Riot Fest Releases 2026 Lineup, But Is It Nu Metal?

Last week, Chicago's favorite love-to-hate-em festival, Riot Fest, dropped its 2026 lineup right on schedule. The three-day festival will return to Douglass Park on September 18-20 with Tool, Twenty One Pilots, Pierce the Veil, and Alanis Morissette headlining. Which means it's time for our favorite part of the annual Riot Fest announcement: how can we claim an eclectic punk festival as nu metal?

We've got a strong start with the headliners. Tool isn't even a full degree of separation from nu metal, between Maynard James Keenan's collaborations and their role in shaping the California alternative metal scene that nu evolved from. And like it or not, Twenty One Pilots were the heirs apparent to a particular strain of radio-friendly rap rock carved out by Linkin Park

Further down the lineup, we've got some contemporary nu metal heavyweights, including The Callous Daoboys, Chat Pile, and Fleshwater, all of whom feature on our list of the 100 Greatest Nu Metal Albums of All Time. It's refreshing in a market saturated with nostalgia-fueled festival lineups to see newer artists highlighted, creating a living link between the past and its influences.

If we expand our purview even more, Alanis Morissette played right before Limp Bizkit's infamous Woodstock 99 set (although hopefully she will have a warmer reception this fall), and without Morrissey's work in The Smiths, there would be no Deftones. 3OH!3's pop take on crunkcore formed vital connective tissue between nu metal and contemporary hyperpop, asking what a fusion of the same elements that were hybridized into nu metal in the 90s would sound like when every component genre sounded different in the 2010s. And of course, Insane Clown Posse aren't quite nu metal, but their carnivalesque version of horrorcore is as at home with us as it is anywhere.

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased on the official Riot Fest website.