Outbreak Festival announces hard-hitting lineup for 15th anniversary in Manchester

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Outbreak Fest 2026 lineup

Outbreak Fest is celebrating 15 years in 2026, and they’re toasting the milestone with a hefty lineup full of trash, metal, punk, hardcore and more.

The cult favourite alternative and annual music festival that takes place at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre, a.k.a. BEC Arena, every year has only gotten bigger over the past few years, and their landmark 15th anniversary is set to be another rager.

Approaching a decade and a half of delighting alt-kids and Manc rocks next summer, the Outbreak lineup down in London was always going to be impressive, but we just weren’t quite expecting so many big hitters in just the first wave alone up here.

Here’s the Outbreak Fest Manchester lineup for 2026 so far:

Absolute FIRE – simple as.

Promising plenty more to come and soon, the festival organisers have already confirmed that there will be a standalone Friday show to kick off the carnage come June 2026.

As explained in the social media post, which has been met with an incredible reaction from fans, “you will be able to upgrade your weekend ticket to include this show once the line-up is announced, if you would like.” Bang for your buck.

In fact, tickets for a similar partnered Superheaven headline show here in Manchester, with support from both Balance and Compsure AND Soul Blind in January, is close to selling out.

They went on to write: “This festival is nothing without the community of people around it. It doesn’t exist without your support, and we are grateful to still be doing this all these years later.”

This devil-horned, weekend-long celebration has always given off a great style and aesthetic, too; we particularly enjoyed their cinematic preview released on Halloween.

Put together by Charles Fitzgerald, a digital content creator who has worked with the likes of Bring Me The Horizon and their frontman Oli Sykes’ Drop Dead clothing range, these are the kinds of teasers we want to see more of…

With names like the resurgent Alexisonfire (set to play their seminal third album Crisis in its entirety), Ipswich rockers Basement, as well as post-hardcore heroes, Touché Amoré, topping the bill, we cannot wait to see what comes next.

Safe to say you should keep your eyes peeled on their social media for more announcements and information on Outbreak 2026.

Following up to the reaction online, they added: “Two-day passes on sale now. That was a crazy reaction to the first announcement and we are grateful.

“Truthfully, we were 60% sold before we announced yesterday! This is us giving you a heads up. If you can, and you f*** with this lineup – get your ticket soon! Thank you.”

General admission went live on their official website on Monday morning, and you really don’t want to wait around with this one; grab your tickets HERE.

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Featured Images — Nat Wood (supplied)