Damnation Festival

Damnation Festival is an annual British festival of heavy and extreme music, held at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre, an indoor venue in Manchester. The line-up features a mix of black metal, death metal, doom metal, sludge metal, grindcore, hardcore, post-metal and heavy experimental music. The festival takes place entirely indoors, across three stages.

In this article, we’ll take a look at its history and line-up, and provide some useful information for visitors.

About the Festival

The history of the Damnation Festival began in 2005 in Manchester. The first edition took place on October 16 at Jilly’s Rockworld, where 15 bands performed on two stages. Among the first performers were Entombed, Gorerotted, and Raging Speedhorn.

In 2007, Damnation moved to Leeds, and starting in 2008, the festival featured three stages. For many years, the University of Leeds remained the main venue, where the event was held until 2021.

In 2020, the festival was canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions. The 16th edition took place in 2021, after which the organizers changed venues. Since 2022, Damnation has been held at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester and has become a two-day event.

The new venue has allowed the capacity to increase to approximately 6,000 attendees. At the same time, the festival’s format remains more intimate than many large, multi-day music events: all performances take place within a single indoor complex, and attendees can move between the three stages without long walks. Extreme music forms the core of the program, and the lineup regularly features both well-known acts and bands from the underground scene. The organizers receive hundreds of applications from bands every year, but since the number of available slots is limited, the process of accepting new unsigned artists has currently been suspended.

Festival Programme

The festival programme is spread across three stages and features several dozen bands. The line-up encompasses a wide variety of heavy music genres: from black metal and death metal to sludge, hardcore, grindcore, post-metal and the experimental scene.

The following acts have been announced: Benediction, The Berzerker, Black Sheep Wall, Cabal, Car Bomb, Carcass, Coltaine, Crowbar, Cult of Luna, Dödsrit, Eyehategod, EYES, Fange, Final Dose, Frontierer, Gorerotted, Groza, HEALTH, Hippotraktor, Holy Fawn, Hundred Year Old Man, Igorrr, Intercourse, John Cxnnor, Krallice, Lagrimas, Lik, Machukha, Mastiff, Medulla Nocte, MØL, The Moth Gatherer, Pelican, Rwake, Satyricon, Shining, Slow Crush, Sugar Horse, Swamp Coffin, Triptykon, Ultha, Walls of Jericho, Weekend Nachos, Wolves in the Throne Room, Worm, Wormed.

Line-up

The headline acts for the 2026 line-up are Cult of Luna, Satyricon and Walls of Jericho. However, the festival does not adhere to the traditional format of having a single headliner: the programme is spread over two days and three stages, so the major acts are spread across different slots.

The list of headliners includes:

• Cult of Luna – a Swedish post-metal band from Umeå, formed in 1998. The band is renowned for its long, atmospheric compositions, which blend post-metal with sludge, post-rock and ambient. At Damnation 2026, Cult of Luna will headline the Saturday programme.
• Satyricon – a Norwegian black metal band founded in 1991. The band’s best-known albums are "Nemesis Divina", "Now", "Diabolical" and "Deep Calleth Upon Deep". In 2026, they will close the festival’s Sunday programme. Their performance has also been billed as an exclusive for England.
• Walls of Jericho are an American metalcore band from Detroit, active since 1998. The band’s music blends metalcore, hardcore punk and elements of thrash metal, with Candace Kucsulain on vocals.

Other notable acts include Carcass, Igorrr, Crowbar and Triptykon. Several special performances deserve a mention of their own. The Berzerker will be performing live for the first time since 2009. This will be the band’s first appearance at the Damnation Festival since 2008.

Another highlight of the line-up is the return of Gorerotted, whilst Medulla Nocte are set to perform tracks from their album "A Conversation Alone". The 2026 line-up is built not only around big names, but also around rare performances and band reunions.

Information for visitors

Damnation Festival 2026 will take place on 7 and 8 November 2026 at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester. The festival spans three stages, and doors open to visitors at 11:00. The first performances begin at 12:00 on both days.

The festival is open to visitors aged 14 and over. Guests aged between 14 and 17 may only attend the event if accompanied by someone aged 18 or over.

The venue is fully accessible to wheelchair users: there are designated viewing areas at all three stages.

Please note that there is no on-site car park at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre. The organisers are using the space for a food court, merchandise stalls and relaxation areas. However, there are parking spaces available on the streets surrounding the exhibition centre, and the nearest Metrolink Park & Ride stop is approximately a five-minute walk away.

If you’re attending the Damnation Festival for the first time, check the timetable in advance and make a note of the bands you want to see.

As the festival is held indoors, the weather outside isn’t really a factor. However, comfortable shoes will come in handy: you’ll be doing a fair bit of walking and standing over the two days.

Tickets

The current price depends on the type of ticket and availability.

Contact details and location

Venue: Bowlers Exhibition Centre.

Address: Longbridge Rd, Trafford Park, Stretford, Manchester M17 1SN, United Kingdom.

If you have any enquiries, the organisers recommend using the contact form on the official website.

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