With Stonedead Festival 2025 starting to become a distant memory, the 2026 event already sold out and confirmed in our calendars, Stonedead are delighted to bring to you their second announcement of incredible bands for next year’s festival.

Joining the line-up as Very Special Guests will be German metal legends Accept. Formed 1976 in Solingen, West Germany, the band have had a stellar career with 17 Studio albums, 5 Live albums and numerous compilations being released. Accept will be playing Stonedead as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations and pulling out all of the stops to put on a bombastic show that will live long in the memory. With a career spanning set encompassing all of the anthems the band are renowned for along with cuts from their more recent releases, Accept are going to ensure energy levels aren’t dipping as the sun goes down on Newark Showground.

Next up on the bill, Stonedead are delighted to welcome Finnish power metallers Battle Beast to fill the early evening slot.

Formed in 2008 in Helsinki the band have released six studio albums, the first ‘Steel’ in Spring 2011 which peaked in the Finnish charts at number 7. Although the album was only released in Finland, it soon caught the attention of the label Nuclear Blast leading to the band signing with them later in 2011. Battle Beast have since gone from strength to strength with the next 5 albums all gaining a position in the Finnish album charts inside the top 10 and also saw them celebrating success all over Europe.

With the upcoming release of their 7th Album ‘Steelbound’ Stonedead can’t wait for Battle Beast to take to the stage in Newark and blow everyone away with their huge sound, energy and off the scale stage presence.

Stonedead promised you there would be something for everyone in 2026 so for the mid-afternoon slot Stonedead are thrilled to bring you Armored Saint. Since the release of their debut EP in 1983, Armored Saint became a prominent fixture of the Los Angeles heavy metal scene throughout the early 1980’s. Their Debut album ‘March of the Saint‘ followed in 1984, and the band gained a following through MTV airtime. However, after a string of line-up changes, illnesses and the passing of Dave Pritchard, prior to the recording sessions of ‘Symbol of Salvation‘ began, Armoured Saint officially disbanded.

In 1999 John Bush and Joey Vera made the decision to reform Armored Saint. The entire ‘Symbol of Salvation‘ line-up returned to the studio, and in 2000 the album ‘Revelation‘ was released. A further 6 albums were then released throughout the 2000’s up until 2020. With the quintet having previously played shows alongside the likes of Whitesnake, Alice Cooper, Helloween and Saxon, to name a few, they will be a firm favourite with the Stonedead crowd.

Having sold out within 34 hours, the waiting list has been extremely busy so far. This is the only official way of grabbing a ticket. Get yourself on it asap as demand for tickets is very high already!

The ticket re-sell page will be live on Saturday 25^th October at 6pm.

Newark Showground, Nottinghamshire Saturday, 29^th August 2026.

Stonedead 2026 is an outdoor, one day, one stage, monster of a festival where rock music reigns eternal. Stonedead is firmly placed on the rock festival map and places the rock fan experience at its core. Come and see it for yourself!
Stonedead aims to excite both classic and new rock fans in providing a unique one day, one stage festival where the music is the focus, the beer and food are priced competitively and you can camp / park 5 minutes from the level ground arena.

The festival is solely organised by volunteers and created for music fans,
● Free signing tent brought to you in conjunction with Planet Rock Radio
● Dedicated covered wellbeing area with seating and sun cream!
● Bring alcohol into the arena – 4 cans of ready mixed spirits, beer / cider
● Large free car parking
● Included with camping ticket purchase is exclusive access to the Friday night party

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