts and have djent-fuelled riffs to back them up; all the way back from their The Adversary days. Chelesa Grin meanwhile hail from Utah highlighting the global reach of Radar as a festival; even with no founding members active in the band they still boast a formidable frontman in the form of Tom Barber. They have proved they can face any challenges that the band throw at them and they’re now multiple albums deep with this current outfit; like many in the deathcore scene influenced by a wave of Whitechapel and Suicide Silence.
Sikth are also at Arctangent, showing the cross-festival split of the big four medium-sized UK heavy festivals (Arctangent, Damnation, Radar and 2000 Trees), but their sheer incredible output makes them worth seeing twice: world-renowned pioneers of the djent/tech prog movement coming out of Watford and now respected the world over; collaborating with the likes of Iron Maiden, Deftones and more, underlining their impact and relevance in the heavy music scene.
Swinging into Saturday we have a stacked weekend of returning 2024 favourites; Heart of a Coward and Seething Akira, Heart of a Coward are one of the more prolific metalcore bands in the game and have a unique sound full of absolutely mental riffs that feel utterly compelling to watch as a live outfit: their 2023 album This Place Only Brings Death absolutely goes hard and their turn supporting Annisokay at the Garage at the start of 2026 in London was a tour-de-force of a live experience. Royal Sorrow’s first UK show was Arctangent 2024 which went down a storm and seem destined to rip up the heavy scene centre-stage; and I’m also very impressed by new outfit Dacara that blend rock, pop and metal inspired by video games and anime with a very Arcane, Against the Current-type sound. Citing Bring Me the Horizon, Spiritbox and While She Sleeps as favourites – their most recent single DeGEN goes down a storm. The Saturday spotlights fellow local bands The Hara; who blossom into their truest selves in a live environment – supercharged and incredibly energetic to perform in this scene.
Northlane are a band that I’ll see over and over again and the Australian metalcore outfit look set to have a big 2026 also showing up at Bloodstock this year. Djent/industrial/prog are all words used to describe them – and now five albums deep they’re an incredibly accomplished unit that fits all kind of scenes making them the perfect fit for a genre-hybrid festival that is Radar. They continue to progress with every new music and every album offers an innovative style; they’re never one to defer to past glories. Few better pairings of Northlane and Skindred you can find anywhere for showing the sheer variety of the heavy scene on one day and I can see why they are paired together: Skindred’s unique ska metal is irresistible to listen to and look set to tear up Ally Pally in the fall – this might be your last chance to catch them in a venue this small. The hooks are addictive as they come and their songs are full of non-stop ear-worms: this is the type of band that can bill themselves as one of the best live acts on the planet and then back that up with single every passing performance.
The three day set-up allows for a stacked lineup and the two stage set-up makes it possible for you to see every band should you wish, a rarity in festivals like this. There are no clashes here: just an unrelenting test of pure stamina. If you thought Sunday was slowing down think again: it comes out swinging with the likes of Ihlo and Ten56, who stand out to me as instant favourites from lower down the billing, Ihlo themselves act as appointment acts in the scene. Legacy is such an accomplishment of an album it’s hard not be drawn to their rise as a band – they took their time to make it, no less than five years, but the wait is worth it: the explosive riffs that incorporate electronic tones really make it eye catching. Ten56 have carved out a reputation as a relentless work ethic of a band regularly supporting the likes of Landmvrks and Northlane, as well as a song with Radar favourites Siamese on their legendary record Elements. Expect plenty of thrown comparisons.
Radar isn’t against embracing the cheese and that comes with Voyager, one-time of Eurovision, now fully entrenched in the heavy circuit. Perth’s band sums up Radar as a festival in one act: a way to define genre norms, embracing pop with riff-laden music that fits into the heavy scene effortlessly, maximising the 80s vocals with technical framework that makes them instantly compelling – earning their top 10 spot at Eurovision in 2023 with their song PROMISE: a pop metal masterpiece.
Math/djent outfit Animals as Leaders headline Sunday; and their evolution to headliner status has been fascinating to watch thanks to the prowess of guitarist Tosin Abasi, of whom this originally started as a solo project for. It’s an incredibly technical band, so gifted at maximising the technical elements whilst also having time for mythmaking emotional impact. There are few more interesting bands around than Animals as Leaders right now and WHAT a way to close off three days of prog rock by hitting you with one of the hardest working metal groups in the scene.