RADAR Festival 2026 announces first bands: Animals As Leaders, The Pineapple Thief, Northlane, and more

The award-winning, genre-busting RADAR Festival has today announced the first wave of bands for its 2026 lineup, including Animals As Leaders (UK festival exclusive) and The Pineapple Thief (UK festival exclusive).

They are joined by Australian titans Northlane, the long-awaited comeback of Canadian progressive metal quintet Protest The Hero, and the return of hotly-tipped newcomers unpeople.

Full list of bands announced today:

Animals As Leaders (UK festival exclusive)
The Pineapple Thief (UK festival exclusive)
Northlane
Protest The Hero (UK festival exclusive)
unpeople
Ten56.
Siamese
Heart Of A Coward
Employed To Serve
Elwood Stray
Hacktivist
Black Gold
Cage Fight
Dali
Ihlo
Benthos
Seething Akira
Luna Kills
Eville
Dacara

Tickets will be released 10am, 31st October. Get them here: www.radarfestival.co.uk/tickets

Co-founder and co-organiser of RADAR, Catherine Jackson-Smith, comments: 

"Animals As Leaders return to headline RADAR Festival 2026, marking a full-circle moment after leading our very first event back in 2019. We’ve both grown since then and a UK Festival Exclusive performance showing how far we’ve both come feels apt.

"Joining them, Northlane - the most requested band in RADAR’s history - finally take the stage for a long-awaited appearance fans have demanded since day one. Progressive icons The Pineapple Thief also join as a UK Festival Exclusive, while Protest The Hero finally return to UK shores and bring their infectious energy to Manchester for us. 

"They’re backed by a stacked lineup of heavy talent and rising stars: unpeople, Ten56., Siamese, Heart Of A Coward, Employed To Serve, Elwood Stray, Hacktivist, Black Gold, Cage Fight, Dali, Ihlo, Benthos, Seething Akira, Luna Kills, Eville, and Manchester locals, Dacara.

"Beyond the stages? Masterclasses, a music and gaming market, a vinyl shop, art gallery, coffee shop, and our no-clash schedule that lets you see it all."

Alongside the acts announced, RADAR's commitment to a musical and gaming paradise continues: their music & gaming market will return. Expected to be wowed by a retro arcade, the best new instruments and music tech, and many more besides. 

Also demonstrating their commitment to new bands, RADAR will continue to donate a portion of ticket sales proceeds to Music Venue Trust and Save Our Scene's Liveline Fund, in order to support grassroots music venues.

RADAR - the UK's most exciting progressive music festival - moved to Manchester for its 2023 edition, the third iteration of the festival.

RADAR pride themselves on providing a first home for the best international artists - previous years have seen Dirty Loops' (2022) and The Callous Daoboys' (2023) first UK shows; it was also the first festival to provide a headline slot for Sleep Token (2023). 

RADAR 2025 saw a stellar headline set from darkwave heavyweight Carpenter Brut and metalcore legends UNDERØATH, alongside some of the hottest talent from the UK and further afield.

Joining this stellar list were RADAR 2024's Friday headliners - synth royalty The Midnight, making their UK festival debut. Accompanying them were Saturday headliners TesseracT, as the UK prog metal titans delivered a special War Of Being album set. Finally, closing the festival on Sunday, modern progressive titans Leprous performed a world-first live, by request fan set. 

RADAR 2023 had Friday headliners Sleep Token joining Periphery (Sunday) and Igorrr (Saturday) among a host of the best from the UK and global progressive underground.

RADAR capped their intensely impressive 2022 by winning the Best New Festival Award at the UK Festival Awards on 6th December in Manchester, and were shortlisted for Best Small Festival and Best Metropolitan Festival at 2023 and 2024's UK Festival Awards.

With their mixture of international talent and confirmed homegrown success, RADAR Festival has already positioned themselves as a champion of forward-thinking, guitar-led progressive music. No genre boundaries, welcome to all, RADAR Festival was launched in 2019 to acclaim, with performances from Animals As Leaders, Agent Fresco, Rolo Tomassi, among others. Following the COVID hiatus, RADAR Festival 2022 expanded to three days with triumphant appearances from Leprous, Haken, Dirty Loops, Plini, Conjurer, Soen and more.

RADAR Festival is all about pushing boundaries - this year introducing fresh genres to the line-up and stages - and this is just the beginning. 

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